Markham Village

The place

Markham Village is the old town of Markham, strung along Main Street Markham from Highway 7 north to Bullock Drive, with the Rouge River curving around its south and east sides. Markham Road, which is Highway 48, runs parallel to the east and the Stouffville rail line to the north-west. It lies east of Unionville and Markham Centre, and the two villages together are the historic heart of a city that has grown far beyond them.

Markham Township was surveyed in 1793 and named by John Graves Simcoe for William Markham, Archbishop of York. Mennonite families from Pennsylvania and New York settled this stretch of the Rouge in the 1820s, and the hamlet was first called Reesorville after the Reesor family before taking the township’s name when a post office opened on Main Street in 1828. It became a police village in 1850, an incorporated village in 1873 and, in 1971, part of the Town of Markham along with Unionville and the Markham side of Thornhill. The Main Street core was made a heritage conservation district in 1990, with three sub-areas: Markham Village itself, Vinegar Hill along the valley and Mount Joy to the north.

The houses

Within the district the houses are the originals: brick and frame homes from the 1840s onward, churches, the former hotels and stores that line Main Street, and the Victorian houses of Mount Joy, the youngest sub-area but the one with the highest proportion of heritage buildings. Owners here work within the district plan, restoring facades and setting additions to the rear. Vinegar Hill, by contrast, is mostly the open land of the Rouge valley with houses along its edge.

The residential streets that surround the district were built from the 1950s through the 1980s: brick bungalows and side-splits from the earlier decades, larger two-storeys from the later ones, on lots that are wide and well-treed by current standards. On the streets nearest the Rouge, original houses are beginning to be replaced by custom homes, typically two storeys with walk-out lower levels taking advantage of the slope and rear elevations facing the trees. The pace of rebuilding is slower than in Unionville, which keeps the streets varied. Newer townhouses have been built toward Highway 7 and near the GO station.

Streets and lots

Main Street Markham is the spine, commercial in the middle and residential at either end, and the heritage houses continue along Church Street, Franklin Street, Albert Street and George Street on the west side. Robinson Street, where the farmers’ market sets up, is the civic centre of the village. North of the core, the Mount Joy streets hold the finest concentration of Victorian houses. The mid-century streets to the east and south, between Main Street and the Rouge, hold the larger lots.

Lots in the district are village-scaled: narrow at the street, sometimes deep, with mature trees and gardens behind. On the surrounding streets they are suburban in the generous mid-century manner, wide enough for a side drive and deep enough for a real garden. The addresses buyers ask for most are the lots that back onto the Rouge valley or onto Robinson Creek, where the rear boundary is woodland protected by the conservation authority, and the heritage houses on Main Street itself for buyers who want the village.

Living here

Main Street supplies a working high street: restaurants, pubs, independent shops and services within walking distance of most of the village. The farmers’ market runs on Saturday mornings from May to October on the Robinson Street lot, the Festival of Lights is held at the end of November and the Santa Claus parade has followed Main Street since 1972. The Markham Village Community Centre at Main Street and Highway 7 has a library and an arena, and Veterans Square and the cenotaph mark the corner.

Milne Dam Conservation Park, three hundred acres on the Rouge River just south of Highway 7, is reached by trail from Main Street and is one of the largest natural areas in the city, with the reservoir, the fishway and woodland paths. The Markham Museum at Markham Road and 16th Avenue is a twenty-five-acre open-air museum of nearly thirty historic buildings. Markham GO on the Stouffville line is at the north end of Main Street, and York Region Transit runs on Highway 7 and Markham Road. Highway 407 is reached from Markham Road or McCowan, and downtown Toronto is roughly forty-five minutes by car outside rush hour. School boundaries change, so buyers should confirm designated schools with the board.

Buying and selling in Markham Village

Houses on Main Street and in Mount Joy come up infrequently and are often sold to buyers who have waited for a specific street or a specific house. On the mid-century streets, original houses sell openly and attract both families and the first wave of builders working the valley edge; rebuilt houses and ravine lots trade less often, and some are placed privately before listing. Buyers tend to be families who want a heritage village at a price below Unionville, people who commute by GO train, and a growing number who have looked at Unionville and found the Markham Village market calmer.

Sellers in the district should have heritage permits and the district plan ready, and should present the house’s history as part of its value. Sellers on the mid-century streets should know that proximity to Main Street and to the Rouge are the two factors that most move price, and that a wide lot near the valley may attract a builder as well as a family. Buyers weighing Markham Village against Unionville will find the village longer, the valley larger and the prices lower. Tell us the house you have in mind and we will send what fits, including the sales that are arranged before a sign goes up.

Markham Village is the quieter of Markham’s two heritage towns, and in some ways the more complete: a long Main Street, a river valley, a station and a museum, all within a walk. For a buyer who wants history without the premium that Unionville’s fame attaches, it is the address to consider first.