Dundas Street 4: Lynden to Paris

Go back to Part 3

Map 9. Governors Road from Lynden to the eastern edge of Paris.
What is now Hamilton Road 99 / Brant County Highway 99 was from 1938 a Provincial Highway, numbered (briefly) 5B, then 99 from 1940. At that time it was paved from Dundas to Copetown, and had a gravel surface thereafter. The section from Copetown to Osborne Corners was paved in 1953. The Province decommissioned the road in 1997, since when it’s been the responsibility of the municipalities it passes through. This may explain why its surface is currently in such poor shape from Copetown to the Brant County border, where it immediately improves (see #105 below).
Municipal boundaries are indicated by purplish lines. The following abbreviations mark locations of entries below: B = Bethel Church; BC = Baptist Cemetery; CN = Railway Bridge; W = Walter’s Greenhouse & Garden Centre.

101. The view from the top of the CN railway bridge. The main line of the Great Western Railway (GWR) used to branch just west of Lynden, with one line heading due west to Paris, London, and Windsor, and the other southwest to Brantford. The GWR amalgamated with the Grand Trunk Railway in 1882 and became part of the CN system in 1923. CN abandoned the line from Lynden to Harrisburg in 1986. Only the Brantford line, which passes under this bridge, is still active. Governors Road is pretty much dead straight here, and not very busy.

102. Here at Governors Road and Bethel Church Road we finally leave the City of Hamilton and enter the County of Brant. Brant County is a largely rural municipality, pop. 40,000, quite separate from the City of Brantford (pop. 105,000), which it encircles (see #108 below). Both are named for the great Mohawk leader Joseph Brant (1743-1807), who moved many of his people to the Grand River after the American Revolution. It’s almost 30 km by the most direct route to downtown Hamilton from here, and 18 km to the edge of the nearest built-up area in Dundas.

103. As you look back eastward, there are two blue signs on opposite sides of the Road greeting motorists as they drive towards distant Hamilton. What do they signify?
Dundas Street – here known as Governors Road – once served as the boundary between former rural townships in this part of Ontario, as well as the baseline for the local road system. In the 19th century, the townships bordering the north side of Governors Road were, from this point going east, Beverly, West Flamborough, and East Flamborough. These three townships and the village of Waterdown were amalgamated in 1974 into Flamborough Township, then Flamborough briefly became a town unto itself in 1984. Ancaster Township lay on the south side of the Road.
Flamborough and Ancaster have histories as independent municipal entities that predate Hamilton’s existence, and both bitterly opposed the proposed “amalgamation.” Nevertheless, on 1 January 2001 all these entities were absorbed by the City of Hamilton. Flamborough and Ancaster became “dissolved towns,” reduced to mere “communities” within Hamilton.
These two signs indicate neither current City of Hamilton ward boundaries, nor Provincial or Federal Electoral District boundaries. In fact, this section of Governors Road is no longer a latitudinal municipal boundary of any kind. So the signs refer to a now long superseded municipal arrangement. Are they intended as sops or as provocations to those still fuming about the amalgamation of 25 years ago?

104. Bethel Methodist Church (1862) is at 4457 Bethel Church Road, about 850 metres south of Governors Road. The cemetery (1844) at back predates the church. There is little indication that this plain brick Wesleyan chapel, which stands on the Hamilton side of the road that here forms the longitudinal boundary with Brant County, is still in use.

105. For no apparent reason, Governors Road changes its name to Governors Road East as it enters the County of Brant. Motorists leaving Hamilton will immediately notice that their ride has become a lot smoother. City of Hamilton roads are notorious for poor surfaces, for reasons previously discussed (see #75 above). This difference alone is a clear argument in rural districts like this against the supposed benefits of amalgamation with urban centres.

106. (Top) Governors Road Baptist Cemetery, a.k.a. Papple Cemetery, at 29 Governors Road East.
(Bottom) John Fonger (1798-1872), identified by the lower sign in the cemetery as a veteran of the War of 1812, served as a Private in the 1st Flank Company of the 5th Regiment Lincoln Militia during that War. Fonger was only 14 years old when the War of 1812 began. “All men between the ages of 16 and 60 and residing in Upper Canada were required to serve in their local militia unless they had an exemption as unfit, as a Quaker, Mennonite, or Tunker, or as they were performing an essential service” (Blair) “At the outbreak of the War of 1812, flank companies (limited to three officers and 38 men) … took the field in all major engagements from Niagara to Detroit including the Battles of Queenston Heights, Lundy’s Lane, Stoney Creek and Fort Detroit” (“Lincoln”).

