Photos by Barry Wallace
The old Jimmy Cairns farm on the south side of the 15th Sideroad, west of Keele Street, at King City's north end, and just south of Marylake, is being transformed into a new neighbourhood for the village. Street names in the new development pay particular tribute to former landowners and adjacent neighbours, notably the Jimmy Cairns family and son Elmer, as well as Sir Henry Pellatt and his wife Marie, of Casa Loma and Lake Marie fame. Cairns families were settlers in King long ago and the property being referred to here was last owned by Elmer Cairns, the bachelor son of Jimmy Cairns. In the second half of the last century, Elmer was a well-known fixture in King city for several reasons, one of which was his habit of always driving his farm tractor into the village for groceries, banking, hardware supplies, etc. He never had a driving licence, as far as I knew, and I never saw him drive a car either. The Cairns and the Pellatts couldn't have been more unalike, in many respects, but for decades they were next door neighbours. Sir Henry named his lake after his wife Marie, and it became Marylake when the Augustinian Order bought the huge estate. New road signs once again bring the former farmers and magnate together.
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Barry Wallace
