Sharon Temple
An 1832 three-tiered wooden temple built by a breakaway Quaker sect, and one of the strangest and best buildings in Ontario. A national historic site, and almost nobody outside the town has heard of it.
East Gwillimbury
The northern edge of the region and, for years running, one of the fastest-growing towns in Canada by percentage. Holland Landing, Sharon, Queensville and Mount Albert: four villages, a remarkable historic temple, and a great deal of new brick going up between them.
Stock photograph. Not East Gwillimbury.
New houses, old villages
Feels like
70 min by GO
To Union Station
The most house per dollar in the GTA
Go for
How to say it
GWIL-im-bree, and honestly everyone just says EG. It is not Newmarket, even though the GO station sits more or less on the line between the two, and locals will point that out.
Heads up
It is the end of the GO line and the services are still catching up with the housing. Check where the nearest grocery store, walk-in clinic and high school actually are: several of them are in Newmarket.
Who to go and watch
No club of its own.
No club of its own. The Newmarket Hurricanes and Aurora Tigers are both under twenty minutes away, and a good share of East Gwillimbury's minor hockey ends up in their stands anyway.
Where to actually go
5 things worth knowing about East Gwillimbury.
Public places, parks, markets and the streets the independents are actually on. Nothing here is invented, and nothing here is a photograph of somewhere else.
Rogers Reservoir & the Nokiidaa Trail
Wetland boardwalks and the remains of a canal that was never finished, on a trail that runs south to Newmarket and Aurora.
Holland Landing
The oldest of the villages, at the top of the Holland River. A café, a chip truck in summer, and a boat launch onto Lake Simcoe.
Mount Albert
A proper village main street on the eastern side of the town, and where East Gwillimbury goes for a butcher and a sit-down meal.
Queensville & the farm stands
Between the villages the concession roads carry seasonal stands: corn, berries, squash, an honesty box. Bring cash.
The year
What comes round every year.
Keyed to a month, never to a date. Dates move, and a page that prints last year's is worse than one that says “September”.
June
Mount Albert Sports Day
A village fête that has been running for generations: parade, races, a midway, and everyone in the town on one field.
September
Illumination at Sharon Temple
The temple lit by candle in every window, as it was built to be. One evening a year, and it is worth arranging your calendar around.
HelloGTA.com
The GTA is enormous and most of it is unknown to everybody.
Including the people who have lived here twenty-five years. That is the whole brief: twenty-nine guides, and a question a week put to the region.