107. A much photographed sign. It’s about 450 km between the two slightly better-known European cities with the same names.

108. At its junction with Hwy 32, Park Road North,* Governors Road East becomes, for about 5 km, the northern boundary between the City of Brantford and the County of Brant. That boundary was extended to Governors Road East at the County’s expense as recently as 2016. The road itself remains the responsibility of Brant County. Wards 2 and 3 include the town of Paris, by far the largest population centre in Brant.
If the relation between these two municipal entities seems confusing, the above map should clarify things. There is currently a movement to amalgamate County and City, though given the unpopularity of amalgamation to the east, there doesn’t seem much enthusiasm for the merger on either side.

*The Park Rd. N. intersection, being approximately 6 miles from the Grand River, is roughly where Dundas Street entered the Haldimand Tract. This was the strip of land 12 miles wide, centred on the course of the Grand River and purchased from the Mississaugas of the Credit River, that was granted to the Six Nations of the Haudenosaunee by the Haldimand Proclamation of 1784. It’s unclear if (though highly unlikely that) Lt. Gov. Simcoe asked permission of the Six Nations in 1793 before ordering Dundas Street to be cut through the Tract as far as the Grand River.

109. Osborne Corners lies at the intersection between Governors Road East and Hwy 24. This latter road, very busy, connects Hwy 403 in Brantford to Hwy 5 and continues north to Cambridge. That eastbound motorists going to Toronto are told to turn north here (top) is misleading. It’s the 403 to the south that is much the closer fast route to that city. West of Osborne Corners, Brant County Hwy 99 changes its number to Hwy 5, for no earthly reason.
Walter’s Greenhouse and Garden Centre at 363 Governor’s Road East, Osborne Corners, is a long-established operation. Its indoor display of pansies in mid-April (bottom) offers a welcome riot of colour after a long, cold winter.

110. Next to a pond in the parking lot of a farm store at Osborne Corners stands this rickety play structure. It’s sure to delight more adventurous children while raising the anxiety level of their parents.

111. There’s a strong candidate for Brant County’s Most Photogenic Derelict Barn Award on the north side of Governors Road East just west of Hwy 24.

Map 10. Dundas Street East and West through Paris.
B = Dundas Street Bridge; C = Cairn; O = Ouse Lodge; OP = Old Paris Cemetery; SJ = St James Anglican Cemetery; W = William Street Bridge.

112. Paris (pop. about 16,000) is generally considered one of the most attractive small towns in southern Ontario. It was first established where Dundas Street met the Grand River, southern Ontario’s largest waterway. It grew around where the Nith River, the southernmost of the big river’s four major tributaries, debouches into the Grand.
Though there’ll be short excursions into the Lower Town, here my main focus will be on the course of Dundas Street through Paris. For after its intersection with Paris Road from Brantford, Governors Road East yet again changes its name and number as it approaches the bridge over the Grand River: it becomes Brant County Hwy 2, Dundas Street East.
If you’d like a more detailed history of Paris and environs, please go to Part 15 of my photoblog The Grand River of Southern Ontario.

113. On the north side of Dundas Street East, just before the bridge over the Grand River, there’s a cairn (top) in front of Brant County Fire Station 1. On the Street side of the cairn is a plaque (bottom) noting the importance of Governors Road to Paris. The cairn is faced with the cobblestones characteristic of Paris’s older domestic architecture (see #120 below).
Why did Paris prefer “Dundas Street” over “Governors Road”? I can only speculate, but I’m pretty sure it had nothing to do with any desire to memorialize Henry Dundas. The founder of Paris, Hiram “King” Capron (see #129 below), wrote to his brother in 1830: “We are now trying to raise money to open the Governor’s Road which forms my southern boundary lines, being only 21 miles from Dundas and Lake Ontario, which, if we get opened, will bring the greater part of travel west by my place” (Smith 17-18). At that time, Capron must have seen Governors Road’s potential connection to the Head of the Lake at Dundas as the key to his settlement’s future. So in Paris, the route to prosperity was named for its destination, the town of Dundas.

