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.
Fireworks burst in the air over Riverside Park in Cambridge, on Canada Day 2017.
Updated July 2, 2024: Parade livestream recording added.
Livestream recording of Cambridge Canada Day parade July 1, 2024.
To all my Conestoga College students, I wish you a Happy Canada Day on July 1, 2024.
There are no classes on the national holiday, so I encourage you to visit community events across Waterloo Region. Here are events accessible by Grand River Transit buses and Ion LRT trains, running on a holiday schedule.
Cambridge: Canada Day events are planned in Riverside Park, 49 King Street West, starting at 8 a.m. and ending at 10 p.m. with fireworks. A 1 p.m. parade follows King Street, from Bishop Street to Eagle Street, ending near the park entrance. Fireworks are planned at dusk in the park over the Speed River.
Kitchener: There are events planned from 2 p.m. to 11 p.m. at Carl Zehr Square, in front of Kitchener City Hall at 200 King Street West.
Waterloo: A community picnic is planned 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. in Waterloo Park, at 100 Westmount Road West. The ION LRT tracks cross the park, with access at the stations at Seagram Drive and in downtown Waterloo.
Here’s a listing of all the public Canada Day fireworks locations in Waterloo Region.
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
A front-end loader carries people over Grand River flood waters in downtown Cambridge, Ontario, on May 17, 1974. Image from Cambridge Reporter Collection at City of Cambridge Archives
The last big flood of the Grand River through Cambridge happened May 17, 1974, leaving behind $6.7 million in damages.
Nobody died, but several people were rescued from the surging waters by firefighters, police and bystanders. One man was pulled from a tree in mid-river by helicopter, according to news clippings at the City of Cambridge Archives.
The Grand River Conservation Authority produced this film about the 1974 flood.
The river peaked at 4.8 metres – 16 feet – above normal level and inundated much of downtown Cambridge.
Remembering the Flood of 1974
Fifty years after the 1974 flood, an event remembers the flood and talks about emergency preparations for future disasters. The free event runs May 4, 2024, at the Cambridge Fire Hall Museum and Education Centre, 56 Dickson Street, beside Cambridge City Hall.
Displays are open 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., says Ingrid Talpak, one of the organizers.
Grand River flood waters creep up Dickson Street at Ainslie Street on May 17, 1974, in downtown Cambridge, Ontario. Photograph taken from the Cambridge City Hall tower. Image from Cambridge Reporter Collection at City of Cambridge Archives.
Displays will include rescue craft used today on local waterways. For example, a fire department airboat can manoeuvre through shallow water or crunch over winter ice.
The Fire Hall Museum partnered with Jane’s Walks Waterloo Region to offer several guided walking tours from the Museum to the Idea Exchange Old Post Office. They will highlight points of interest and high-water marks from the flood of 1974.
A Beautiful, Sunny Day in May
May 1974 had been unusually wet. On Thursday, May 16, an overnight thunderstorm dumped 50 mm of rain across the saturated Grand River Watershed.
Upstream reservoirs behind dams couldn’t contain all the rainfall. The Grand River Conservation Authority would later say it warned officials in Cambridge at 11 p.m. Thursday that high water levels were expected.
City officials said the conservation authority didn’t hint at how bad things would get, according to news stories in the Cambridge Daily Reporter newspaper on file at the city archives.
People wade across flooded Water Street at Main Street in Downtown Cambridge on May 17, 1974. Image from Cambridge Reporter Collection at the City of Cambridge Archives.
The last big flood in the Grand River came during Hurricane Hazel in cold October weather in 1954, twenty years earlier.
Friday, May 17 dawned sunny and warm. By 11 a.m., the river was rising. By noon, water was over the banks downtown – and still rising.
A man carries a bicycle over his shoulder through a 1974 flood over Water Street in Cambridge. Image from Cambridge Reporter Collection at the City of Cambridge Archives.
Businesses, churches and residents tried to move valuable items above the rising water. Citizens helped firefighters rescue people from the filthy water rushing through town.
Some downtown workers were trapped in the offices when they left for work. They didn’t learn about the rising water until too late. Some were rescued in the bucket of a front-end loader, which carried them over the flood waters.
A man drinks from a water fountain as Grand River flood waters rush past his knees on Water Street in downtown Cambridge, Ontario, on May 17, 1974. Image from Cambridge Reporter Collection at the City of Cambridge Archives.
