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 Old Victoria Hall Just north of this location Victoria Hall was officially opened on Dominion Day, 1871. The Hall was reputed to have excellent acoustics, hence musical concerts as well as political meetings and social events were held there. At least two Prime Ministers, Sir John A. Macdonald and Mackenzie King spoke there. It was subsequently used as a Masonic Temple and torn down in 1961. A skating rink built nearby in 1894 was taken down in 1905 and another built a year later at 67 / 77 Centre St. It came down in 1936. Mineral Water Bottling Plant In the late 1880's Thornhill gained publicity as a health spa because of the mineral waters that flowed from the various springs, especially on the south side of the Don River valley, west of Yonge. The Hawthorne Mineral Springs House was established by Dr. John Langstaff just north of the valley. The surrounding grounds provided a pleasant setting for Sunday walks. This mineral water was bottled and shipped from a shed near the bottom of the southern slope. For a period after 1916 part of this shed, no longer a bottling plant, was used by famed local Group of Seven Artist J.E.H. MacDonald as a studio for some of his students. Erected by the Society for the Preservation of Historic Thornhill on the occasion of Thornhill's Bicentennial, 1994. |