114. The high-level bridge carrying busy Dundas Street East over the Grand River southeast of downtown Paris. Constructed in 1967, and replacing one on the same site built in 1931, it’s a concrete and steel I-beam five-span about 120 metres long. Only the southern side has a sidewalk, which is a pity, as it’s the northern side that overlooks the town …

115. … though you can get a view of the big river upstream if you’re prepared to put your life in the hands of westbound drivers. An abutment of a former Dundas Street bridge (see #118 below) is visible centre right.

117. Dundas Street and its bridge can be seen along the right edge of this 1875 map of Paris.
Crossing the Grand River was a problem right from the start of the settlement of Paris. In summer the Grand might be shallow enough to ride or even wade across, but at other seasons the width of the river proved a formidable obstacle. The Upper Town on the west bank in the early days was inaccessible for much of the year except by boat.
Hiram Capron saw that Dundas Street was the key to the future prosperity of his community, but in 1830 it was not in good shape: “This highway, after its opening in 1793, had gradually become almost impassable. Bridges, causeways, and corduroy stretches had rotted away; rains and melting snows had cut deep ruts and gullies into its many slopes; and underbrush was crowding towards the middle of the track” (Smith 17). So between 1831-44, Capron improved Dundas Street, on both sides of the Grand, largely at his own expense.
In 1836 a stagecoach began to take passengers along Dundas Street from Dundas to Paris and on to Woodstock. The journey was an ordeal: “The passengers usually had to trudge up hills and around mud-holes; they received a series of bone-rattling jolts when bounced along a corduroy road; or a single, sickening jolt when, as occasionally happened, one of the leather straps that supported the body of the coach suddenly snapped; or one supreme shock when the coach suddenly upset and tossed total strangers into a tangled and promiscuous heap” (Smith 46).
It was the coming of the Great Western Railway to Paris from 1847-53 that gave the settlement easier access to and from the outside world. But the rapid growth of Brantford a mere 12 km to the southeast meant that the modern major highway and transportation system largely bypassed Paris. To visit Paris today you need a car. The town lacks any form of public transit.

118. In the later 19th century, a bridge at what is now Willow Street, a little way upstream from the current bridge, carried Dundas Street over the Grand, as seen in this photo from about 1885. The view above is from the east bank of the Grand towards the Upper Town of Paris. The still existing spire of Sacred Heart Catholic Church (1857) can be seen above left. The four-storey building at left centre was an oilcloth factory, now gone.
“Before … 1850, crossing the Grand River while travelling along Dundas Street … was no easy task unless you brought your own boat. One early method of crossing used a basket that was slung from a rope and drawn to the opposite bank. Maps and drawings from the period suggest that wooden bridges were in place across the Grand River at Dundas Street and William Street by the early 1850s. Timber bridges have a short lifespan – usually no more than 20 years – so by the 1870s, after Paris had grown in population and become a town, the town council’s bridge committee was tasked with replacing both the William Street and Dundas Street bridges.
“After some council wrangling, two identical wrought iron bridges were built, one at Dundas Street and one at William Street. Each bridge comprised three 120-foot spans supported by stone abutments, and work was completed in late fall of 1877 [by the Wrought Iron Bridge Company of Canton, Ohio.] … The coming of automobile and truck traffic in the 1920s made the 1877 Dundas Street bridge obsolete … [it] continued to deteriorate until it was closed to pedestrian traffic in 1981. The bridge was demolished, and its stone piers in the river were removed in late 1987” (“Bridges of Paris.”)

119. Beneath the Dundas Street Bridge in summer, the Grand is often crowded with watercraft.

120. Ouse Lodge (1841), a cobblestone house at 3 Arnold Street in the Upper Town. “These cobble-stones, rounded by extinct water-courses, are heaped in great hill-like banks on the west side of the Grand River. They are laid in the mortar lengthways, the ends pointing outwards, and though more expensive than ordinary stonework, form a wall which is both strong and picturesque” (Reville 480). Cobblestone masonry was brought to Paris in 1838 by Levi Boughton, a native of New York State, where the craft was well established. Go to this website for links to photos and details of the 18 surviving cobblestone structures in Paris and area. No other Canadian town can boast so many.

