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.  

It’s one of many Jane’s Walks promoted across Cambridge, Kitchener and Waterloo on May 3, 4, and 5.

Dickson Hill, history, trees and alleys

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. 

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.

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.

They’re also on the shelves of the reference library collection of IdeaExchange at 1 Queen’s Square.

Jane’s Walks are Planned for May 4, 5, and 6

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.

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

And on Saturday, May 4, Janes Walks are planned around the Grand River to mark the 50th anniversary of the last flood in Cambridge on May 17, 1974. 

One walk will focus on the historic Oak that survived the flood in the Cambridge Sculpture Garden on Grand Avenue South.

1. City of Cambridge (2005). Dickson Hill Heritage Conservation District Plan for City-Owned Lands. https://www.cambridge.ca/en/learn-about/resources/Dickson-Hill-HCD-Plan.pdf ↩︎
2. Haigopan, J., (2023). Dickson Hill: Galt’s Victorian Masterpiece. p. 1 ↩︎
3. Haigopan, J., (2024). The Life and Times of Florence Dickson. p. 4 ↩︎
4. Heritage Cambridge (1988). Old Galt Walking Tour. p. 12. https://www.cambridge.ca/en/learn-about/resources/Old-Galt-Historical-Walking-Tour-brochure.pdf ↩︎