A boil-water advisory later was issued, as government officials feared contamination of the drinking water system.
And on Water Street near Parkhill Road, a fire started in the former Hahn Motors car dealership near the river. Flames gutted the building as firefighters struggled to reach the building by boat.
Firefighters work at a burned-out car repair shop on Water Street near Parkhill Road on May 18, 1974. The building caught fire the day before, during a flood of the Grand River in downtown Cambridge, Ontario. Image from Cambridge Reporter Collection at the City of Cambridge Archives.
It took more than two months for downtown businesses to clean up and recover from the damage, according to Cambridge Reporter news clippings.
Cleaning up in a store after the Grand River flood on May 17, 1974, in downtown Cambridge, Ontario. Image from Cambridge Reporter Collection at City of Cambridge Archives.
21 Recommendations from Flood Inquiry
There were 21 recommendations from an Ontario government inquiry into the disaster. It heard 43 days of testimony.
Key recommendations included an expanded flood prevention plan throughout downtown. More than $20 million was spent on flood control and property purchases in the following 15 years.
A sign on the Capitol Theatre marquee makes fun of the severe Grand River flood on May 17, 1974 in downtown Cambridge, Ontario. Image from Cambridge Reporter Collection at City of Cambridge Archives.
For several years in the mid 1980s, construction crews blasted into bedrock to lower the river channel. At the same time, taller flood walls and berms rose along the river, with the goal of containing another flood of the scale of 1974.
The conservation authority and city blamed each another for delayed flood warnings at the inquiry. Judge Wilfred Leach absolved the conservation authority of blame at the inquiry. He also insisted on a better flood warning system.
That recommendation led to a network of water-level monitors across the watershed. Every year, flood coordinators in cities, towns, and townships across the Grand River watershed test the alerting system.
Flood Warnings Now on Social Media
The public part of the warning system began with regular releases to local newspapers, radio and television stations. Today, public outreach includes social media, email alerts and live river-level data displayed on the conservation authority’s website.
Every year, city public works crews also practice installing portable flood walls at ends of the three bridges along the Grand in Galt. The bridges are lower than the raised flood walls, leaving a gap in flood protection.
If high water is expected, city crews collect kits of pre-cut aluminum posts and logs. The posts are dropped into pre-made sockets in the road at each end of the bridge. In between, more sections are dropped into place horizontally. To waterproof and buttress the temporary walls in a real flood, thousands of sandbags would be filled and stacked behind them.
A map showing the extent of Grand River flooding on May 17, 1974 in Downtown Cambridge. Image from Grand River Conservation Authority and presented at a public information session about the flood on April 25, 2024, at the IdeaExchange Old Post Office library.
All-way stop signs were installed on May 6, 2024, at Blair Road and Bismark Drive in Cambridge, Ontario. New crosswalks were also painted in the intersection. Photo by Kevin Swayze
Update: All-way stop signs were installed on May 6, 2024, at Blair Road and Bismark Drive in Cambridge, Ontario.
New crosswalks were also painted at the intersection, in all four directions.
All-way stop signs are coming to Blair Road and Bismark Drive in West Galt, six months after all-way stop signs were installed nearby at Blair Road and Grant Street.
According to signs posted at the intersection, the Blair-Bismark all-way stop signs installation is set for May 6, 2024.
Salisbury-Hardcastle All-Way Proposed, too
And residents of the Salisbury Avenue and Hardcastle Drive area may also get the all-way stop they want at that intersection, too.
There, people have been asking the City of Cambridge for traffic safety changes since 2020.
$1,200 cost for All-Way
Cambridge City Council unanimously voted to spend $1,200 to install more stop signs at the Blair-Bismark intersection on February 27, 2024. The work included new pavement markings.
It’s a busy route for students walking to nearby St. Augustine Catholic Elementary and Blair Road Public schools along Bismark. The schools are located to the west and east sides of the intersection.
The all-way stop was installed at Blair-Bismark due to concerns raised by area residents, says a staff report to City council on February 27, 2024.
Blair-Grant All-Way Stop
In November 2023, the city installed all-way stop signs at the Blair-Grant intersection near Mount View Cemetery.
That’s about a kilometre south of Blair-Grant. That’s at the start of the one-way section of Blair Road towards downtown.
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