Up and Down the Escarpment at Burlington
Drive from Burlington through Rock Chapel and Waterdown
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This trip up and down the escarpment, or as it is known locally, Hamilton Mountain is full of delightful scenery and passes through an area with many connections to the history of Southwest Ontario. It starts from the replica of Joseph Brant's house in Burlington, takes you along the North Shore Boulevard through Aldershot , through the Royal Botanical Gardens to Burlington Heights, up the escarpment along the Old Guelph Road, past Borer's Falls, along the old York Road and Snake Road to Waterdown, across the escarpment on Mountain Brow Road to King Road, then across to the old Augustus Jones Baseline Road, now called Francis Road, and back to the Brant House. Along the way, you will see some old buildings, such as the King House on King Road, the two Griffin houses in Waterdown, the old Moses Morden House in Rock Chapel, and the famous Fergusson house called Woodhill. There are lots of stories to go along with them. Starting the trip-the Brant House and Museum in Burlington Start the trip with your back to the front door of the Brant House. You are looking across the road toward Lake Ontario. The house is located on a sand bar that, but for a short break, stretches across Hamilton Harbour to Van Wagner's Beach on the other side of the lake. This sand bar was strategically important for it provided a way to shorten the long trip around the lake through Dundas. The land to your right along the sand bar to the break was given to Joseph Brant along with 3450 acres of land to your left for Brant's personal use and separate from the land given to the Six Nations along the Grand River. Brant built a house on his land. The present Brant House is neither the original house nor is it on the original site. This house is a reconstruction and is here because the former location is under the QEW.
From the Brant House, turn left onto Lakeshore Road. At the traffic lights, turn left onto North Shore Boulevard East. Continue under the QEW. The western edge of the QEW approximately marks the edge of Joseph Brant's land. The land to the west was originally granted to one of Upper Canada's first doctors, Robert Kerr. He originally came to North America as a military surgeon and served under General Burgoyne on his infamous attempt to invade rebel territory that ended in surrender at Saratoga Springs. Dr. Kerr married Elizabeth, one of the daughters of Sir William Johnson and Molly Brant, and so became related to Joseph Brant. His son, William Johnson Kerr, became a leader of the Six Nations in the War of 1812 and married Joseph Brant's daughter Elizabeth, after whom Elizabeth Street is named. Elizabeth's mother was the clan mother of the Mohawk Turtle clan and it was through this connection that their son, Simcoe, became hereditary chief of the Mohawks. In the early 1790s, Dr. Kerr sold 900 acres of the land to George Chisholm and Charles King. Chisholm, a Scot, had emigrated to America in 1773 and had spent several years trying to farm on a grant in Nova Scotia. Giving up on that, he had moved to Niagara, where he met King. King, born in New Jersey in 1765, had come to Upper Canada in the 1780s and had petitioned for a land grant in 1791. Chisholm took the land between presentday Francis Road and King Road, and King took the land from King Road to the edge of the Burlington Golf and Country Club, just past Edgewater Crescent. The land stretched from the lake to the escarpment. At King Road, the road takes a right turn. Instead of following the road, turn left at the bend to continue along North Shore Blvd East. As you drive along the boulevard, you can see Hamilton Harbour. This can be a very pretty drive in the spring. Just after you pass Glenwood Avenue, the road passes through LaSalle Park. This was part of the lot granted to William Applgarth of Durham, England. He emigrated here in 1791 and built a gristmill on his property on Grindstone Creek north of Plains Road at a place called Hidden Valley. When Alexander Brown married his granddaughter Sarah in 1842, the newlyweds received half of his property, including what is now the park area. The Browns' house was where the park pavilion is located today. Brown was the grandson of Col. Alexander Brown, the founder of Waterdown. The younger Brown built a wharf on his property and this became a well-used stopping place for lake steamers and hence an important small port. It was from here that goods from the industries in Smokey Hollow in Waterdown were shipped. The wharf operated until 1897. Continue along North Shore Blvd. until the road swings right and ends at Plains Road West. Turn left. On the right at 481 Plains Road West is the Blain House, a brick house built about 1860 by David Blain. Blain bought this land in 1846 and was listed in the 1861 census as a tavern-keeper. This may account for the small single-storey wing on the west side of the house.
