Elmbank, Ontario
| Elmbank, Ontario | |
|---|---|
| Ghost town | |
 | |
| Coordinates: 43°40′27″N 79°37′33″W / 43.67417°N 79.62583°W | |
| Country | Canada |
| Province | Ontario |
| Regional municipality | Peel |
| City | Mississauga |
| Time zone | EST (UTC-5) |
| • Summer (DST) | EDT (UTC-4) |
| NTS Map | 030M12 |
Elmbank is a ghost town located in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.
Once a thriving 19th century rural community located at the intersection of Fifth Line and Britannia Road, the hamlet was expropriated and eventually covered over by successive expansions of Toronto Pearson International Airport.
A street east of the airport which once led to the hamlet is named "Elmbank Road", though nothing remains of the former community.
History
Land in the area was cleared for farming beginning in the mid 1820s. The Elmbank community was established and soon had a blacksmith, store, inn, schoolhouse, cheese factory, carriage maker, and Sons of Temperance Society Hall. No mills were located there.[1]
The Elmbank Post Office operated from 1873 to 1915, and the first postmaster, William McKay, operated out of his store.[1]
Shell’s Chapel was built south of the community in 1831, named after Jacob and Henry Shell. The chapel was renamed Bethany Wesleyan Methodist Church and Cemetery, and then Bethany United Church in 1925. The last service was held in 1956, and the graves were relocated to Riverside Cemetery in Etobicoke.[1]
Elmbank was noted for its importance to Toronto's Catholic community. The Catholic Mission and Cemetery, a log church constructed in 1833, was located in Elmbank and parishioners would travel from Toronto for mass or funerals. In 1885, a red brick church and rectory replaced the log church. The last recorded mass took place in 1915, and the church was torn down in 1932. Materials from the church such as pews, bricks and stained glass windows were reused in neighbouring churches.[1][2]
The local soccer team, made up of young men from Elmbank and Malton (a community located a short distance northeast), won the Peel league championship.[1]
The population peaked at 300 in 1886, and had declined to about 30 by 1926.[1]
In 1937, the Toronto Harbour Commission selected Malton as the site for Toronto's airport. The rural land near Elmbank was expropriated and its buildings demolished with successive expansions of the airport, and by the 1950s the only visible remnant of the Elmbank community was the Catholic cemetery.[1]
Cemetery relocation
The Catholic cemetery, also called the Elmbank/Fifth Line Cemetery, was used for over 600 burials, the last taking place in 1937. Access to the cemetery was limited after that, as it was now located on airport property.[2][3]
The cemetery was damaged by Hurricane Hazel in 1954, afterwhich most of the headstones were moved, though 23 standing headstones remained, delineating both individual and family plots.[4]
In the 1990s, plans were started to permit the building of a new east-west runway, and the associated taxiway would have directly affected what remained of the cemetery. An application was submitted to relocated the graves.[5]
Archaeological Services Incorporated (ASI) was hired in 2000 to assist with the cemetery's relocation. Excavation of the site began in 2001, when ASI located the stone foundation of the red brick church and rectory, as well as broken fragments of ceramics and stained glass. The remaining headstones were removed, and 622 bodies were exhumed. By October 2001, the Elmbank Cemetery had been completely relocated to the Assumption Cemetery in Mississauga, a short distance west of the airport. It was the largest historic cemetery relocation in Ontario history. Living descendants were consulted and records of the area were researched so that the graves could be placed at the new site as close as possible to their original placements; attention was paid to maintaining the closeness of family members.[4][5]
A final mass was celebrated at the old cemetery on August 27, 2000, and on July 10, 2004, a mass took place for the relocated dead at Assumption Cemetery.[3][5]
Notable people
- Robert James Speers, businessman and Canadian Sports Hall of Fame inductee who contributed to the growth of thoroughbred horse racing in Western Canada.[6]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Wilkinson, Matthew; Mair, Nicole (2009). "Elmbank". Mississauga Heritage.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "History of Elbank Cemetery". Catholic Cemeteries – Archdiocese of Toronto. Retrieved January 2014.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "The Elmbank/Fifth Line Mission History". Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto. Retrieved January 2014.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Elmbank Cemetery". Archaeological Services Inc. Retrieved January 2014.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 "Elmbank Cemetery Project Overview". Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto. Retrieved January 2014.
- ↑ "Robert James Speers – Father of Thoroughbred Horse Racing on the Canadian Prairies". Assiniboia Downs. May 23, 2013.