This photo from October 15, 1954 shows cars driving along Blair Road through Grand River flood waters, caused by Hurricane Hazel. The photo was taken by Harold Kingle, and is now part of the Cambridge Archives Collection.
This year, Cambridge, Ontario, residents remembered the last big Grand River flood on May 17, 1974, with a 50th anniversary event at Cambridge Firehall Museum and Education Centre.
It caused millions of dollars of damage in downtown Galt 50 years ago, but it isn’t the only flood anniversary this year.
The storm killed 81 people in Toronto. Damage there was estimated at between $25 million and $100 million, or more than $1 billion, says the Canadian Encyclopedia.
Galt downtown flooded
In Galt, now called Downtown Cambridge, there were dozens of people rescued from homes along the Grand River by firefighters using boats.
No injuries were noted after the rainstorm storm flooded downtown Galt and washed-out sections of roads between Blair and Galt and Blair and Preston. The storm also destroyed the tent city at the International Plowing Match at Breslau.
The river rose four metres above normal and covered Water Street and Grand Avenue.
The Galt Evening Reporter on Monday, October 18, 1954, covered the flooding in detail, including eyewitness accounts of bystanders rescuing a Waterloo man from a submerged car on flooded Highway 97 east, and men on horseback saving a herd of cattle trapped by rising waters at the Cruickston Park Farm in Estate in Blair.
After going missing in early June, 2024, the historic plaque in Victoria Park in Cambridge is back where it should be.
Cambridge Today reports that the historic bronze plaque was found nearby, and reinstalled by city crews this week. It’s located along Blenheim Road, opposite Mount View Cemetery.
Other plaques that went missing simultaneously still haven’t been found.
Would you like to be a featured family in Neighbours of West Galt?
As the magazine’s content coordinator, I’m planning future editions for fall and winter. I’d like to feature your West Galt family on the cover, with photos taken by professional portrait photographer Stan Switalski.
I’m also always on the lookout for tips and photos about West Galt events to share in the magazine. And I am always ready to receive your pet photos and information, for our monthly Pets of the Month feature page.
Reconstruction of Blenheim Road, between Devil’s Creek and Mount View Cemetery started May 6.
The City of Cambridge says the project will close the road until October 2024. A sign posted on Blenheim Road near Blair Road says the project costs $2.2 million, funded by money from Cambridge and Ottawa.
Sign on Blenhim Road near Blair Road in May 2024 showing $2.2 million cost of Blenheim Road construction cost in Cambridge, Ontario. Photo by Kevin Swayze
Here’s what’s planned: – water main and sewer replacement – curb and asphalt replacement – a multi-use asphalt trail mostly on the south side of Blenheim Road, between the Devil’s Creek trail and the cemetery entrance.
The work has impacted the adjacent Mount View Cemetery.
Five tombstones were toppled by construction equipment on July 19, 2024. Three teens were arrested by Waterloo Regional Police and charged with stealing the equipment and causing the damage on Victoria Day Weekend.
An access gate to the cemetery off Grand Street was also closed on July 1, 2024. It’s a common shortcut through the cemetery for motorists. Other Grant Road access gates were open when the photo was taken.
Sign indicating closed Grand Street access gate for Mount View Cemetery in Cambridge, Ontario, on July 1, 2024. Photo by Kevin Swayze
Postcard from 1910 showing houses at the intersection of Aberdeen Road and Wentworth Avenue in the Town of Galt. Image from the City of Cambridge Archives
What’s your favourite part of Dickson Hill?
Please join me on May 3, 2024, for a neighbourhood walk starting and ending at Victoria Park, in the heart of Cambridge’s West Galt ward.
Friday, I’ll share some of my thoughts about what makes Dickson Hill something special. I ask you to join me and share your thoughts, observations and quesitons as we walk and talk.
Meet me at 7 p.m. at the Salisbury Avenue entrance to Victoria Park, near the intersection with Forest Road.
I’ve lived near Dickson Hill for a decade and often wrote about the area in the 30 years before when I worked as a journalist at the Cambridge Reporter and Waterloo Region Record newspapers.