Continue along Plains Road to Spring Gardens Road and turn left. Before Plains Road was extended, Spring Gardens Road was a continuation of Snake Road, which at one time was a toll road. Continue along Spring Gardens Road to the bridge, the Valley Inn Bridge, where the road carries straight on. Before Plains Road was extended, Spring Gardens Road (or Snake Road as it was then) continued to where Beth Jacob Cemetery is now and joined the present Snake Road on the other side of Highway 403. Here on this side of the Highway 403, you are now in a very pretty section of the Royal Botanical Gardens. At the intersection where the road swings left to cross the bridge, look on the right for the old house in the trees. This was the toll house erected when James Kent Griffin widened the native track to create Snake Road.
Turn left and drive across the bridge. Be careful, because the bridge is only one-car wide.
The bridge crosses over Grindstone Creek and in spring or fall you may be able to see migrating waterfowl or the occasional osprey. On the right at the other end of the bridge there was a hotel called the Valley Inn. The inn was demolished long ago but the name lives on in the name of the bridge and the road.
Continue across the bridge and up the winding Valley Inn Road to York Boulevard. Turn left. Just across the railway bridge, at the sign for the Arboretum, turn right onto Old Guelph Road and follow it as it goes under Highway 403.
Continue along Old Guelph Road, the old road to Guelph from Dundas, for about 2.5 km until it swings left. The road then swings right again. At present, the road is closed but you don't want to use anyway. Instead, continue straight ahead onto Patterson Road, which immediately dives down as though it is going into the valley. It actually runs just below and parallel to the edge of the escarpment for about 1.5 km.
At the junction with Valley Road, turn right. At the junction with Rock Chapel Road, turn left.
On the left, just after you turn, is 414 Rock Chapel Road. This stone 1½-storey house without the usual gable over the front door was built by Daniel Cummins about 1837. Cummins was a Scot who in 1794 came to Upper Canada the long way, through Germany and New Jersey. When built, the house was of frame construction with a central hall and a ladder up to the sleeping area, but
it has had many changes over the years. The house is reputed to be haunted by the ghost of a young woman. She was the sister of the owner of the house and was "visited" by one the members of the Methodist church, who used a ladder to climb up to the sleeping area. One evening, some scamps moved the ladder to the Methodist church. The "visitor" took the hint and never again visited the woman, who died of a
broken heart.
Just further along, the road swings to the right past a patch of grass that looks like a village green on the left. In the middle of the green is a marker that marks the place where the original Rock Chapel was built by Methodist Episcopalians in 1822. The frame chapel was later replaced by a stone building on Rock Chapel Road.
Further down the road, at 378 Rock Chapel Road, is the Averill House, built on the property originally granted to Moses Morden, brother-in-law of Ann Durham Morden, the founder of Dundas. Moses built a sawmill near here that operated for over one hundred and forty years. The mill was later bought by John Borer, after whom the falls were named. Borer was born in Kent, England, in 1824 and emigrated to Upper Canada in 1852 with a wife and four children. He moved here in 1865 from Mountsberg, a few miles north. The house itself was built by an earlier owner, Edward Averill, in the 1850s. The original building is the section with the front door and portico, which however is not original. This was never the home of John Borer, who lived further down the road at number 351
and rented this house out. However, when his son, also named John, married in 1891, the bride and groom took occupancy.
The road goes over a bridge across the Rock Chapel Creek. About fifteen metres to the left of the bridge, the creek goes over Borer's Falls. On the left, in the brush just past the bridge, was once a sawmill powered by the creek. The mill was built about 1798 by Moses Morden, who lived in the house just across the road at 351 Rock Chapel Road.
Moses and his brothers were Loyalists in the Revolutionary War. When the war ended,
they agreed with their sister-in-law, Ann Durham Morden, to move to Upper Canada. After meeting with their friend Robert Land, who had settled at what is now Hamilton, they decided to move to the Dundas Valley. Ann settled in the valley at what is now the village of Dundas but Moses and his brother Daniel decided to move further up the escarpment. The oldest part of the house is the wood-framed section with the wraparound porch. The other section, with the brick walls, was probably added by John Borer in the 1860s.
Continue along Rock Chapel Road. At the junction with Sydenham Road, continue straight ahead, following Sydenham Road. Where the road swings left, go straight ahead onto Harvest Road. Continue to Ofield Road South. Right on the northeast corner, at 545 Harvest Road is the old Tunis House. Captain Rees Tunis, born in Pennsylvania of German extraction, moved to Upper Canada about 1810 in search of land and opportunity. Here he found other families of German origin like the Hornings and Binkleys. Tunis operated the old Hatt mill in Ancaster, the Red Mill, before the War of 1812. During the war, he suffered great losses but at the end of the war managed to accumulate property. He finally received compensation for his war losses in 1825 and built this house with the money. This fine Georgian-style house
used bricks made from clay dug out from the site.
