Streetsville, Mississauga: Difference between revisions

Streetsville, Mississauga
Former Village
Streetsville is marked by street signs and banners along Queen Street.
Country	Canada
Province	Ontario
Settled	1819
Population  (2001)
• Total	55,600
Time zone	UTC-5 (Eastern)

For the station in the GO Transit system, see Streetsville GO Station.

Streetsville (pop. 55,600)[1] is an established and primarily upper-middle class community located in the northwestern corner of the city of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, on the Credit River. Streetsville occupies both the west and east banks of the river, but the majority of it is located on the west bank of the river.

The main throughfares in Streetsville are Mississauga Road (Queen Street), Bristol Road (Main Street), Creditview Road, Eglinton Avenue, and Britannia Road.

It has retained a variety of historical buildings and streetscapes, harkening to an era that has long since passed. While the former village is surrounded by modern suburban development, it still has a “small town” charm.

The current Mayor of Mississauga, Hazel McCallion resides in Streetsville.

The area surrounding the Credit River was populated by the Iroquois peoples up until the early 1700s, when it was taken by the Ojibwa. European settlers came to know them specifically as the Mississaugas, which eventually became the name of the area itself. By 1805, the Natives had either ceded or sold most of this land over to British governance.

The beginnings of Streetsville are interwoven with the history of its founder, Timothy Street. Street was born in 1778 to a British Loyalist family in what became the United States. At the age of 23, he moved with his family from New York to St. David’s, a settlement off of the Niagara River in Upper Canada (now known as Ontario).

In 1818, the British offered up 648,000 acres (2,620 km²) of land to be surveyed, from their second purchase from the indigenous Mississauga peoples. Along with Richard Bristol, a qualified surveyor, Street applied for a contract to survey parts of the newly available land, which would enable him to eventually own parts of that same land as a sort of payment for his services. The two men were granted the contract and quickly Street began to realize the immense potential for settlement along the Credit River, making plans to erect both a saw and grist mill.

The first settler in the area now known as Streetsville was James Glendinning in April 1819, who settled just along Mullet Creek. It was with the stones from his settlement that the grist and saw mill were constructed.

In 1821, Streetsville’s first general store, otherwise known as the Montreal House, was built and still stands to this day. Another landmark, Timothy Street’s house, was built in 1825 and is one of the oldest brick houses in Peel Region.

In 1855, William Graydon and Peter Douglass built the Franklin House. Graydon and Douglass sold it in 1859 to Bennet Franklin, a partner in Barber Brothers Toronto Woollen Mills. In 1910, under new ownership, the name was changed to the Queen’s Hotel. It ceased to operate as a hotel with the enforcement of the Canada Temperance Act, but continued to be used for commercial purposes. Designated under the terms of the Ontario Heritage Act and protected by a heritage easement. It is now home to the Franklin Pourhouse Restaurant, Michael J. Fisher Law Office, Interstrata, Dr. Ted Blackmore and Streetsville Florist.

In 1858, Streetsville was incorporated as a village, with John Street as its first reeve.

For the next century, Streetsville largely existed as a long narrow village with all of its shops, three churches, the cenotaph and the library located on Queen Street, which ran between the Credit River and the railway track.

In 1953, two of the first suburbs in Canada, Vista Heights and Riverview, were built to the southwest and northeast respectively. Vista Heights was notable because the town council of the time made the unprecedented decision to require the developer to build a K-6 (kindergarten to Grade 6) elementary school. These suburbs and Vista Heights Public School opened in 1955, presaging the future high growth of middle-class suburbs in the area.

In January 1962, Streetsville's population reached 5,000, and as a result, it was incorporated as a town. The first Mayor was Frank Dowling.

In 1968, the incorporation of the Town of Mississauga joined together the villages and hamlets of Cooksville, Dixie, Erindale and Malton. Although Streetsville, along with Clarkson, Port Credit and Meadowvale, was excluded from this amalgamation, the writing was on the wall, and in 1974, they were all annexed when Mississauga became a city. Hazel McCallion, who had been the mayor of Streetsville from 1970 to 1973, became the mayor of Mississauga in 1978, only the third in the city’s history, and is still serving as of 2008.

Since 1973, Streetsville has annually celebrated its Bread and Honey Festival, an acknowledgement to the town’s fine history and involvement with milling. The festival lasts the entire weekend (usually the first weekend of June) and takes place within Streetsville Memorial Park, near Vic Johnston Arena.

The annual Mississauga Santa Claus Parade now resides in Streetsville. The parade starts on Queen Street South at Britannia Road and travels south through the village to disperse at various locations after the Church Street junction.

• Billy Talent - Juno nominated Rock band
• Brad Boyes - NHL Hockey Player
• illScarlett - Ska punk band
• Hazel McCallion - Mayor of Mississauga
• Adamo Ruggiero - Actor, Degrassi: The Next Generation

• streetsville.ca - The Web Site in the City - Community Web Site

• Mississauga—Streetsville Electoral Riding
• Bonnie Crombie Federal Member of Parliament for Mississauga-Streetsville
• Bob Delaney Member of Provincial Parliament for Mississauga-Streetsville
• Streetsville Secondary School
• St. Joseph Secondary School (Mississauga)
• Hazel McCallion Senior Public School
• Russell Langmaid Public School

43°35′N 79°43′W / 43.583°N 79.717°W / 43.583; -79.717