You won’t find any large office towers here, heavy industry or major traffic congestion and that’s what makes the Park Area of the downtown core of Georgetown so special. To really appreciate this area, however, you have to stay for awhile - not just perform the motions that most of us do each day as we get in and out of our cars, work, shop, and then simply head home. Walking along the streets in the downtown area can be a restful experience and a time to de-stress and take a pause.

Aside from the obvious health benefits, the area can give you a chance to learn a little bit about Georgetown’s colourful past in a way that you wouldn’t by simply picking up a written history.

Here you’ll find the tangible and concrete evidence of the past in the form of historic residences, churches, and local businesses that by their very existence tell interesting stories about what Georgetown was like in its earlier days.

Many of the older buildings in the historic Park Area of Georgetown date as far back as the 1870s. As John McDonald notes in Halton Sketches Revisited, in those years Georgetown was replacing its wooden frame homes and public buildings with brick and stone structures. This era of reconstruction was proof of Georgetown’s prosperity and growth. The village had grown considerably since its beginnings. The founder of Georgetown, George Kennedy, had settled in the area back in 1823. A descendant of United Empire Loyalists, he was responsible for setting up a mill that formed the nucleus of a new settlement consisting of a few families. Kennedy was followed by other enterprising individuals that included the Barber brothers who built a woollen mill, foundry and later their well-known paper business, and also the Dayfoots who engaged in the leather and shoe trade. By 1864 Georgetown had a population of 1250 residents and in that same year it was incorporated as a village.

The early settlers who came here and those who followed left their mark on the community in many ways. Many street names for example, have historic significance. William, Joseph, and James Streets are named after members of the Barber family. Market Street was where a local market was once held, and Main Street was the main thoroughfare.

Now we’re going to visit some of these historic streets as we take a walk in the Park Area of Georgetown. It won’t be exhaustive but it will give you an appreciation of some of the wonderful buildings that you’ll find here. We’ll walk towards our first stop on Main Street near the intersection of Main and Church. From there we’ll see historic buildings on Market Street, Charles Street and Park Avenue. Then we’ll continue back towards Main Street to see some other notable architectural landmarks.

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1. Knox Presbyterian Church 116 Main Street South

This beautiful church isn’t the original one that was built on the site. In 1867 local Presbyterians had a brick structure constructed that quickly outgrew itself and within twenty years there was talk of erecting a new church. The old church was sold for the sum of one hundred dollars to John McDermid, who then used the bricks to construct another building located at 53 Charles Street. A new stone structure costing about $15,000 was erected on the site in 1887. Services were held in the church until 1901 when the stone building was destroyed by fire leaving only the outer walls intact. Remaining faithful to their church’s 1887 design, the congregation had the interior rebuilt in the same style as the original.

2. Congregational Church (Halton Hills Library and Cultural Centre), 9 Church Street

What today serves as the Halton Hills Library and Cultural Centre began life as a place of worship. As noted by Mark Rowe in his book Georgetown: Reflections of a Small Town, the Congregationalists were adherents of a particular brand of Protestantism that promoted autonomy for each of its churches in the 1840s. The congregation built its own wooden chapel on Church Street in the mid-1800s. The church, which included a 50-foot spire, was replaced by a Gothic-style stone structure in 1877 at a cost of $6500. Congregationalists enjoyed a brief heyday in the area from the 1800s to the early 1900s until dwindling numbers forced the remaining adherents to reconsider holding services at all. On December 17, 1913 the Georgetown Herald reported that the members had “very generously” made a gift of the building to the village so that it could be used as a library.

3. Lawson House, 59 Market Street

Built in 1890, this lovely Victorian residence at the corner of Church and Market Streets was originally the home of Henry Pratt Lawson, owner of Georgetown’s lumber business as well as a saw mill and flour mill in nearby Stewarttown. He was known as H.P. and was born in Fifeshire, Scotland in 1840 and then settled in Canada in 1852. Halton Sketches Revisited states that he was “one of the most enterprising men of his time in the Georgetown-Acton area“. It was Lawson’s power plant in nearby Glen Williams that provided Georgetown with its first hydro-electric power. His Victorian residence in Georgetown once had a cement step at the front along with two iron hitching posts located on either side of it. The step, which was removed in 1958 when Church Street was widened, was put in place to make it easier for people to get in and out of their buggies or carriages. Originally Lawson lived in the residence alone but that changed in 1901 when the 61-year-old businessman wed a 26-year-old local girl, Margaret Mable Grant. Margaret Mable was the daughter of his friend Major Lachlan Grant. The couple raised four children and spent the remainder of their lives in the house.

4. Lawson’s Row 51, 53, 55 Market Street

Here you’ll see three identical homes that came to be known as Lawson’s Row. Delightful examples of late Victorian architecture, the homes stand on a block of land once used for the community farmer’s market. When the land was sold in the 1890s a new market was established on Main Street. In that same decade Henry Pratt Lawson had the homes built for his sawmill workers.

5. 7 Park Avenue

This large home dating from 1911 is an example of Edwardian Classicism. It was once the residence of Joseph M. Moore, the editor of the Georgetown Herald newspaper which served the community until its demise in 1992. Born in 1872, Joseph Matheson Moore was the son of Thomas T. Moore, an Irish immigrant. Moore grew up in Acton and began working for the Georgetown Herald in 1891, initially as a foreman and a few years later as the paper’s editor and publisher when he assumed the paper’s ownership. Known by many simply as Joe, he was something of a colourful character. He could count among his acquaintance many well-known entertainers and artists, including the poet and performer Pauline Johnson. Moore himself dabbled in the theatre where he served as master of ceremonies for minstrel shows at the town hall. Sometimes the drama in his life wasn’t confined to the stage and in 1918 a fire gutted his newspaper building at 67 Main Street South. True to his word though, Moore never missed an issue even after his business went up in smoke. The Herald set up temporary headquarters at the Acton Free Press until Moore found a more permanent home for his business.

6. 8 Park Avenue

This impressive home was the former residence of shoemaker William Austen. According to the Georgetown Urban Inventory Phase III prepared by the Heritage Halton Hills Architectural Conservation Advisory Committee in 1994, the property where the building now stands was purchased by Austen from William Barber in 1870. Austen built a rough cast dwelling (an example of a Gothic Revival dwelling) on the site. The 1871 census records available from the Library and Archives Canada website indicates that there was a William Austen, shoemaker, born in England and residing in Georgetown. The 42-year-old tradesman listed his religion as Baptist.

7. Pine Grove 53 Charles Street

With its bright, cheerful yellow facade it’s not hard to notice this stately home, a residence which was built by local resident John McDermid in 1887. The name Pine Grove was probably chosen because of the property’s “dense cluster of pine trees,” as described in a short article published about it in the Toronto Daily Mail on June 24, 1893. The bricks from Knox Presbyterian Church were used as materials for this building. The house is typical of buildings of the era and was constructed of triple layers of bricks. John McDermid was a native of Argyllshire, Scotland. He was born in 1834 and came to Canada in 1862. By 1893 he had been operating a grocery on Main Street for twelve years.

8. 49 and 51 Charles Street

This delightful home is another example of Gothic Revival architecture. It was originally designed as a single family dwelling for Walter George Tubby, a railway agent, and his family. The Georgetown Urban Inventory indicates Tubby bought the property for one hundred twenty-five dollars in March 1881. He took out a mortgage of five hundred dollars to pay for the house he would build at this location. He didn’t live in the area with his wife Isabella and their son Charles for very long. The following year the Tubbys sold their property. Tubby was successful in his railway career and later became Assistant Superintendent of Construction for the Canadian Pacific Railway in St. Paul, Minnesota. He also worked for the Manitoba Railway and the Great Northern Railway.

