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Municipality of Brighton Street Name List Public Consultation
Background:
This report recommends that Council approve a list of names recommended by the Heritage Advisory Committee (HAC) for use for naming new streets in the Municipality. The list of nine (9) potential street names will be followed by other recommended names which will be brought forth for Council’s consideration in the future.
Council’s authority to establish street names is established by the Planning Act and Municipal Act; with the anticipated number of new Draft Plans of Subdivision (and new roads), Staff are looking to be proactive in getting a Council-approved Street Name List in place. Names that reflect the local history help to define and create a sense of place, fostering civic pride, and a connection to community. Developing a List of Potential Street Names will serve the Municipality as a Council-approved list that developers can ‘choose from’ rather than propose their own names for streets.
Analysis:
Proposed Street Names:
Following research and review by the HAC, a list of fifteen (15) names were recommended and forwarded to the County of Northumberland (in order to confirm no duplication of names already in-use elsewhere in the County – causing possible delay or confusion for Emergency Services responding to an emergency situation). The names forwarded to the County were:
Table 1: Proposed List of Street Names
# |
Name |
Duplicate Street in County (Municipality) |
1 |
Brintnell |
Duplicate (existing Brintell Blvd. in Brighton) |
2 |
Bulkley |
|
3 |
Chisholm |
|
4 |
Dowler |
|
5 |
Ewing |
Duplicate (Cobourg) |
6 |
Kellogg |
Duplicate (Port Hope) |
7 |
McConnell |
|
8 |
Nancy |
|
9 |
Nix |
|
10 |
Spencer |
Duplicate (Cramahe) |
11 |
Squier |
|
12 |
Thayer |
|
13 |
Thompson |
Duplicate (Port Hope & Cobourg) |
14 |
Valleau |
|
15 |
Webb |
Duplicate (Alnwick/Haldimand) |
Of note, it was suggested by the County not to use “Brintnell” as a street name, due to it’s similarity to the existing “Brintell Blvd.” For the nine (9) names chosen for the ‘Street Name List’ the HAC has provided a synopsis of why the name was chosen and historical significance of the name in the community.
Table 2: Street Names and Rationale
Name |
Rationale |
Bulkley |
Hiram Bulkley (1805-1868) was a merchant and real estate developer in Brighton for several decades. He ran a dry goods store at 100 Main St. and also owned village lot 2 north side of Main St. He engaged in much buying and selling of land south of Main, between Centre & Division, to the railroad tracks. His sons would continue and extend his business and real estate activities. |
Chisholm |
Col. Alexander Chisholm (1748-1808) was born in Scotland, was a soldier with British in Quebec in 1777, a prisoner at Saratoga, then settled in Thurlow Twp. He married widow Nancy (McArthur) Singleton and issued many petitions for land in Thurlow, but was denied, so moved east to Conc A lot 34, Murray Twp., where he built saw and grist mills on Butler Creek by 1797. He was appointed head of the Northumberland Militia for several years. |
Dowler |
George Quaile Dowler (1836-1907) came from Ireland to live in Brighton in the 1860s and married Anges Euphemia Squier in 1869. Agnes was one of two daughters of Abijah Squier, who was part of an old U.E.L. family. When Abijah Squier died in 1855, large land holdings in conc 1, lot 2 went to his two daughters, Agnes and Alice. Agnes married George Q. Dowler, and Alice married Joseph Herbert Dowler (1839-1925), a brother of George’s. Over the next decades, Agnes and Alice, and their husbands and children, would parley their land holdings into sales of small village lots south of Main Street, mostly in the area between Centre Street and Railroad Street. This even included railway lands as well as the property where the Catholic Church was built. Quietly, using real estate transactions, this family helped to transform land that was a farm, as late as the 1870s, into sub-divisions of modern homes. They took their earnings and moved to Toronto in the 1880s. |
McConnell |
Peter John McConnell (1938-2010) grew up on a farm just north of the 401 on County Road 26. At 18, he moved to Toronto and became a police constable until the acting bug overtook him and he became a professional actor. He has performed in theatre, television and film across Canada, in the U.S. and in Europe. In 1972 he was a co-founder of the Smile Theatre Company and became its artistic director for eleven years. Upon retirement in the 1990s, he returned to Brighton and participated in theatre events, as well as producing “Over My Shoulder”, a collection of humorous stories about his experiences growing up in and around Brighton published by S.O.H.O. in 1998. Peter McConnell was a true celebrity in Brighton, and a remarkable local boy made good. |
