Inventory Report: 2417 Fourth Line, Sixteen Hollow, Lion’s Valley Park

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6: 2417 Fourth Line, Sixteen Hollow, Lion Valley Park

1. Description of Property Municipal Address 2417 Fourth Line Name (if applicable) Sixteen Hollow, Lion Valley Park Legal Description CON 1 SDS PT LOTS 22,23 (Schoolhouse only) Location of Property The Park is located in the valley of the Sixteen Mile Creek. Main access and parking are from

Lion Valley Park Road, under the Dundas St. West Bridge, with Neyagawa Blvd to the east and Proudfoot Trail to the west.

Ownership Public - Town of Oakville Access Access granted by the Town to Lion’s Valley Park area only. Site visit completed October 14th,

2015 (AB) Current Use Public Park Existing Designation There are no existing designations for Sixteen Hollow or Lion Valley Park. The Sixteen Hollow

schoolhouse and Knox Presbyterian Church are both located outside of Sixteen Hollow and Lion Valley Park. The schoolhouse is listed on the Register of Properties of Cultural Heritage Value or Interest. The church was designated in 1978.

General Description Sixteen Hollow, also called Sixteen Village or Village of the Sixteen, was a small village of about 50-60 houses, a mill, tavern and other amenities, located in the Sixteen Mile Creek valley, where the Dundas Street West Bridge now crosses the valley. It was in place from 1826 until about 1876. The only visible remnant is the Knox Presbyterian Church and cemetery, which are located on a nearby hill. Lion Valley Park is a large public green space with multiple walking trails, set within the valley of Sixteen Mile Creek in the former location of Sixteen Hollow. The land was donated to the Town by the Lion’s Service Club and the park was established around 1960.

Priority Level N/A- No Further Action Required.

Figure 1: Lion’s Valley Park (AB, 2015)

Inventory Report: 2417 Fourth Line, Sixteen Hollow, Lion’s Valley Park

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Figure 2: Lion’s Valley Park (Google Maps ©2015)

Fourth LineFarmhouse

Barn

Burnham

thorpe

Rd. W.

Pasture

LEGEND

Lion's Valley Park

Cultural Heritage LandscapeInventory Map

Drawing not to scale

Corporation of theTown of Oakville1225 Trafalgar RdOakville, ONL6H 0H3

Watercourse

Site Structures

Vegetation

Assessment Boundary

Building

CHL Study Area

Heritage District

Heritage Trail

Parkland

Park Trail

Road

Cemetery

Lion's Valley Park

Inventory Report: 2417 Fourth Line, Sixteen Hollow, Lion’s Valley Park

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2. Key Recommendations Priority = N/A

No further action is recommended for the following reasons:

• Not a strong candidate under the OHA; • Its value is in the green space; • No further action is needed at present. In the event of development or excavation, archaeological studies should be

undertaken.

3. Documentation and Inventory of Built Form List of Built Features:

Lion’s Valley Park Area:

• Paved parking lot; • Wooden gazebo with an eight-sided information panel; • Wooden fencing and metal bridge; • Benches and picnic tables throughout; • Children’s play equipment; • Piers supporting the Dundas St. Bridge; • Concrete piers of a former bridge; • Lions Valley Park Road, which runs down a steep hill, under the Dundas Street West bridge and into the valley of the

Sixteen Mile Creek.

4. Documentation and Inventory of Natural Form List of Natural Features:

• “The valley is home to almost 400 different species of plants including both common favourites and some rare and vulnerable species.”1;

• Sixteen Mile Creek; • Steep banks lining the creek; and • Giant Hogweed and Wild Parsnip.

5. Design (Typology) ‘X’ all that

apply Categories of Cultural Heritage Landscape

Description

Designed Landscape “…clearly defined landscape designed and created intentionally by man.”

X Organically Evolved Landscape

“…results from an initial social, economic, administrative, and/or religious imperative and has developed in its present form in response to its natural environment”

1 Town of Oakville Website. Sixteen Mile Creek Information Station. Accessed online November 2015, from http://www.oakville.ca/culturerec/is-sixteen.html

Inventory Report: 2417 Fourth Line, Sixteen Hollow, Lion’s Valley Park

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‘X’ all that apply

Categories of Cultural Heritage Landscape

Description

X Relict Landscape (Evolved Landscape)

“…in which an evolutionary process came to an end at some time in the past.”

Continuing Landscape (Evolved Landscape)

“…retains an active social role in contemporary society closely associated with the traditional way of life, and which the evolutionary process is still in progress.”

Associative Cultural Landscape

“…justifiable by virtue of the powerful religious, artistic, or cultural associations of the natural element rather than material cultural evidence, which may be insignificant or even absent.”

6. Historical and Thematic Associations From 1826 until the 1880s, the Village of the Sixteen was located where Lion’s Valley Park is today. Enjoying its peak between 1820 and 1870, the Village of the Sixteen predates the founding of Oakville.

