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Long before William Chisholm established his lakeside community, the earliest settlers of the Trafalgar Township established small communities along Dundas Road; some villages were often completely forgotten or so small that they never saw much mention. But others seemed to thrive until the 1960s. Palermo is one such village with a rich past, and traces can still be seen today. Lawerence Hagger arrived in Upper Canada in 1799; a loyalist initially from Pennsylvania, Hagger settled near the modern community of Grimsby before moving to the Trafalgar Township in 1806. Hagger purchased a lot where the contemporary intersection of Dundas Street and Old Bronte Road. ARead More →

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A small white frame church is easy to miss; easier still is dismissing the building as a new build designed to match an older structure. But the small white church sitting on the western side of Bronte Road is original and an active church. When William Peacock first settled in the village of Palermo in 1832, at this point, a Methodist congregation was already well established. Peacock, an Anglican, would need to travel further afield to worship at a familiar church. But as the population grew, William convinced the rector at St. Luke’s in Wellington Centre to come to Palermo to celebrate mass, the firstRead More →

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If there is one church that surprised me in this project, it is Palermo United Church, not because it is still active, but of the various churches in this project, this one is the oldest. If you have never heard of or even seen this church, entirely wholly understandable, as it is a bit hidden, set a bit east of the major intersection of Bronte and Dundas. The village known as Palermo was first settled in 1806 a mainly agricultural settlement on Dundas Road. The earliest recorded visits by Methodist saddlebag preachers came in 1808. The settlement soon became a regular stop on the AncasterRead More →