Turn left onto Ofield Road South and follow it round as it becomes Fallsview Road. At the junction with Sydenham Road, turn left, then retrace your path along Rock Chapel Road. Turn right onto Valley Road, then follow the road for about 1.4 km past Patterson Road to York Road. Turn left and follow York Road to Highway 6, then turn right. At the traffic lights, turn left onto Plains Road West. At the City View Motel, turn left onto Hillsdale Avenue. Follow Hillsdale Avenue until it turns into Snake Road near the Beth Jacob Cemetery.
Like most early roads, Snake Road was an aboriginal track that was used by early Flamborough settlers to travel to Hamilton and the lake. It was in 1853 that James Kent Griffin widened the track into a road, for the use of which he charged a toll. The toll gate was at the Burlington end of the road, near the Valley Inn Bridge that you crossed earlier. The next year he extended the road north to Carlisle, creating the present Main Street and Centre Road. The name of the road is for the many twists and turns, even more in earlier times than today, not for any rattlesnakes that may be there.
Continue along Snake Road to the sign for the Gates of Heaven Cemetery. Near here was an important crossroads where Snake Road intersects with the Old York Road, the former main road to Toronto. The house at 1635 Snake Road was built about 1850 as an inn to service the trade along both roads. Once called the Grapevine Inn, the house is a 1½-storey board-and-batten house with a windowed gable over the front door.
Continue along Snake Road. Close to Waterdown, at 1982 Snake Road, is another old house, also dating from about 1850. This is the Applegarth House. This pretty 1½-storey frame house was probably built by John Applegarth, a miller on Grindstone Creek. Applegarth was related to William Applegarth, who built the first gristmill in Hidden Valley on the Grindstone Creek in Aldershot just south of Highway 403. The outside of the house has been covered with barge board and the porch may not be original, although its curved roof implies that it is old.
Continue along Snake Road. Cross over the railway bridge and turn right onto Main Street. You are now in Waterdown
Waterdown grew on the land granted in 1796 to Lieutenant Alexander McDonnel of Butler's Rangers. McDonnel
failed to do anything with the property so it was taken back and
ended up in the hands of Colonel Alexander Brown, formerly of
the North West Fur Company. Brown built the first sawmill on
Grindstone Creek above Grindstone Falls. In 1823, Brown sold property here to Ebenezer Culver Griffin, the man who created the industry in this area. Griffin inherited his entrepreneurial skills from his father, Smith Griffin, who founded the town of Smithville. EC Griffin had the property surveyed, divided into small lots, and sold. Griffin even gave the community a name, Waterdown. He built a hotel on the corner of Dundas and Mill Streets, the American Hotel, and a general store on the other side of Mill Street.
Continue along Main Street to 201 Main Street
South. This is the only house in Waterdown that has been established as a Griffin residence. It dates from before 1844, when the Assessment Roll for the township shows a one-storey frame house on the site belonging to James Kent Griffin, the eldest son of EC Griffin and the man who later built Snake Road, Main Street, and Centre Road. The old frame house has been modified extensively. It now is the central section, which now looks so tiny between the two later sections, and has been covered in stone, although not dressed stone as it appears. It is actually rubble stone styled to look like dressed stone. Notice that the present front entrance is actually in the side of the large addition on the right. Several windows have been bricked up and the entrance created. An earlier entrance may have been around the corner inside what is now a covered porch. This house is known as the Griffin House to distinguish from the Griffin Cottage.
Continue along Main Street to Griffin Street and turn
right. On the right at 24 Griffin Street is the Griffin Cottage built about 1845. This Regency cottage is the oldest unaltered building in Waterdown. Notice the front entrance with the elliptical transom and the sidelights. The panelled front door itself is original and this style is known as a Loyalist door. The front windows are of a style known as six-over-six. They have two panels that slide up and down, each panel having six panes. Little is known about the origin of the cottage. It was certainly built on land owned by EC Griffin but he never lived here. His house was on Dundas Street and was demolished many years ago. It is possible that the cottage was built by one of his relatives although his son, James Kent, lived in the Griffin House on Main Street.
Return to Main Street and turn right. Cross over Dundas Street and continue to 173 Main Street
North. One of the oldest buildings in the village, this fine stone house is on property once owned by the go-getting EC Griffin. He eventually sold it to William Magill who built this house about 1850. The square style of the house is unusual as is the fact that it faces Dundas Street. This implies that access to it was from Dundas Street, which means that it dates from before James Griffin extended Snake Road to become Main Street in 1854. The front entrance has a rectangular transom, sidelights, and a panelled door. The windows on the front of the house are six-over-six.
