Why do we have a Tremaine Road and an Old Tremaine Road in Milton?
Each week, we speak with Milton Historical Society President John Challinor II to gather information and details about the namesakes of our roads. If you weren’t aware, he and the late great historian, Jim Dills, wrote the book on Milton street names, writing Milton Streets back in 2007.
Recently, we covered Beasley Terrace and Midway Lane. This week, we’re focusing on Miltonbrook Crescent and Tremaine Road/Old Tremaine Road.
Starting alphabetically with Miltonbrook, Challinor says the name is unique in that it comes from a local developer.
Milton doesn’t usually name streets after developers, but there are exceptions. Those include Teetzel Drive and several streets named Hugh Foster (Foster Court, Hugh Street/Lane).
Moving on to Tremaine, there are technically two streets in Milton with this namesake. Challinor says the name comes from a 19th century local cartographer.
He adds that around 2000, it was decided to extend Tremaine Road to Highway 401, which would re-route the road entirely. The Town of Milton decided to rename the previous section to Old Tremaine Road, rather than a new name. This would be comparable to Campbell Avenue being renamed to Donald Campbell Avenue and Given Road West being renamed Given Lane.
Challinor says that Tremaine’s maps are relatively famous among local collectors. He describes them of having an elegance to their design, with detailed illustrations of major landmarks. Tremaine sold his maps to residents and businesses rather than geographers, and therefore he added a bit of commercial flair to his product. It’s estimated that he created roughly 58 maps of the area. These maps and their duplicates are still collected to this day.
If you’re looking to understand how Milton’s streets are named, you should check out the book written by Challinor and Dills. Published by the Milton Historical Society back in 2007, it sold out in about six weeks and has since been long out of print. That said, according to Challinor, you can still find a copy at the Milton Public Library. With nearly 15-years having passed since the initial publication, and the extensive town growth in that time, an updated book is likely to come.
You can also take a walk with the late Jim Dills down Milton’s Main Street in 2002.
If you have a suggestion on what you’d like to learn about next week, let us know! We’re currently working on names that we find interesting. You can message our Facebook page, Twitter account, Instagram page, or even email us at News1013@LocalRadio.ca. Otherwise, we’ll just continue asking about local street names that we find interesting.
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