Georgetown

Georgetown is situated on the Credit River about 45 Kilometres from Toronto and 60 Kilometres from Hamilton. When George Kennedy, a descendant of United Empire Loyalists, established himself in the area in 1823, it was the abundant water supply for milling purposes that attracted this early entrepreneur. His mill became the beginning of a small settlement.

By 1837, however, it was reported that there were still only three families living in the area of his mill known as "Hungry Hollow". It was the enterprising Barber brothers who in 1837 bought a wooden mill and foundry from Kennedy and renamed the small settlement Georgetown (presumably after George Kennedy).

The Barber brothers' business flourished and attracted other industrialists such as the Dayfoots who arrived in the early 1840s and became pioneers in the leather and shoe trade in Ontario. It was the papermaking business, however, which the Barber brothers had operated since 1854, which became a real source of prosperity to the Georgetown community for over a century.

Just as the excellent sites for water power and ponds in the early 1820s and the opening up of the York (or Toronto) to Guelph Road (now Hwy 7) in 1827 helped to establish this area as a settlement location, it was the building of the Grand Trunk Railroad through Georgetown and the Hamilton and North West Railroad that confirmed Georgetown would be the centre of commerce and industry in the north Halton area. Georgetown grew rapidly during the 1850s and 60s. By 1864 it had a population of 1250 and the citizens decided that it would be in their best interests to "have the management of their own local affairs in the hands of men of their choice". An application was made to Halton County Council for incorporation as a Village. This was granted on December 16, 1864.

The 1860s and 70s saw further growth and prosperity. The Georgetown Herald newspaper was founded in 1866. Culp and Mackenzie started to build their award-winning carriages on Main Street in 1860. The Creelman brothers founded their knitting machine company in 1876. The Bank of Hamilton opened a branch office in Georgetown in 1875, and the first chartered financial institution in all of Halton County.
By the 1870s and 80s the village was undergoing architectural change. Wooden frame homes and public buildings built as early as the 1840s and 50s including stores, churches and schools were being replaced by brick and stone edifices. The new Chapel Street School and Baptist Church where both completed in 1869, the Town Hall in 1878, while the new high school - designed by prominent Toronto architect Edward Lennox - was completed in 1887. A walk around the old village of Georgetown today, looking at dates on the corner stones, will confirm that the 1870s and 80s were the heyday of architecture Georgetown.