It will be always be Crawford Wells to me

Photo by Barry Wallace

The historic Crawford Wells General Store, on Keele Street in King City, was built about 1863.   

After almost 150 years it ceased to operate as a general store last year, but has just reopened as a presentation gallery and sales office for one of the new King City housing developments that are dramatically changing the appearance of the village.   Apparently, the old Crawford Wells sign has been stored away and may be available for a new life, once the 'King Station' housing developer vacates the building.   Many villagers are eagerly anticipating the next reincarnation of this venerable landmark.

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Barry Wallace

Guardian burro takes a break

Photo by Barry Wallace

This guardian burro, on the King-Vaughan Townline between Keele and Jane Streets, is usually very dutiful and is always standing at attention when I see it, but it seems to have decided that there was no threat to its horses on this very cold morning, with the thermometer reading -16C.   It seemed determined to ignore me until I stepped on some snow and ice and noisily slid into the steep roadside ditch.   That made its ears perk up as he turned to give me a requisite glance.

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BtheB   

Humber River still open in mid-January

Humber River ~ east side of the King Creek bridge

Humber River south-west of Nobleton

                                                                                                                                                                          Photos by Barry Wallace
Humber Trails Conservation Area

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Barry Wallace

Village gets a skyscraper

                                                                                                                                                      Photos by Barry Wallace

Residents of King City are getting used to that fact that an honest-to-goodness, towering, first-ever, 4-storey building is being built on the village's western edge.   The village has never known anything of this immensity before.   But a year from now, some of those 'incredualists' may very well be living in this latest entry into the new-housing tsunami that has struck our quiet little burgh.   King City will burgeon from 6,000 to 12,000 inhabitants in just a couple of years.   God help us all.   

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Barry Wallace

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck...

                                                                                                                                                       Photo by Barry Wallace

If your going to heat your home with wood, during a Canadian winter, you had better know a thing or two about stacking firewood.   Whoever dwells at this Keele Street home, in King City, certainly brings some orderliness and imagination to the task at hand.   You have to really admire that layered carousel with the turreted cap, in the foreground.   Well done, buddy.

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Barry Wallace

Holland Marsh's $26M muck control project

Photos by Barry Wallace

Way ahead of schedule, the Holland Marsh canal relocation continues to benefit from what has been, up until now, a mild 2011/12 winter.   One has to wonder how many residents of King Township, particularly those who seldom visit the northern areas, really have an idea of the scope of the project.   When completed, the 'Marsh' (also known as Ontario's Vegetable Patch or Salad Bowl) will be able to withstand a 50-year storm event, provide enhanced drainage capabilities and make roads safer.   Several drowning deaths have occurred over the years as vehicles have plunged off unprotected roads into the adjoining canals.   In all, 28 kms. of canal will be either mostly and fully relocated, or widened and deepened with enhanced guard-rail protection.   In addition to the $26 million canal costs, there is an additional $57 million in municipal and provincial expenditures on roads, highways and bridges.   Moving this canal is truly an impressive example of engineering and execution.   It is the largest drainage project in Ontario being done under the Drainage Act.   Despite all the activity, the 'Marsh' continues to be a great spot for birdwatchers (like me) to spot Snowy Owls and hawks in the winter and lots of herons and waterfowl in the summer. 

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Barry Wallace 

A final resting place in Hammertown

                                                                                                Photos by Barry Wallace

Hammertown, now not much more than a crossroads in the north-west part of King Township, was once a modest hamlet that apparently got its name from the ringing of the anvil in a blacksmith shop operated by a Thomas Elmer, on the south-east corner of the 12th Concession and the 17th Sideroad.   So says Elizabeth Gillham in her 1975 book, Early Settlements of King Township Ontario.   South of the long-ago, vanished smithy shop, The First Baptist Cemetery is still maintained to a certain degree by King Township, but the few remaining monuments are tumbled and derelict.  Some other pioneer cemeteries in King Township are similarly and sadly disassembled.   The two gravestones pictured below are, in my humble opinion, noteworthy.   On the left , Edward McKay was born in 1780 at Islay, Arglyleshire, in Scotland, while on the right Donald Kennedy was also born in Scotland in 1780 and his wife Mary was born in the Highlands also, in 1791.   These gravestones leave me wondering if these King Township pioneers were sorry victims of the cruel and outrageous Highland Clearances, torn from their birthplaces and years later peacefully laid to rest in the highlands of the King Ridge.   The records of their existences have been transcribed and photographed, but what of the actual tombstones themselves?   They lie fallen, but intact.   For how long?

   

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BtheB