About a year ago I went out to an old farmhouse in central Mississauga to photograph it. Standing near what is now the intersection of Eglinton Avenue and Mavis Road, it had been abandoned for around twenty years, and someone had set the place on fire... perhaps someone who wants to develop the property. For years, there's been a lot of yapping about restoring the place as one of Mississauga's heritage properties, but bugger-all's been done to restore it, even when that seemed likely.
Well, after I took those pictures last winter, another fire was set last March. I was at loose ends in Mississauga yesterday, so I thought I'd go and see the place for myself. There's virtually nothing left to salvage now, so I would imagine that, before long, this once proud monument to Peel's agricultural heritage will be no more.
3 comments:
I have to say your blog is very interesting and thoughtful. I received it from Google on an alert I have.
I have a site called www.MississaugaLocal.com and I have 2 area's that I would love to get your stories as they would be of interest to a lot of people on my site. The 2 area's would be articles and also photo's section, and I am interested in any local stories including Toronto too.
I am fascinated by what remains of the area before development. On Hurantario (roughly between Burnhamthorpe and the 401) there are 3 or 4 old churches, and there's an old brick building, probably an outbuilding from a farm, near us on Dixie & Burnhamthorpe.
This summer, in my very brief stint working at Sheridan College in Oakville, I took local roads to work, and was astonished to see Burnhamthorpe turn into a 2-lane road through farmland, west of Winston Churchill! Hand-made signs selling honey and maple syrup. Those farms can't be long for the world, I think.
I love local history, and I'd love to know more about the history of where I live now. It's on my "long term list" to get a good book on it.
Thanks for these photos. Time marches on, but I find the losses very sad. Not least because the area is so ugly now.
I remember a school trip (Erindale Elementary!) to a maple shack in a stand of trees on Mavis Road back in the early 80s. I think it may have been on the east side of the road. I moved away in 1984, just after they built the Burnhamthorpe bridge over the credit... the 403 was still just a stub down to Eglinton/Cawthra. It is kind of sad to look at Mississauga in Google Maps now, let alone drive through the cookie cutter subdivisions.
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