myFM News is continuing our feature of looking into the history of local street names.
Have you ever seen a street name in Milton and wondered where that name came from? Maybe it has a poppy flower on the sign or maybe it’s a unique sounding name. In order to get the answers, we’ve been speaking with the President of the Milton Historical Society, Milton Councillor John Challinor II.
In case you’re wondering, Challinor and the late great historian, Jim Dills, wrote the book on Milton street names, having written Milton Streets back in 2007. Now, we’re looking at why these roads are named what they are.
We’re looking at four names this week: Best Road, Wallbrook Crescent, Oak Street, and Wilson Drive. If you’re curious, we covered Waldie Avenue, Bell Street, and Brush Road last week.
Let’s start with Best Road. Longtime Milton residents may remember the namesake for this street, and many politically involved Miltonians will certainly know the family.
Brian Best soon went into real estate in Milton before diving headfirst into politics. Challinor says Best became a Councillor alongside current Milton Mayor Gordon Krantz in the 1960’s before being named Milton’s Mayor in 1968.
Brian’s son Colin is the current Regional Councillor for Milton’s Ward 1. He tells myFM that he and his family are proud to be honoured with the local street.
Brian Best is also the namesake for Brian Best Park in Milton, located right beside Milton District High School. Colin adds that his son had to put up with his friends always teasing him (in a fun way) about the park while he attended MDHS for four years.
Our next street is Wallbrook Crescent. This is an interesting one for Challinor as the namesake has significant ties to the Milton Historical Society.
According to Challinor, Benjamin Wallbrook was someone who was enthralled with history while also ensuring that residents could learn throughout their lifetime thanks to the Milton Public Library. He adds that without Wallbrook’s early contributions to maintaining Milton’s history, the MHS wouldn’t have the archives that it has today.
Many municipalities will rely on local newspapers’ archives for keeping some sense of history to some degree. That can be an issue if there were ever a fire, which Challinor says Milton has had plenty in its history.
Two more streets to go in this week’s feature – both of which were requested by listeners on our Facebook page (another listener requested Dills Crescent, which will be covered next week). We’ll go in order of which they were requested, meaning we’ll start with Oak Street.
Challinor says the naming of Oak Street is pretty simple: it’s named after the popular tree.
Some residents may know Oak Street for its part in a very interesting intersection in Milton. Along Ontario Street South, residents will come across a unique four-way intersection with Ontario, Oak, and Childs Drive. The bisecting parts of Oak Street and Childs Drive along Ontario do not quite match up, which can cause a slightly longer wait for motorists as the light takes its turns for each side. We asked Challinor why this intersection was done this way. He says he doesn’t have an exact answer, but he theorizes that because of Oak Street’s age, and when Childs Drive was first constructed (in the 1970s), the position of the Milton Mall across from Oak posed an issue for the incoming intersection. When it came time to put in the street, the decision would’ve been made to make the intersection crooked. Again, that is just a theory.
The listener who requested Oak Street for this week asked specifically of an old farmhouse on the top of a hill. However, without an exact address, Challinor was unable to determine which house the listener was asking about. He says if they would like to provide the exact address, he can look into the homes history and provide more information as this would be something the Milton Historical Society keeps track of.
Many older homes in the downtown Milton area have plaques along the fronts of the buildings. These plaques often show the original owner of the home, as well as their profession of the time. An example would be 123 myFM Street was first owned by John myFM (writer) in 1888.
The last Milton street that we are looking into this week is Wilson Drive. One of the more major roads in Milton, it extends from Steeles Avenue all the way to Main Street at the current Habitat for Humanity Milton ReStore building. Challinor explains the history behind the name Wilson.
If you’re looking to understand how Milton’s streets were 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, as well as suggested names. You can message our Facebook page, Twitter account, Instagram page, or even email us at News1013@mbcmedia.ca. Otherwise, we’ll just continue asking about local street names that interest us.