I’ve walked the streets and alleys of Dickson Hill for years, helping me connect what I learned covering city council meetings with a neighbourhood with few peers across Cambridge, Waterloo, and Kitchener. I vividly remember how Dickson Hill residents resisted city interference when a blanket Heritage District designation was proposed. Instead, the city protected only public property1 like parks, trees, and street lights with a heritage designation.
In many ways, walking the tree-lined streets is walking back into Victorian Times. A time when the area was the west side of the Town of Galt, and factories flanked the Grand River.
New Dickson Hill History Books
Former Cambridge resident John Hagopian researched and wrote two books about how the wild “Dickson’s Bush” transformed from the 1880s into an enclave of grand homes for leading members of the former town of Galt – and for some of its middle-class workers.
Dickson Hill is shown as open and wooded areas on this section of an 1851 map of the Village of Galt. Map from the City of Cambridge Archives
John now lives in Whitby. His recently reprinted book Dickson Hill: Galt’s Victoria Masterpiece reports what life was like in Galt in the late 1800s and early 1900s, when the local economy was healthy thanks to nationalist economic policy, and the most expensive neighbourhood in town started taking shape.
By the 1880s, Galt east of the river had been growing strong for 60 years2, but most of the west side was undeveloped. At the top of the ridge west of the Grand River was a rural plateau known to locals as “Dickson’s Bush,” after the original owner, William Dickson, who founded Dumfries Township and the Galt settlement. And of his son William Dickson, Jr., who died in 1877, leaving the lands to be opened for residential development by his niece, Florence Augusta Dickson.
Florence Dickson Subdivided the Family Property
John’s Book most recent book, The Life and Times of Florence Dickson is a biography. It tells the story of the Dickson family back to 13th century Scotland, Florence’s early life in Niagara-on-the-Lake, her later life in Galt and her 1924 death, deeply in debt.
Photograph of Florence Dickson in 1865. Photo from the City of Cambridge Archives.
Florence was the granddaughter of William Dickson Sr., founder of Dumfries Township and Galt. She circulated in Toronto’s high society3 in the 1890s.
John tells the story of how her Galt land investments faltered because of financial transactions made by family members.
She lived her last years at Kirkmichael, on Byng Avenue, built circa 1832 by her father4, William Dickson, Jr.
History Books at Rookery and Library
Dickson’s Hill, Galt’s Victorian Masterpiece, is a reworked edition of a 1997 research report by John. That volume was called West Side Story: A Housing Study of Galt’s Dickson Hill Neighbourhood.
John updated his research into the individual histories of building lots and neighbourhoods in Dickson Hill.
John’s new Dickson Hill history book is also filled with new images, artwork, and community history. It has less of an academic flavour than the original dog-eared volume on the reference shelves of the IdeaExchange library at Queen’s Square. The new book contains artwork by Debbie Ellis, Dave Menary and Greg Pautler.
Both the Dickson Hill and Florence Dickson books are available for purchase at Rookery Books on Main Street. They cost $65 each.
I’ve long been impressed with how Dickson Hill maintains a strong identity and celebrates with community events throughout the year. That’s what I’m planning to highlight on my hour-long Jane’s Walk starting at 7 p.m. on Friday, May 24.
Jane Jacobs was a community activist who promoted neighbourhoods over highways in the 1960s. She stoked community opposition to proposed expressways in New York City and Toronto. She rejected suburban development and promoted compact urban living to foster a strong community.
Dickson Hill may be more suburban than Jacobs preferred, but I see how residents have a deep sense of community and reverence for history.
Victoria Park contains a large wooded preserve of the original Dickson Family lands in Galt. Photo by Kevin Swayze
Here’s some of the history I plan to highlight on the Dickson Hill walk:
Victoria Park, which contains 28 acres of forested parkland donated to the Town of Galt in 1901
Kirkmichael, the historic Dickson family home at 16 Byng Ave.
Dickson Public School, built on two lots purchased from William Dickson, Jr., along St. Andrew’s Street.
The Pergola collection of grave markers at the site of the former St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, St., across St. Andrew’s Street from the school
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