George Chalmers, a lowland Scot, bought land along the Sixteen Mile Creek in 1826 and built a sawmill and grist mill. The mill opened in 1827 and was very prosperous. A small community soon sprang up around it, known as the Village of the Sixteen. It had a “grist mill, saw mill, general store, a blacksmith shop and distillery” as well as 50-60 houses.2 In 1840, Chalmers sold the mill, distillery, dwelling house and tavern stand with barns, blacksmith shop and other buildings to John Proudfoot and Sixteen Hill became known as Proudfoot’s Hollow3. Proudfoot left in the 1860’s and the village slowly disappeared.4By the 1880’s only two dwellings remained. The erection of the Dundas Street bridge removed what was left of the village.5

Today there are two remnants associated with the village – a church and a schoolhouse - but both are located outside Sixteen Hollow and Lion Valley Park. Knox Presbyterian Church and an adjoining cemetery are located at the top of the hill, above the former village site. The congregation was formed in 1844 and a wood-frame church was built in 1845. After the village disappeared, the church continued to serve the surrounding farm families. In 1899, the church was either replaced or improved with a brick church. The church was designated under the OHA in 1978.6 The Sixteen Hollow School House is listed on the Heritage register as having potential cultural heritage value as an historic, rural, one-room schoolhouse. The church was designated in 1978.

Around 1960, the Lion’s Service Club developed the Lion’s Valley Park and donated it to the Town as a public park. The road into the valley was originally known as Sixteen Hill Road but was renamed Lion Valley Park Road to honour the club.7

Sixteen Mile Creek Valley is approximately 2500 acres and is protected as an environmentally sensitive area.

2 Ashe & Burnell, p. 100. 3 Ashe & Burnell, p. 101 4 Ibid 5 From the Trafalgar Township Historical Society’s “Ward 5 History” by Michelle Knoll, accessed only at http://images.halinet.on.ca/2288517/data?n=11 6 Town of Oakville, “Neyagawa Information Station” in Culture & Recreation at http://www.oakville.ca/culturerec/is-neyagawa.html 7 Ashe & Burnell, p. 59.

Inventory Report: 2417 Fourth Line, Sixteen Hollow, Lion’s Valley Park

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7. Contextual Associations Sixteen Mile Creek runs through Oakville in a general north-south direction, and is fed into Lake Ontario through Oakville Harbour. The creek was instrumental in the development of Oakville and continues to be a defining feature of the landscape. Lion’s Valley Park is located in the lower valley of the creek basin and consists of open fields, forested areas, rocky creek edges, and steep ravine edges. The park is immediately surrounded by residential neighbourhoods and commercial centres on the east and west and Dundas Street Bridge runs over top of the park.

8. Evaluation (O. Reg 9/06)

O.Reg.9/06 Criteria Criteria

Potentially Met (Y/N)

Potential Justification

1. The property has design value or physical value because it,

i. is a rare, unique, representative or early example of a style, type, expression, material, or construction method,

N Not shown.

ii. displays a high degree of craftsmanship or artistic merit, or

N Not shown.

iii. demonstrates a high degree of technical or scientific achievement.

N Not shown.

2. The property has historical value or associative value because it,

i. has direct associations with a theme, event, belief, person, activity, organization or institution that is significant to a community,

Y

The park was once home to the Village of the Sixteen, one of the earliest settlements in the Oakville Area.

ii. yields, or has the potential to yield, information that contributes to an understanding of a community or culture, or

Y

The park has the potential to yield, information that contributes to an understanding of the Village of the Sixteen and to First Nations use of the area.

iii. demonstrates or reflects the work or ideas of an architect, artist, builder, designer or theorist who is significant to a community.

N Not shown.

3. The property has contextual value because it,

i. is important in defining, maintaining or supporting the character of an area,

N Not shown.

ii. is physically, functionally, visually or historically linked to its surroundings, or

N Not shown.

iii. is a landmark. N Not shown.

Inventory Report: 2417 Fourth Line, Sixteen Hollow, Lion’s Valley Park

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9. Photographic Documentation

Figure 4: Dundas Street Bridge with old concrete bridge support on right, showing Lion Valley Park Road in background. (AB, 2015)

Figure 5: Sixteen Mile Creek and ravine edge facing north. (AB, 2015)

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Figure 6: Pedestrian Bridge. (AB, 2015)

Figure 7: Open green space and children’s playground. (AB, 2015)

Inventory Report: 2417 Fourth Line, Sixteen Hollow, Lion’s Valley Park

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Figure 8: Sixteen Mile Creek facing south from parking lot. (AB, 2015)

Figure 9: Knox Presbyterian Church and cemetery are at the top of Lion’s Valley Park Rd, at the intersection with Dundas St. (AB, 2015)

Inventory Report: 2417 Fourth Line, Sixteen Hollow, Lion’s Valley Park

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10. Analysis & Recommendations Potential Heritage Value:

The current Lion’s Valley Park was once home to the Village of Sixteen Hollow, one of the earliest settlements in the Oakville area. The village was established with the first mills in 1826 and prospered for about 50 years. The only visible remnants associated with the village are the schoolhouse and the Presbyterian Church, both of which are located outside of the former village site.

Because it is located adjacent to a body of water and because it is on the site of the former Village of the Sixteen, the park area has the potential to yield archaeological information that contributes to an understanding of the village and First Nations use of the valley.

Actions:

No further action is needed at present. In the event of development or excavation, archaeological studies should be undertaken.

No further action is recommended for the following reasons:

• Not a strong candidate under the OHA; • Its value is in the green space; • No further action is needed at present. In the event of development or excavation, archaeological studies should be

undertaken.

11. Sources Ashe, David and Joyce Burnell, Oakville Street Names and Landmarks, (London, ON: Burnell Creighton Publishing, 2007).

Town of Oakville. Sixteen Mile Creek Information Station. Accessed online November 2015, from http://www.oakville.ca/culturerec/is-sixteen.html

Town of Oakville. “Heritage Register: Section F.” Last updated: October 24th, 2014. Accessed online at http://www.oakville.ca/assets/2011%20planning/hrtg-SectionF-2015.pdf