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Oakville Harbour

In 1827 Oakville was founded by Colonel William Chisholm, after he purchased 1000 acres of Crown land at the mouth of the Sixteen Mile Creek. Chisholm's great dream of building a privately owned harbour for Upper Canada was quickly realized in 1834, when Oakville was declared a Port of Entry into Canada. 

Main exports included pine timbers and oak staves. As business prospered, so did other industries including wheat dealers and storage granaries. In the mid-1800s, Oakville was hit by a recession, affecting the price of wheat, Oakville's foundry and harbour business. To offset the depression, fruit growing became a considerable business, and in particular Oakville was actively trading strawberries, spurring a basket manufacturing plant.

After a recession and the building of the railroad, the harbour business weakened and Oakville became a "holiday destination" for many. It was fashionable to summer in Oakville, known as a holiday paradise for many.

Oakville also became a destination for the Royal Canadian Yacht Club Races, from Toronto, along with the building of The Oakville Club in 1907. You can rediscover these roots with a drive along Lakeshore through Old Oakville, and Bronte Village West.

Bronte Harbour

The area that is presently Bronte was first settled by Europeans beginning in 1807, after the land was purchased from the Mississauga tribe and Trafalgar Township was surveyed.

By 1856, Bronte was a busy Lake Ontario port, exporting wheat, building ships, and developing a thriving commercial fishery and stonehooking industry. The town's population grew to 550. With the coming of the railroad, the harbour's business declined and the population went down to 220.

Bronte was incorporated as a village in 1952. Ten years later, the village and part of the Township of Trafalgar were amalgamated into the Town of Oakville.

Unlike neighbouring Oakville, where by the late 1820s William Chisholm had financed a harbour privately, development of port facilities in Bronte was delayed until the founding of the Bronte Harbour Company. Led by Samuel Bealey Harrison, a politician, lawyer, and judge, residents of Bronte petitioned the government of Upper Canada to incorporate a company to build a harbour at the mouth of Twelve Mile Creek. After a ten-year struggle to obtain support, the Bronte Harbour Company was founded in 1846.  By 1856, construction of Bronte's newly dredged harbour with two piers and a lighthouse was complete. The village's waterfront was transformed from a shallow marshland, inaccessible from the water, to a harbour with sufficient depth to sustain itself as a thriving Lake Ontario port.

As an Oakville Real Estate Agent, Ryan Crane can help you find Oakville Homes for Sale that are in close proximity to Oakvilles Harbours.