Main Street Seaforth
Introduction
Welcome to one of the finest late 19th century streetscapes remaining in the Province of Ontario.
This architectural composition of two-storey brick buildings, so unique in its uniformity and character, is a provincially designated Heritage Conservation District steeped in social and economic history of this area.
The story of Seaforth began with two men’s speculations for the future. Until Christopher and George Sparling shared a vision for a community that would thrive on business from the anticipated Buffalo and Lake Huron Railway through this region, there was little settlement in the swampy area now known as Seaforth. The brothers acquired most of the present site of Seaforth between the years of 1850 and 1853. George laid out a subdivision in 1856. Christopher sold most of his land in Tuckersmith Township to a firm headed by James Patton who was keenly interested in investing in the area. By the time he and his partners were finished buying land, they held most of the land that is now considered to be central Seaforth.
Together, they worked to bring the railway through their land. It is said that Patton’s former law partner, John A. Macdonald, who would become Canada’s first prime minister, had influence in negotiations. The enterprising businessmen donated land to the railway company and built a station that bore the name “Seaforth.”
The settlement was ideally situated on the Huron Road and along the path of the railway. Additionally, it was a shipping point for wheat. It wasn’t long before Seaforth had a post office, headed by postmaster Andrew Patton, and soon after that it was incorporated as a village, which soon grew into a town.
In 1877 fire raged through Main Street and completely destroyed 12 acres of the business section. Although the town had a fire brigade, it quickly discovered it had an insufficient supply of hose and a hand pumping engine simply wasn’t adequate to fight a fire of this size.
The town rebounded quickly and Main Street was rebuilt with the brick business blocks, which are still seen today, more than a century later. One of the most imposing is the block built by Alexander Cardno, at the centre of the west side of the street. This structure contained the town’s first clock tower. Also in the rebuilt downtown was the town’s first bank, the Consolidated Bank.
Of course, along with commerce came social activity. Seaforth’s first fraternal order was The Order of Grand Templars, followed by a Masonic Lodge and The Independent Order of Oddfellows. A cricket club, a Mechanics Institute (which evolved to be the Carnegie Library), an Anglican church, then other churches, would serve the growing community. For more information on the history of Seaforth, read The Settlement of Huron County, by James Scott.
Seaforth's Main Street was designated in 1984 as a Heritage Conservation District because of its distinguished late 19th century architecture. Through grants and local support, property owners have been encouraged to restore and preserve the architectural characteristics of their buildings so that this valuable resource may continue to be an asset to the community in the years ahead, and be a comforting reminder of Seaforth's history.
We invite you to tour the historic downtown of Seaforth. Using this book as your guide, stroll along the sidewalks, up one side and down another, and imagine what it must have been like to live in this village so many years ago.
Heritage Landscape Before Seaforth
Seaforth is located in Huron County on King’s Highway 8 about 33 km east of the port of Goderich, Ontario. It lies within what was known as the Huron Tract, a 1 million acre parcel of land, adjacent to Lake Huron, purchased by the Crown from the Chippewa First Nation in 1825. The Canada Company, a land company, was granted a royal charter on August 19, 1826 and thereby could proceed with the sale of the land within the Huron Tract.
The first step in building a road into the Huron Tract was taken in 1827 when a survey was made through the forest from Wilmot Township to the mouth of the Maitland River. The meanderings of the Maitland River forced them to readjust their survey several times. A Bridle Road was blazed parallel to and south of the original proof line which set the northern boundary for the Huron Tract. This Bridle Road became the Huron Road: “Practically all the work of clearing and building the first Huron Road, the twelve-foot Sleigh Road, was done by the bare hands of the settlers, dragging and pulling and swinging an axe.” The Huron Road (now King’s Highway 8) became the lifeline of the settlements, like Seaforth, that would grow up within the Huron Tract.
What became the Huron Tract was a region once inhabited by the Attawandarons, or the Neutrals, as the French called them. By the end of the 18th century, after the fur wars ended, the victorious Iroquois tribes moved into this territory. It was the Chippewa (also known as Ojibway or Anishinaabe) branch of this tribe with whom the land treaty was signed.
The history of a place is also part of the broader natural history of the area. The nature of the land and its waterways, the natural resources found there, often determined where a settlement was located. The Bayfield River and the Maitland River have had a notable influence on settlement in this area. The mouth of the Maitland River provides the only good harbour, at Goderich, for Great Lakes’ shipping along the entire east coast of Lake Huron. Numerous power sites on the rivers have been a factor in deciding the location and growth of towns along its valley.
Large glacial lakes once covered most of the area of the three Great Lakes of Huron, Superior and Michigan during the Pleistocene Epoch or the Ice Age (1.8 million to ~10,000 years ago). Lake Huron was once part of the proglacial Lakes Algonquin and Warren, formed during the retreat of the melting glacier. The Huron Lobe of the Wisconsin Icesheet built the moraines of the Maitland River watershed about 13,000 years ago. Limestone bedrock underlies the deposits of sand and gravel left by the retreating glacier.
