Amanda Persico
The Era recorded the excitement on Canada’s 110th birthday celebrations. Yonge Street has long played a role in the local festivities.
Aurora
July 01, 2008 12:12 AM
By: Amanda Persico, Staff Writer
Once again, residents of the self-proclaimed birthday town will parade in red and white, today.
But the traditional parade wasn’t always all town encompassing.
In 1967, local residents of Richardson Drive threw a centennial street party for Canada. The party grew and started to include the neighbourhood. By Canada’s 101st birthday, the party, sanctioned by the town, was in full swing along Yonge Street.
“There are always parades and celebrations,” said Jackie Stuart, a retired curator of the Aurora Museum. “It’s a small town with a large community spirit.”
Since its inception in 1794 by Ontario’s first Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe, festivities and fraternal celebrations crowded Yonge Street. Many local farmers and visitors thought the railway would replace the lengthy road. But the train station built about two kilometres east on Wellington Street helped sprout the little crossroads into a village then a town.
Mills developed on the outer limits of Yonge. The first general store opened at the corner of Yonge and Wellingtion in 1853.
“The mills brought the farmers into town,” said Ms Stuart. “The town grew into something because while the farmers waited for their wheat to be ground in the mill, they waited on Yonge Street.”
Soon the farmer’s family came with him into town to see the shops. Travellers from Toronto came into town as a vacation – Aurora was the last stop on the train.
As shops and stores grew along Yonge, subdivisions developed, too. Vacationers stayed and settled in town.
“Yonge Street is a logical place for a community to grow up and survive,” Ms Stuart said.
Grow up, it did.
But the need of a meeting place for the community is still singing loud and proud.
From a celebration of query and mill workers before Confederation to celebrating Canada Day, Yonge Street helped create the community feeling that makes Aurora home.
“Without Yonge Street, there would be no reason for Aurora to be,” Ms Stuart said.