Scarborough Village, Guildwood, Cliffcrest.
One of Scarborough’s early communities was Scarborough Village. In 1832 it became home to the first post office in the Township of Scarborough. The village was laid out as a subdivision in 1856 and a school was built within the planned subdivision in 1860. The community was centred around Markham Road and Eglinton Avenue and included the surrounding farm land, from Lake Ontario to the Highland Creek river and west to McCowan Road. School Section #9 was established in the community in 1847, and a frame school located on Markham Road south of Kingston Road served the area until the brick building was built in the village in 1860. In 1913, a new Scarborough Village Public School was erected on the same site. The old 1860 structure was dismantled and the bricks reused to construct a nearby house. One of community’s churches was Washington Methodist Church. Although the original 1838 and replacement 1885 churches have been demolished, the cemetery remains on Scarborough Golf Club Road, south of Kingston Road. The local Anglican congregation built Christ Church in 1846 but the beautiful Gothic style frame building was destroyed by fire in 1918. A replacement, erected in 1921 was dismantled in 1936 and rebuilt at its current location on Markham Road where it continues to serve the community.
Scarborough Village developed as a result of the horse and buggy traffic on Kingston Road and northward along Markham Road. The early businesses that would have been found in this area included Gates’ “Scarboro Inn,” Baird’s Hotel , Chester’s General Store, a blacksmith and waggon shop. With the coming of the Grand Trunk Railway in 1856, small businesses began to suffer because the traffic along Kingston Road began to decline. Yesterday’s Scarborough Village community includes modern day Scarborough Village, Guildwood, and parts of Cliffcrest.
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Scarborough Village – Historical Image Gallery:
