Brooklin, Ontario


Brooklin is a community in the town of Whitby, Ontario, Canada. It is located north of the urban area of Whitby, at the south junction of Ontario Highways 12 and 7.
Brooklin is located primarily in a rural area, with hills covering the north and the west. The hills and forests that dominate the north are part of the South Slope of the Oak Ridges Moraine. It is located within the Lynde Creek Watershed which retains 19 to 26% of its forest cover. The population has grown steadily since the early 1990s, with the addition of thousands of homes surrounding the heart of Brooklin.

Geography

Farmlands dominated and some farms have now become residential areas to the south and east; hills and forests are covered with pine and other types of forests especially oaks and birches covers the west, the north and east with some farming. Macedonian Village is located about 6 km to the southwest, housing about 100 residents. The villages of Ashburn and Myrtle are about 5 km to the north of the village. Highway 407 opened on June 20, 2016 and travels just south of Brooklin along a power line transmission corridor.

History

The area around Brooklin began to be settled in the 1820s. The community itself grew after 1840, when brothers John & Robert Campbell built a flour mill on Lynde Creek. The village was originally named Winchester, but renamed when the post office was established to avoid duplication with a village named Winchester in eastern Ontario. In 1847, the residents chose to rename the community Brooklin, possibly from Brooklyn, New York or Brooklin, Maine. It could have been named for the "brook" that ran through the town, but this waterway has always been described as a "creek", and naming the village after a community in New England or New York is logical since several prominent early residents migrated from there.
Prominent people from Brooklin include John Dryden, long-serving agriculture minister of the Province of Ontario. While a government minister, Dryden created the northwestern Ontario experimental farm that eventually led to the formation of the town of Dryden.
Housing developments arrived in the late 1950s with the Meadowcrest subdivision, which expanded the village to the west of Baldwin Street. For several decades after this, there was no further major house construction and Meadowcrest was known colloquially as "The Subdivision". Housing activity resumed in the mid-1990s east of the village between Queen Street and Thickson Road with the Village of Brooklin subdivision, and continued into the late-1990s with further developments to the southeast. Housing developments reached Ashburn Road to the west in 2000; the development featured a decorative pond, and the Olde Winchester subdivision was begun east of Thickson in 2001.

Economy

Brooklin is largely a bedroom community and many residents commute to parts of the Greater Toronto Area. The largest employers in Brooklin include Brooklin Concrete Products and a FreshCo.

Sports

is a popular sport in the area. At one time, Brooklin was known as being the smallest town to have a Major Series Lacrosse team. In 1968, the Brooklin Redmen MSL team won the esteemed Mann Cup, and the team went on to win the cup again in 1969, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1990 and 2000. The team still bears the name of Brooklin, but plays its home games in the southern part of Whitby.
Meadowcrest Public School was for a number of years known as a "volleyball school" as it won 4 Provincial Cup awards as well as being the top school in all of Durham for 10 years.

Other

Brooklin and area has 8 elementary schools, including Meadowcrest P.S., Winchester P.S., Brooklin Village P.S., Blair Ridge P.S., St. Leo's C.S., St. Bridget C.S., Blessed John Paul II C.S., and Chris Hadfield P.S. Five high schools service the community : Brooklin High School, Donald A Wilson Secondary School, Saint-Charles Garnier C.S., All Saints Catholic Secondary School, and Anderson Collegiate Vocational Institute. A post office, library, fire hall, community centre, and ice arena are provided to the citizens by the municipal government. Many church communities provide for their adherents, including St. Thomas' Anglican, Brooklin United, St. Leo's Roman Catholic, Burn's Presbyterian, Renaissance Baptist, Hebron Christian Reform, Unitarian Universalist Congregation Of Durham, and Brooklin Village Church. A shopping plaza is the southern gateway to an older established downtown business corridor.

Subdivisions