Turn around and return to John Street. Turn left. Drive to Mill Street and turn
right. The library building at 25 Mill Street North was once the East Flamborough Township Hall. This
two-storey limestone building has a copula on the roof to show that it is a public building. It was built in 1856-7 and served as the Town Hall until 1979, when it became the home of the Waterdown public library. In addition, over the years it has been used for elections, church services, Orange Lodge meetings, and school classes.
Continue to the traffic lights at Dundas
Street. The old hotel across the street on the southwest corner is the American Hotel built by EC Griffin in 1824. It is one of the oldest hotels in Ontario and has been in operation as a hotel since it was built. The second floor once had a ballroom.
On the other side of Mill Street on the southeast corner is the store built in 1821 by EC Griffin as a general store. It was operated by the Griffin family as a general store for 75 years.
Continue down Mill Street to 63 Mill Street South. Henry Ferguson Graham, a tanner who had come north from Pennsylvania to work in Crook's Hollow, bought property here from EC Griffin in the 1830s to set up a tanning business. The first house he lived in on this site was a one-story frame house. He eventually became so successful that, in 1847, he was able to convert the frame house into this stone house. He did not live in for long, because he moved back to the United States in 1853. The house, called Maplebank, was eventually bought by Peter Creen in 1875 and the Creen family owned it until 1974.
Continue down Mill Street to Mountain Brow Road and turn
left. At 440 Mountain Brow Road is the gate leading to Woodhill, the home of Adam Fergusson, a remarkable Scot who founded some of our most important institutions. Fergusson bought the property in either 1833 or 1834 from Henry Young. The house is a 1½-storey building and was probably built in two sections, the front section being smaller than the rear. The walls are stone that has been parged (with a top coat of stucco or cement). Unfortunately, the owner does not want people to go down the pathway to the house and there is no way to see the house from any other location so you must take it as unseen.
Continue along Mountain Brow Road as it twists and turns down the escarpment, becoming King Road. Continue along King Road as it crosses Highway 403 and Plains
Road. Opposite Greenwood Drive, at 736 King Road, is the original King house called Crown Farm. Charles King was born in New Jersey and came to Canada just after the Revolutionary War. He met George Chisholm and between them they bought 900 acres from Dr Robert Kerr. King took Lot 2 and Chisholm Lot 1. King Road runs between those lots. King's first house was a log house built near the present house. As his fortunes improved, King was able to build a better house. The rear section was built in 1825 and the front perhaps twenty years later. Although the rear section is bricked, it is only a veneer covering a frame house. The King Family continued to live here until 1939 although they sold the surrounding land piece by piece until the lot reached its present size.
Turn left onto Greenwood Drive. This was once part of
the Old Guelph Road connecting the Head of the Lake (Burlington) to the York
Road (now Plains Road). This road formerly connected to what is now Maple Avenue but has been split by the QEW. Turn right onto Francis Road. This is part of what was known as the Jones Baseline Road and marked the western limits of Joseph Brant's grant. When General Haldimand gave land on the Grand River to the Six Nations, it was to be six miles on each bank of the river from mouth to source. But nobody knew exactly where the source was. It turns out that what they thought was the source was not. So the grant was changed to extend to where the river crossed a line drawn from the edge of Brant's property at an angle of 45 degrees. This was surveyed by
Augustus Jones and was known as the Jones Baseline. The Jones Baseline Road now exists only in bits and pieces but it once delineated the boundaries of several townships.
Continue along Francis Road. Turn left onto North Shore Blvd. At the traffic lights at Maple Avenue, turn right onto Lakeshore Road.You have now completed the trip. |
Joseph Brant House
Blain House, 481 Plains Road West
Old Toll House on the former Snake Road
Valley Inn Bridge
Cummins House, 414 Rock Chapel Road
Averill House, 378 Rock Chapel Road
Borer's Falls
Moses Morden House, 351
Rock Chapel Road
Tunis House, 545
Harvest Road
Grapevine Inn, 1635 Snake Road
Applegarth House, 1982 Snake Road
Griffin House, 201 Main Street South
Right-hand section of the Griffin House
Griffin Cottage, 24 Griffin Street
Magill House, 173 Main Street North
East Flamborough Township Hall
American Hotel
Griffin General Store
Rear section of Crown Farm, 736 King Road
Front view of Crown Farm, 736 King Road