By Staff
September 6th, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
It is 1810 and an oversized canoe glides with nary a ripple into the Port Nelson harbour, now the site of tiny Port Nelson Park at the foot of Guelph Line.
Despite its silent entry, it carries three tons of cargo and 60 men. People on shore watch and wave at the navigator to give a noisy welcome for the goods carried here have been anticipated with much delight. The ship’s navigator knows that Port Nelson, a significant lake port, does not have a sheltered natural inlet like Bronte’s, but the large wooden dock and the sandy sloping beach make it easy to unload the huge bateau. In fact, navigating is quite simple as there are two sentinel 100-foot pine trees that serve as benchmarks for sightlines to the wharf.
It was once one of four docks along the edge of what is now Burlington. Tonnes of lumber was shipped out as well as tonnes of grain. Today it is a tiny park with not even a mention of its history.
Along the shoreline there are three more docks: Bunton, Baxter and Torrance. Farmers in the area grow wheat everywhere there was a bit of earth. Traffic jams on Brant Street and Guelph Line develop with streams of carts hauled by horses and oxen taking this grain to Port Nelson to be dumped into bins and loaded into waiting boats. Burlington has the most important grain shipping point, bigger than Hamilton, and consequently this has spawned a flour manufacturing industry with a huge steam flour mill built in 1812.
James Gage, the founder of Burlington, bought land from the heirs of Chief Joseph Brant. Gage then developed Port Nelson and a square piece of land known as Wellington Square.
The shoreline of Port Nelson is not what we see today when we stand at the water’s edge in tiny Port Nelson Park.
The original Water Street is under water. North of Water Street at the time was Main Street, later renamed Lakeshore Road.
The warehouses, shipyard and the long Port Nelson dock, where grain-carrying schooners and later steamships tied up for more than 100 years, have all vanished.
In 1910 a storm wrecked the dock, which is under water today. That same storm eroded 75 feet of commercial shoreline.
This little park play a role in the loss of significant public space that is yards away to the west. The land was owned by the city and the province. A Staff report came out of the then Waterfront Advisory Committee that was then looking into the various Windows on the Lake.
There were two such windows east of Port Nelson Park; Market Street ???get names
A Staff report got to Council with several options related to a strip of land between the two Windows on the Lake
The city council decision came out of a Staff report that set out three options: Do nothing with the property, lease it to the property owners whose homes abutted the land or sell it.
At the time, then Council member John Taylor said that there was a park yards to the east that met the needs of local residents. Then Council member Marianne Meed Ward fought a losing battle to save the land for public use.
When selling the land was on the table smart local residents put in a proposal and bought the properties for less than $250,000
This is what the city could have had – but the existence of the tiny Port Nelson Park was seen as enough to let the land to the west get bought up.
There is currently a development before the Ontario Land Tribunal (the hearing has taken place – awaiting a decision) that could add tw 30 plus story towers to what is currently the Waterfront Hotel.
Proposed towers to be built on the south side of Lakeshore Road at the foot of Brant Street.
It appears that the city is prepared to lose every foot of waterfront viewing area to some form of development.
Where is the vision for this city?
As you show in the picture below the text, the two streets that bordered the two Windows to the Lake were west of Port Nelson Park, not east of it. They were eventually brought up to spec as part of the deal to sell the frontage to the residents. A piece that was shamefully lost to the Waterfront Trail.
Many years later we still await the final completion of the the third Window to the Lake at the foot of Green Street, just west of Market Street. Small but still meaningful compensation for what could have been. From my Burlington Waterfront Access and Protection Advisory Committee (known as WAPAC) files.
I would still like to see more of how the decision was made to give that Lakeshore property for a mere $250k.
What was the staff reco at the time?
Who on counsel voted to sell rather than preserve for Burlington residents.
This could have been added to extend the Waterfront trail.
I doubt that this poor decision would have ever been made by Oakville They look for every chance to add to public properties on the lakeshore.