121. Let’s pay a brief visit to Paris’s other river. The west side of the Nith, formerly known as Smith’s Creek, is occupied by Lion’s Park, and there’s a pleasant riverside trail through it that’s accessible by footbridges at either end. A garter snake slithers over a rock by the southern footbridge at Mechanic Street.

122. The Nith as seen from the northern footbridge at Penman’s Pass. Like the Grand, which it joins about 1.25 km downstream from this spot, the Nith is shallow enough to wade across in summer.

123. Thanks to the water power provided by its two rivers, Paris in the early days was a hive of industry. The most striking surviving evidence is this former mill complex on the east bank of the Nith. First established in 1868, the Penman Manufacturing Company was the largest woollen knitted goods producer in Canada during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. What remains of it are these large industrial buildings and a tall brick smokestack, now constituting a National Historic Site. Since 2012, the buildings have been restored and redeveloped as an upscale condominium development, Penman Manor.

124. The independent stores lining Grand River Street North in the Lower Town are at the heart of Paris as a tourist destination.
(Top) Grand River Street North in July 2021. Paris bustles, seemingly little affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
(Middle) June 2025. The Downtown Dig, a project to upgrade all essential infrastructure, has reduced footfall along Grand River Street North to almost zero.
(Bottom) The scene in mid-April 2026. The roadwork appears almost finished, though William Street and its bridge at the far end of the block are now closed to traffic for repairs. The surviving businesses must be desperate to welcome back the absent hordes of visitors.

125. The iconic view of Lower Town Paris: the backs of the businesses on Grand River Street North from the William Street Bridge over the Grand.

126. (Top) The view in the 1860s of Lower Town Paris from an overlook. In the distance is the Great Western Railway Bridge over the Grand. The nearer road bridge is the one on William Street.
(Bottom) The view from a similar location today, an overlook on what is now Brant County Hwy 2, King Edward Street. The building in the foreground is a recently opened four-storey luxury condominium, The Royal, at 11 Mechanic Street. Its presence suggests that Paris’s destiny, aside from tourism, is to serve as a picturesque bedroom community for commuters to larger cities in the area.

127. We’re at the summit of the Upper Town, on the edge of the prehistoric west bank of a once much wider Grand River. We’re looking steeply down eastward from a stub of Dundas Street West, down Mount Elgin Street to Dundas Street West, to the bridge over the Grand, and then to Dundas Street East and Governors Road dwindling towards the eastern horizon. What we are seeing is probably close to the original alignment of Dundas Street, especially as the early Dundas Street bridges over the Grand were just a little to the left of the current one.

128. Gravestones in the now inactive Old Paris Cemetery at 45 Church Street, just off the Dundas Street West stub high on the former riverbank. The surviving stones have been clumped together behind a metal fence at the edge of the former cemetery, now a park.

129. Let’s conclude our visit to Paris with Hiram “King” Capron, whom we have to thank for the reclamation of Dundas Street in the town. He was born in Leicester, Vermont, and came to Upper Canada not as a United Empire Loyalist but as a practical New Englander eager to make his mark on what was then the western frontier. In 1823 he visited the site of Paris and fell in love with its beauty, while realizing that with the installation of a grinding mill its riverside beds of gypsum (plaster of Paris) could be made a going concern. It was he who persuaded the early settlers that “Paris” would be a more attractive name for the settlement than “Forks of the Grand” or “Nithville.” “Capron’s infectious energy as a town planner was matched by his extraordinary capacity to charm and mix unself-consciously with people of all stations. His employees remembered him as the hearty ‘boss’ with whom they ate and joshed. Visiting clergymen and other dignitaries discovered his dislike of ‘humbug’ and his great gift for skilful discussion” (Johnston 35).

130. Capron built his house on what is now Homestead Road, overlooking the west bank of the Grand north of the Lower Town. Its sheds and wings have been removed and its interior renovated, but it is apparently otherwise not much changed since it was constructed in 1832.

131. The Capron family monument is in St. James Anglican Cemetery on the east bank of the Grand. The Latin inscription, “HOC OPPIDUM CONDIDIT” means, simply, “HERE HE FOUNDED A TOWN.”

Part 5 coming soon