Bellville, Hastings County, Ontario, Canada

Notes:
Belleville is a city in Ontario, Canada situated on the eastern end of Lake Ontario, located at the mouth of the Moira River and on the Bay of Quinte. Belleville is between Ottawa and Toronto, along the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor. Its population as of the 2016 census was 50,716 (census agglomeration population 103,472[3]). It is the seat of Hastings County, but politically independent of it, and is the centre of the Bay of Quinte Region.



History



Front Street, 1900



Front Street, 1972



Belleville Armoury is a recognized Federal Heritage building, listed in 1992 on the Register of the Government of Canada Heritage Buildings.[5]



Flowerbed beside Highway 401 near Belleville

The historic Anishinaabe (Mississaugas) village, known as Asukhknosk in the 18th century, was part of land purchased by the Crown to use for the resettlement of United Empire Loyalists who were forced to leave the Thirteen Colonies in North America, after the United States achieved independence.[citation needed]



The settlement was first called Singleton's Creek after an early settler, George Singleton. Next it was called Meyer's Creek, after prominent settler and industrialist John Walden Meyers (1745?1821), one of the founders of Belleville. He built a sawmill and grist mill.[6][7] After an 1816 visit to the settlement by colonial administrator Sir Francis Gore and his wife, Lady Annabella Gore, it was renamed as Belleville in her honour.[6]



Henry Corby, who arrived in 1832 with his new wife Alma Williams (they had married before immigrating), settled in Belleville. He was a merchant, setting up a grocery store and other businesses. He founded the H. Corby Distillery, and promoted the municipality. He also represented it in Parliament.



Their son Henry Corby Jr. (Harry) took over the family business and continued to support the town: he donated funding to create the public library, helped develop the park at Massassaga Point, established the Corby Charitable Fund, helped raise funds to build the first bridge across the Bay of Quinte[8] and donated the land and development of Corby Park.[9]



In 1836 Belleville became an incorporated village.[10] By 1846, it had a population of 2040. Several stone buildings were soon constructed, including a jail and court house, as well as some of the seven churches. Transportation to other communities was by stagecoach and, in summer, by steamboat along the lake. Two weekly newspapers were published. The post office received mail daily. Several court and government offices were located here. In addition to tradesmen, there was some small industry, three cloth factories, a paper mill, two grist mills, three tanneries and two breweries. The seventeen taverns outnumbered the churches and most businesses.[11] The oldest surviving residence within the original boundaries, 67 South Front Street, was built by Alexander Oliphant Petrie in 1814.[12]



With the completion of the Grand Trunk Railway in 1856, Belleville became an important railway junction. Added to a booming trade in lumber and successful farming in the area, the railway helped increase the commercial and industrial growth. Belleville was incorporated as a town in 1850.[13]



In 1858 the iron bridge was completed over the Moira River at Bridge Street; it was the first iron bridge in Hastings County. By 1865, the population reached 6,000.[10] Telephone service to 29 subscribers was in place by 1883; electricity became available in 1885 and in 1886, the town began to offer municipal water service. In 1870, Ontario's first school for the deaf was established in Belleville. Under Dr. Charles B. Coughlin, the school was recognized as making a significant contribution to special education. Originally called the Ontario Institution for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb, the facility was renamed as Ontario School for the Deaf. In 1974, it was renamed as the Sir James Whitney School.[14]



Belleville's town hall operates in a building first constructed in 1873 to house the public market and administrative offices. It was designed in the High Victorian Gothic style and retains much of its original appearance.[15][16] In 1877, Belleville was legally incorporated as a city.[13]



In 1998, the city was amalgamated with the surrounding Township of Thurlow to form an expanded City of Belleville as part of Ontario-wide municipal restructuring. The city also annexed portions of Quinte West to the west.



Late-20th-century franchises founded here include the Dixie Lee Fried Chicken chain in 1964 and, in 1978, Journey's End Corporation's economy, limited-service hotel chain.



Geography

Latitude: 000000, Longitude: -77.383333

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