Brooklin, Ontario

Brooklin is a community in the town of Whitby, Ontario, Canada. It is located north of the urban area of Whitby, at the south junction of Ontario Highways 12 and 7.

Brooklin is located primarily in a rural area, with hills covering the north and the west. The hills and forests that dominate the north are part of the South Slope of the Oak Ridges Moraine.^[1] It is located within the Lynde Creek Watershed which retains 19 to 26% of its forest cover ^[2] The population has grown steadily since the early 1990s, with the addition of thousands of homes surrounding the heart of Brooklin.

Geography

• Population: estimated 20,000 (2013)
• Area: 9 km²-
• density: - low (mostly single-family dwellings)
• Location: northern area within The Corporation of the Town of Whitby
• Name of inhabitants: Brooklinite sing., -s pl.

Farmlands dominated and some farms have now become residential areas to the south and east; hills and forests are covered with pine and other types of forests especially oaks and birches covers the west, the north and east with some farming. Macedonian Village is located about 6 km to the southwest, housing about 100 residents. The villages of Ashburn and Myrtle are about 5 km to the north of the village. Highway 407 opened on June 20, 2016 and travels just south of Brooklin along a power line transmission corridor.

History

The area around Brooklin began to be settled in the 1820s. The community itself grew after 1840, when brothers John & Robert Campbell built a flour mill on Lynde Creek. (The present mill building was built in 1848 after a lightning fire destroyed the original.) The village was originally named Winchester, but renamed when the post office was established to avoid duplication with a village named Winchester in eastern Ontario. In 1847, the residents chose to rename the community Brooklin, possibly from Brooklyn, New York or Brooklin, Maine. It could have been named for the "brook" that ran through the town, but this waterway has always been described as a "creek", and naming the village after a community in New England or New York is logical since several prominent early residents migrated from there.

Prominent people from Brooklin include John Dryden (1840–1909), long-serving agriculture minister of the Province of Ontario. While a government minister, Dryden created the northwestern Ontario experimental farm that eventually led to the formation of the town of Dryden.

Housing developments arrived in the late 1950s with the Meadowcrest subdivision, which expanded the village to the west of Baldwin Street. For several decades after this, there was no further major house construction and Meadowcrest was known colloquially as "The Subdivision". Housing activity resumed in the mid-1990s east of the village between Queen Street and Thickson Road with the Village of Brooklin subdivision, and continued into the late-1990s with further developments to the southeast. Housing developments reached Ashburn Road to the west in 2000, the development featuring a decorative pond, and the Olde Winchester subdivision was begun east of Thickson in 2001.

Economy

Brooklin is largely a bedroom community and many residents commute to parts of the Greater Toronto Area. The largest employers in Brooklin include Brooklin Concrete Products and a FreshCo. A business corridor extends along Baldwin Street from Roybrook Drive north to Way Street and includes local services, bank, groceries and retail outlets such as Home Hardware and Castle Building Supplies Mitchell Lumber (which has been operating since 1950).

Sports

Lacrosse is a popular sport in the area. At one time, Brooklin was known as being the smallest town to have a Major Series Lacrosse team. In 1968, the Brooklin Redmen MSL team won the esteemed Mann Cup, and the team went on to win the cup again in 1969, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1990 and 2000. The team still bears the name of Brooklin, but plays its home games in nearby Whitby.

Meadowcrest Public School was for a number of years known as a "volleyball school" as it won 4 Provincial Cup awards as well as being the top school in all of Durham for 10 years.

Other

Brooklin and area has 8 elementary schools, including Meadowcrest P.S., Winchester P.S., Brooklin Village P.S., Blair Ridge P.S., St. Leo's C.S., St. Bridget C.S., Blessed John Paul II C.S., and Chris Hadfield P.S.. Five high schools service the community (with three located in Whitby to the south of the village); Brooklin High School (opening September 2015), Donald A Wilson Secondary School (French Immersion), Saint-Charles Garnier C.S (Full French), All Saints Catholic Secondary School, and Anderson Collegiate Vocational Institute (Gifted). A post office, library, fire hall, community centre and ice arena are provided to the citizens by the municipal government. Many church communities provide for their adherents including St. Thomas' Anglican, Brooklin United, St. Leo's Roman Catholic, Burn's Presbyterian (actually located in Ashburn), Renaissance Baptist, Hebron Christian Reform, Unitarian Universalist Congregation Of Durham, and Brooklin Village Church. A shopping plaza is the southern gateway to an older established downtown business corridor. The larger established parks include Luther Vipond Memorial Park(home of the annual Brooklin Spring Fair), Grass Park in the center of the business district, Kinsmen Park and Optimist Park of Brooklin. Many smaller parks have been added as the village has grown. Service organizations include Brooklin Spring Fair Committee, Brooklin Horticultural Society, Optimist Club of Brooklin, Club Optimiste Francophone de Durham, Group 74, Brooklin Legion Branch #152, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Girl Guides and Mount Zion Masonic Lodge.

Subdivisions

• Macedonian Village, southwest,
• The Bakery, central

Nearest places

• Columbus, northeast
• Greenwood, west
• Port Perry, northeast
• Oshawa, southeast
• Whitby, south
• Ashburn, north
• Myrtle, northeast
• Myrtle Station, northeast
• Hampton, east
• Uxbridge, northwest

References

External links

• Brooklin Images at Whitby Public Library and Archives Digital Collection
• Village of Brooklin Whitby's Village of Brooklin
• Brooklin Downtown Business Association
• At Home in Brooklin A Small Business Community
• Brooklin at Geographical Names of Canada

Coordinates: 43°57′30″N 78°57′35″W / 43.95833°N 78.95972°W / 43.95833; -78.95972