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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.
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