Beyond the Village Centre

The Naughton Brothers,Michael and John, operated their general store on the southwest corner at Elgin Mills from around 1870 to 1919. The Post Office was housed in the store from 1900 onwards.

Richmond Hill and vicinty, 1860. Mary-Lou Griffin, Richmond Hill Local Architectural Conservation Advisory Committee

Richmond Hill survived the railway bypass in part because of the continuing importance of Yonge Street as a transportation route. But equally important to the community's continuing economic and pyschological health was the prosperity of the surrounding countryside. As long as the residents of neighbouring Markham and Vaughan,Whitchurch and King townships thrived, then Richmond Hill would continue to prosper as an agricultural service centre.

Beyond the heart of old Richmond Hill - but within or at the margin of the town's present boundaries - other small communities or "hamlets" were taking shape around mill sites and at crossroads by the middle of the nineteenth century. At various times in their history, several of these settlements stood poised to rival Richmond Hill as the dominant agricultural and commercial service centre of the region, although none ever succeeded. Whether large or small, growing or declining, each of these communities shaped its residents and helped contribute to the larger fabric that became the Richmond Hill of the late twentieth century.

Copyright © Richmond Hill Public Library Board, 1991