Nancy |
Nancy (Anne) McArthur (1771-c 1863) was born at Kinderhook, NY in 1771. She is known as Anne or Nancy, depending on the time and who is writing. She immigrated to Upper Canada after the war of Independence and settled in Thurlow Township. In 1788 she married George Singleton, a soldier for the British in the Revolutionary War. He had been badly wounded at the Battle of Oriskany in 1777. George and his army buddies came to the Bay of Quinte after the war to trade in furs. The place was called Singleton’s Creek for a time, then Meyers Creek, later Belleville. George and Nancy had one son, John, born months before George died in 1789. Widow Singleton married Alexander Chisholm in 1791. He had been her husband’s partner in the fur trade and an old army buddy. They moved to Conc B Lot 34, Murray Twp., where Butler Creek empties into Presqu’ile Bay. There he built saw and grist mills which were operating later in 1797. Alexander Chisholm died 1808 and his widow married Cyrus Marsh, who died c 1828. Until the early 1860s, Ann (Nancy) Marsh would be prominent in real estate development and her son John would become a founder of the village of Brighton. The large brick house on the north side of Singleton Street was her home and the street is (supposedly) named for her son. See Beacon article re “The Matriarch of Brighton”. |
Nix |
John Nix, Sr. (1765-1853) was born in New Jersey and was listed as a loyalist in Upper Canada after the war of Independence in 1784. He was in Ameliasburgh Twp. for a while in the 1790s but then came to settle north of Presqu’ile Bay around 1800. From an early time, he was engaged in farming as well as real estate speculation. His son, John Nix, Jr. (1795-1870) joined him in these activities. In 1841, 76-year-old John Nix, Sr. and his son built the first commercial wharf at the east end of Price Street in Gosport, still called Newcastle at that time. The wharf would soon be taken over by his son and was instrumental in supporting the growing trade in lumber and other products in the area. In 1851, John Edward Proctor obtained the wharf and surrounding property due to mortgages he held with John Nix Jr. A large timber from Nix’s Wharf washed up near the Yacht Club in 2017, a tangible reminder of the history of the Nix family. |
Squier |
Henry Squier (1815-1871) was the first Reeve of Brighton Village, after the town separated from the township on November 24, 1858. He is variously described as a merchant, a school teacher, and a temperance lecturer. He was married to Clarinda Wells. |
Thayer |
Two Thayer brothers came from Massachusetts to this area in 1822, Nathaniel Thayer (1791-1878) and Isaiah Thayer (1798-1876). They would own significant land in Conc B, lot 35, on the east side of Prince Edward Street, south of Elizabeth St. Nathaniel was primarily a farmer in this area. He married Fanny Drewry and they had five children. Isaiah Thayer was unmarried and for most of his life operated a nursery business association with his brother’s farm. This would be across Prince Edward Street from Trinity St. Andrew’s United Church. This nursery business was part of the beginning of the apple business in Brighton, enhanced and carried on by James Ewing Solomon who married Nathaniel’s daughter, Fanny Thayer. For example, “This nursery was in 1873 kept by J. E. Solomon, he had about 500 standard trees dwarf pears, cherry, plum and chestnut.” From page 171 of Brighton Memories (the red book). |
Valleau |
Cornelius Valleau (1830-1907) From Hillier Twp., learned carpentry, married Mary Pearsall 1854, moved to Brighton to work in carpentry. Participated in building boom in Brighton in 1860s, 1870s, became known for building two-storey brick homes, his being one at 120 Main St., also invested in real estate south of Main Street. Built Valleau house in 1860s, it is still in family line in 2023 – John & Eleanor Stephens. |
Financial Implications:
None at this time.
Strategic Plan Alignment:
Public Consultation |
Street Name List- Council Report |
Submit your name ideas to rwarne@brighton.ca until January 31, 2025.
If you have any questions or comments regarding this public consultation, please contact one of the project team members:
Prepared By: Reviewed and Submitted By:
Ron Warne Paul Walsh, MCIP, RPP
Manager, Development Approvals Director of Planning and Development
Municipality of Brighton Municipality of Brighton
67 Sharp Road 67 Sharp Road
Brighton, Ontario K0K 1H0 Brighton, Ontario K0K 1H0
Email: rwarne@brighton.ca Email: pwalsh@brighton.ca
Tel: (613) 475-1162 Tel: (613) 475-1162 x 103