Virtual Vacation!
Alton Walking Tour #4
Today we are going to continue the tour of Alton village I started in 2022.
All of these photos were provided by Heritage Caledon and are used with their consent as part of the Alton Cemetery project. Information on the history of the buildings was also provided by Heritage Caledon.
All of these businesses belonged to people, whether ancestors, relatives or connections of my DH, Robbie. The churches are the ones the people attended. Most of them are buried at Alton Cemetery.
1456 Queen Street West Mechanics Institute circa 1882
This single storey, building with red brick veneer cladding is the last remaining free-standing Mechanic’s Institute in the Town of Caledon. Built on land provided by Robert Meek, the owner of a grist mill and also a saw mill, he was an early merchant in Alton. Connection 18 degrees from Robbie, there is a direct connection, but some profiles have not been created yet.
Mill owner William Algie, Connection to Robbie maternal grandfather of husband of 1st cousin 1x removed, who served as its first president, also financed the construction. In 1888, the institute held almost 1,000 volumes and it operated for over 100 years until a new library opened on Station Street in 1992. The first Mechanics Institute opened in Scotland in 1821. Often funded by mill owners, institutes were created to provide education for an emerging group of skilled workers (mechanics) who built and maintained the equipment that powered the industrial revolution.
1469 Queen Street West McCartney’s Hardware circa 1899
This commercial building was built for hardware merchant Samuel Albert McCartney. The building was constructed using balloon framing with cut stone as the exterior cladding. Note the round shaped parapet, iron tie-rod plates on the side walls as well as the detailing on what is the original storefront. In 1903, McCartney moved to Orangeville and sold the building to William White, a former harness maker and Alton’s first magistrate, White opened a general store in the premises. William White’s relationship to Robbie husband of 1st cousin 3x removed. In 1920, the building was sold to Alonze Tennyson who opened Tennyson’s General Store. In 1923, James Hilliard, 13 degrees from Robbie converted the building to a barber shop.
1532 Queen Street East Wesleyan Methodist .1891 date stone This Victorian Gothic style church was completed in 1891 for Alton’s Wesleyan Methodist congregation. It is clad in red brick with contrasting yellow brick details. The gothic style windows on the front and side façades are original.
In 1925, after church unification, it was re-named Alton United Church. In recent years, after church membership and participation declined, the building was sold. This is the church where many of Robbie’s ancestors were baptised and married.
19739 Main Street Congregational Church circa 1877 This Victorian Gothic style church is built on a fieldstone foundation with triple red brick construction, contrasting yellow brick detailing, front and side buttresses evenly interspaced with windows and a projecting front tower. It has survived 2 major fires, reconstruction and architectural alterations. The church congregation disbanded in 1910 and sold the building to Barber Carriage Co.; owned by James Barber relationship to Robbie, husband of 1st cousin 3x removed during WW1 it stored raw wool for John M. Dods’ mill. Robbie’s GGU
In 1918, the carriage company sold it to Village as the town hall. The basement was altered and from the late 1930s to mid-1970s was Alton’s fire hall. Later, the hall was leased as an antique store. In 2015 the building was restored it and is now an art gallery.
19695 Main Street Alton Baptist Church date stone 1926 This rectangular fieldstone church was built with a steeply pitched gable roof and a buttressed entrance that resembles an adjoined gatehouse. The stones, harvested locally, have been randomly set.
The gothic windows on the front façade and sides are outstanding. The building served the Baptist congregation from 1926 until services ceased in 1984. It has subsequently had various other uses.
19736 Main Street Presbyterian Church Manse circa 1919 This 2 storey Edwardian Classical style ‘four square’ house was built using rusticated concrete block, a popular early 20th century building material. The house has a pyramidal hip roof and a semi-circular centre entrance supported by a round base and classical columns. Symmetrically placed windows face the street. The house was the Presbyterian Church manse until 1926.
