Brockville, Ontario

[flar]

B R O C K V I L L E - O N T A R I O

Brockville is easily one of the most impressive towns I've visited, with a substantial downtown area, a plethora of Victorian mansions, old rowhouses and a nice urban feel. It is quite old, one of the oldest towns in Ontario, settled by American refugees in 1785. Brockville is located in Eastern Ontario along the St. Lawrence River opposite Morristown, NY.

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[ShonTron]

Oooh, I like the pics. Brockville is one of the only places in Southern Ontario I regret not visiting properly yet (another is Perth) as I am sure it is a lovely place (and am interested in the Brockville and Ottawa railway tunnel, a grandiose monument of a city that never went as much as the city establishment expected). I've only been through it on the train or on the 401. Cornwall is disappointingly ugly, as most Eastern Ontario cities and towns are really lovely.

I also like the fact that that the downtown traffic lights are dark green (similar to New York State) that match the poles and arms that support them, but also, unlike Ontario yellow, don't detract from the architecture around them. Kingston and Richmond Hill have gone with all-black lights downtown, while Sudbury has decided to go with mixed yellow and black, like Hamilton, which I still prefer over the one-size-fits-all situation yellow-on-yellow 12-8-8 Ontario standards.

 

[DSC]

Brockville used to be a very wealthy town with lots of 'timber barons'. Though much of it is VERY pretty - as shown in the great photos - there are also areas of poverty/decrepitude. The area around the train station is quite sad.

 

[Hipster Duck]

Wow! That is an impressive main street for a town of 20,000. Was this area settled by Scots? That corner block and the Fuller building look like they came straight out of Aberdeen.

PS: I agree with Sean. Those green traffic lights make all the difference, and those granite curbs aren't something you see everyday.

 

[Tewder]

Nice photo tour, thanks.

As I recall Brockville is also noteworthy in Ontario for having the only New England-style town square in its centre. Not sure what makes it New England-style specifically. Goderich has one too I believe.

Looks like a nice neat and tidy, prosperous kind of place.

 

[Long Island Mike]

Brockville,Ontario-a very interesting eastern Ontario town...

Flar: This is a really good photo tour of Brockville-I really like the wide use of brick and stone for buildings there and also it has some classic style older construction with many Victorian-style homes there. Some of those row homes and even brownstone row buildings look quite interesting.

The center of Downtown - with City Hall a standout there - is near the St.Lawrence River and in some pics St.Lawrence County,NY across the river
visible am I right? Does nearby Ogdensburg,NY have similar architecture to Brockville? Downtown Brockville looks quite lively indeed!

I have been thru Brockville on VIA Rail myself and I noticed that area mentioned as being somewhat run down but being basically safe am I right? I also noticed ONT 401 goes also to the N of the city center. Brockville also does not have large sprawl surrounding it am I right?

Brockville looks like an interesting town to visit and wander around-your pics show it off quite well! Thanks again-LI MIKE

 

[flar]

I haven't been to Goderich in many years, but I recall its street layout fans out from an octagonal park in the centre of town. Brockville has a large rectangle in the centre of its downtown, I wish I had taken a better picture showing the whole thing. There are great buildings all around it, including the two tall-steepled churches shown in the photos above. In the first photo below you can see the courthouse sitting on a hill at the north end of the square. The second photo shows the south view toward the St. Lawrence.

I noticed the gritty area by the tracks, although I don't think it's any worse than other Ontario cities of roughly this size (Woodstock or St. Thomas come to mind). It's definitely safe. Brockville seems to have a decent tourist industry, billed as the gateway to the 1000 Islands. The downtown area is very large for the size of the town, and it looks like the streetwalls are well intact with plenty of shops and businesses.

I've never been to Ogdensburg, NY but I've been itching to go there, and probably will sometime in the next few months. It looks quite a bit larger than Brockville on the map and I expect it should be pretty interesting.

As for Brockville sprawl, it has very typical Ontario suburbia with a bunch of big box stores and winding subdivisions on the north side of the 401. But it's really just a large town (pop. 22,000) so it doesn't really sprawl too far.

 

[Hipster Duck]

^Half of downtown Ogdensburg was demolished in the 1960s/1970s and a one-storey mall was put in its place.

This downtown revitalization study (with pictures) demonstrates why Ogdensburg is struggling to market itself.

 

[flar]

^Half of downtown Ogdensburg was demolished in the 1960s/1970s and a one-storey mall was put in its place.

This downtown revitalization study (with pictures) demonstrates why Ogdensburg is struggling to market itself.

Too bad, the shots in that study dampen my enthusiasm a little, but I'm still curious about the residential neighbourhoods.

 

[ShonTron]

Live Search (Bing) has the birds-eye view of Ogdensburg - perhaps what the Simpsons were alluding to in the Monorail episode of cities buying things that made no sense - "I've sold monorails to Brockway, Ogdensville and North Haverbrook...")

The Interstate style truss lamps, even in the waterfront park, say it all.

http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=rfgkpj8q80f1&scene=39626987&lvl=2&sty=b

 

[urbandreamer]

I've never been to Brockville, but that photo looking towards the St Lawrence reminds me of a similar setting in Old Mtl--Cartier Square I think.

Gotta check these towns out someday....

 

[benii]

Wow, didn't know such a place existed in Ontario. Maybe I'll go there instead of an Europe trip next spring.

 

[ShonTron]

I stopped into Brockville Downtown for the first time this afternoon, just before the early sunset made it too difficult to wander around. This thread inspired me to check it out. I also finally checked out Perth this weekend, and was it ever worth it!

One of Brockville's curiosities is the Brockville tunnel, built by the Brockville and Ottawa Railway (later CPR) as Canada's first railway tunnel, partly as a vanity project, and also to connect to the central waterfront (when having a port feeding the railway was essential). But given the rich collection of historic buildings, I'd bet it was a city with ambition. Thank goodness it survived, and thrived, without much misguided mid-century interference.

I note that the traffic lights I mentioned earlier match the dark-green street furniture (poles, benches, even litter bins) so don't stand out and make for better photography than bright yellow.

Most Eastern Ontario towns on Lake Ontario/from Port Hope east have a vague New England feel while west of Toronto have a Midwest feel, but with a strong Canadian/British identity too. Brockville really stands out this way, especially after visiting much of New England over the last two years.

And yes, Goderich does have the court house at the centre of a radial square, but was a planned city by the Canada Company (John Galt et al., the same people that planned out Guelph). Most Ontario downtowns though have the courthouse, jail, and registry office cluster outside the downtown centre - Milton, Whitby, Woodstock, Napanee, Kingston, Lindsay, Perth are all good examples. Brampton, when selected as the County Seat was small enough that the courthouse faces the main street, rare in Ontario, as is the grand Victoria Hall in Cobourg. Also, except in some Eastern towns, the Catholic Church is off to the side, but the Presbyterian (United) and Anglican churches are all prominent.

 

[ganjavih]

Love your city tours, flar. Maybe you could do Perth as well.

 

[flar]

I've been wanting to hit Perth for some time now. Next time I have a half day free...