The Maitland River flows over 150 km from the Township of Wellington North to Lake Huron. The three most northerly branches, the Maitland, the Lower Maitland, and Middle Maitland, converge near Wingham in the Township of North Huron. From Wingham, the river flows in a southwestward direction, winding around the knobby till and gravel ridges of the moraines, to Lake Huron. The steep gradient of the Maitland River westward from Harriston provided waterpower sites, in the early days of Fordwich, Gorrie and Wroxeter.
The Bayfield River empties into Lake Huron at Bayfield, Ontario. The river runs through a long, narrow river valley corridor and is a major watershed drain. The topography is relatively flat and rolling around the river valley. By 1833, the Canada Company had completed the grist mill begun in 1832, east of Egmondville where Silver Creek empties into the Bayfield River. This was the second mill in the Huron Tract, the first being at Goderich, and was a great convenience to settlers from a wide area. In the 1840s, Bayfield was a busy shipping point for the export of grain, but it’s importance as a port was eliminated by the arrival of the railway.
A large salt deposit known as the Michigan Basin is a 350-million-year-old saucer-shaped deposit over parts of Ontario, Michigan, and Ohio. The salt was discovered in Goderich in 1866 and soon after, in other Huron County towns like Seaforth, Clinton, Blyth and Brussels, salt wells were drilled. Water was pumped down to dissolve the rock salt, the brine was pumped to the surface and evaporators using cheap wood fuel, were used to produce dry salt. The salt industry was an important part of the local economy until 1880.
The Huron Road (Goderich Road or King’s Highway 8) forms the dividing line between McKillop and Tuckersmith Townships. The second road opened was the London Road (now King’s Highway 4) and with the opening of the two roads the township of Tuckersmith could be surveyed. Surveys of Tuckersmith Township were completed between 1830 and 1835. The hamlets of Harpurhey, founded by Dr. William Chalk in 1834, and Egmondville, founded by Anthony Van Egmond in 1835, were thriving communities adjoining what would become the village, and then the town, of Seaforth.
Anticipating the construction of the Buffalo, Brantford & Goderich Railroad through this area, Christopher and George Sparling acquired, during 1850-53, most of the present site of Seaforth. Before this time Seaforth was little more than a stopping point along the Huron Road. George Sparling laid out a subdivision in 1856. Christopher Sparling sold most of his land to a land company headed by James Patton of Barrie. Harpurhey, Egmondville and Seaforth all vied for the rail station. Patton is said to have secured the railway station for Seaforth with the offer of a free site.
Situated on the Huron Road and the railway, and a shipping point for wheat and other products, Seaforth had a post office by December 1859. Seaforth was incorporated as a village in 1866 and as a town in 1875. The loss of a railway station in the neighbouring hamlets of Egmondville and Harpurhey led to their eventual decline. Merchants in the two hamlets began to move their businesses to Seaforth.
Tuckersmith was considered by early settlers to be the most fertile land in Huron County. Indeed Huron County is blessed with very productive agricultural land, the result of extensive weathering of the parent material ground up from the underlying limestone bedrock and deposited by the receding glaciers. Much of the soil of Tuckersmith and McKillop Townships was formed from loamy limestone till or subaqueous till, i.e., material accumulated at the bottom of a body of water. The topography of the northern part of Tuckersmith Township is smooth, gentle slopes. The topography of the southern part of Tuckersmith Township and most of McKillop Township is smooth, gentle slopes to level.
Seaforth, like many rural communities, grew and prospered with the prosperity of its farmers. Both village and farmer were, and still are, dependent on and supported by each other.
As the town prospered its architecture changed from frame buildings to the more imposing (and more fireproof!) brick buildings that line the main street to this day. The majority of the store buildings were built between 1874 and 1897. Later additions to the streetscape are the Bank of Commerce building erected in 1905 and the Carnegie Public Library built in 1912-13.
In 1976, the Seaforth Local Area Architectural Conservation Advisory Committee (LACAC) was formed. Its work led to the passing of a by-law in 1984 that designated the Seaforth downtown commercial core as a heritage conservation district. A Conservation Plan was prepared by Hill & Borgal, Architects & Planners. Their introductory statement sums it up nicely: “Seaforth is probably one of the finest and most beautiful late nineteenth century streetscapes in Ontario.”
Quotes referring to the Huron Road reprinted in Margaret Beecroft’s Windings: A History of the Lower Maitland River. For more information on the history of Seaforth and area see Isabelle Campbell’s The Story of Seaforth, James Scott’s The Settlement of Huron County, Tuckersmith Memories and Dean Robinson’s Seaforth Beginnings.
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