9. 45 Charles Street

This lovely white Gothic Revival dwelling was once the home of the McKay family. According to the Georgetown Urban Inventory this home was built by carpenter Walter McKay in 1859. The residence was occupied by Walter’s brother, Hugh McKay. Hugh McKay ran a grocery store on Main Street in the 1860s and 1870s and both brothers were Presbyterians. They helped build Knox Presbyterian Church in 1867.

10. 39 Charles Street

Located near the intersection of William and Charles Streets, the Georgetown Urban Inventory indicates that this simple and elegant family residence was built around 1904. In 1900 local resident Emma Standish sold the property to a widow named Sarah Anne Leslie and she is believed to be the home’s first resident.

11. Berwick Hall 139 Main Street South

Built in the 1880s, this impressive residence holds a prominent place in Georgetown’s history. The Queen Anne style building was designed by a well known Toronto architect, Edward James Lennox, who also designed such notable landmarks as Toronto’s Old City Hall and Casa Loma. Once the home of John Roaf Barber of Barber family fame, the residence was christened Berwick Hall after his mother’s birthplace in Berwickon- Tweed, England. Born in 1841 in Georgetown, John Roaf was the son of Hannah Patrick and James Barber, who would later take over the businesses that he and his brothers had established. His father’s family had moved to the area from Dundas in 1837. The Barbers were successful entrepreneurs and their fortunes grew as the community expanded. By the 1850s the Barbers Mills, as they were known, occupied a central place in the town’s economy. At one time the Barber Mills produced more wallpaper than any other plant in Upper Canada, and later the Barber Paper Mill on the Credit River would become the first paper mill in North America to be operated by hydro-electric power.

12. Main Street Inn 126 Main Street South

Today this charming residence is the home of the Main Street Inn. It houses a restaurant as well as a bed and breakfast. The Heritage Halton Hills Urban Inventory, lists this wood frame structure with its open veranda as being constructed around 1871. In that year the lot was purchased by the Goodenow family. They were one of the original three families to settle in Hungry Hollow (the former name of Georgetown). According to local historian Mark Rowe, the community acquired the name Hungry Hollow because the original mill set up in the area didn’t do a brisk business. In 1903 the property changed hands and was sold to a member of another prominent Georgetown family, Isabella Bradley. Isabella was the mother of William Bradley who owned the Dominion Seed House. His business was a highly successful mail-order seed business that he ran from his family’s old farm in Georgetown.

13. The Ivy House 115 Main Street South

According to the Heritage Halton Hills Urban Inventory this building was built in 1875. At one time the property was owned by George Kennedy, the community’s founder, but it later changed hands and was sold to the Barber family. In the 1870s this Gothic Revival style building began life as a banking institution. The building was once the site of the Georgetown branch of the Bank of Hamilton. There is also a wood frame addition at the front that was built at a later date.

14. Shepherd’s Crook 86 Main Street South

This three-storey building was originally constructed of limestone in 1879. It once housed a hardware store owned by Dugald Reid. Reid and his descendants became well known in Georgetown. They operated their business until 1945 when it was taken over by the Goodlets. In that year the Goodlets opened a furniture store, Goodlet’s, which would serve Georgetown until 2000. After viewing these beautiful buildings, you might want to stop for awhile along Georgetown’s historic Main Street. There are a variety of eateries to satisfy any number of tastes, including Chinese, Thai, Indian, as well as traditional pub fare. Those wishing to browse downtown will find a cornucopia of shops selling items such as jewellery, clothing, pet sundries, sporting goods, and gourmet foods and quality meats. Visit the old part of Georgetown and you will see firsthand how much it has a lot to offer. Whether you journey along one of the beautiful tree-lined residential streets or venture out onto the commercial area along Main Street, you’ll get a chance to visually experience Georgetown’s historic past.

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We would like to acknowledge that this article was inspired by the book Walking Backwards published in 2001 by the students in Melissa Boudreau and Marg Davies grade five classes at Park Public School in Georgetown.