Unionville

The place

Unionville sits in the middle of Markham, where Main Street Unionville runs north from Highway 7 toward 16th Avenue between the new Kennedy Road alignment and the old mill pond. The village’s boundaries have never been fixed; the city’s ward runs from Warden Avenue to McCowan Road, the ratepayers’ association starts at Rodick Road, and residents mean the heritage street and the mature neighbourhoods around it.

The first settlers were the German families who followed William Berczy north in 1794 and took up land along what was then the sixth concession line. The village itself grew around Union Mills, built in 1839 by Ira White, which gave it a name, and the mill pond created by damming Bruce Creek is the Toogood Pond of today. By 1851 there were two hundred people, two churches and the beginnings of the Main Street that survives. The Stiver Mill arrived in 1916 beside the railway and ran until 1968. A plan to widen Main Street to four lanes in 1969 produced the first Unionville Festival in protest, and the bypass that became the current Kennedy Road was built instead. The village was made a heritage conservation district in 1997.

The houses

On Main Street and the short lanes off it, the houses are the originals: frame and brick homes from the 1840s through the early 1900s, several churches, and the former home of Frederick Varley that is now part of the art gallery. Owners here restore under the district plan, and additions are set to the rear and designed to defer to the street. These are houses for people who want the obligations of a heritage property and the company of others who do.

The residential streets that surround the village were built from the late 1960s through the 1980s, when the first large subdivisions arrived. The houses are substantial brick two-storeys and bungalows on wide lots with mature trees, and on the streets nearest Toogood Pond and the village, original houses are now regularly bought for their land and replaced. A custom build in Unionville is typically two storeys of stone and brick in a traditional or transitional vocabulary, scaled to sit comfortably beside the originals, with the garage set back and the garden given priority. Toward Highway 7 and Markham Centre, newer townhouses and mid-rise buildings mark the edge of the village market.

Streets and lots

Main Street Unionville is the address everyone knows, residential at its south end and lined with restaurants and shops toward the north. Carlton Road, where the mill once stood, crosses it near the pond. Village Parkway runs north from Highway 7 through the mature streets east of Main Street and is one of the most requested addresses outside the district. The crescents and courts between Village Parkway and the pond hold the largest lots and most of the custom rebuilds.

Lots in the heritage district are village-scaled, narrow at the street and sometimes deep. On the surrounding streets they are suburban in the generous sense of the 1970s: wide frontages, deep gardens and full-grown maples and oaks. The addresses buyers ask for most are the lots that back onto Toogood Pond Park, Bruce Creek or the conservation lands that follow the valley, and the houses within a short walk of Main Street. Ravine here is modest, but the pond and the creek give a water edge that few Markham neighbourhoods have.

Living here

Toogood Pond Park is the daily walk, with a path around the water, willows along the bank and connections to Crosby Park and the conservation lands beyond. Main Street provides restaurants, cafés, pubs and small shops within a few minutes of most houses, and the Millennium Bandstand hosts summer concerts. The Varley Art Gallery at the north end of the street, the restored Stiver Mill beside the tracks and the Crosby Memorial Arena, open since 1928, give the village a cultural and civic life of its own. The Markham Civic Centre and the Flato Markham Theatre are a few minutes away at Highway 7 and Warden.

Unionville GO on the Stouffville line serves Union Station from the south end of the village, Viva Purple runs along Highway 7 to the Yonge subway, and Highway 407 and Highway 404 are close. Markville Shopping Centre is a short drive east. Downtown Toronto is roughly forty minutes by car outside rush hour. School boundaries change, so buyers should confirm designated schools with the board.

Buying and selling in Unionville

Houses on Main Street come up rarely and are often sold to buyers who have waited years and asked to be told first. On the surrounding streets, original houses in good condition sell openly and attract both families and builders, while rebuilt houses and pond-side lots trade less often and with more discretion. A meaningful share of the finest sales in Unionville are arranged privately before any listing is prepared. Buyers come from across Markham and from Toronto, drawn by the village street and the schools, and many have grown up here and want to return.

Sellers in the heritage district should have their heritage permits and the district plan to hand. Sellers on the mature streets should understand that walking distance to Main Street and proximity to the pond are the two variables that most affect value, and that an original house on a large lot near the village may be worth more as land than as a house. Buyers comparing Unionville with Cachet and Angus Glen will find Unionville older, more walkable and more varied. The register is where we start when a house here is about to change hands; add your name to it and you will hear first.

Unionville is the Markham neighbourhood with a centre. It has a street people travel to see, a pond they walk around and houses from three centuries within a few minutes of each other. For a buyer who wants a village rather than a subdivision, it remains the first name in Markham.