A heritage main street inside 1960s to 1980s suburbs
Unionville’s history and most of its houses are in different places. William Berczy’s 64 German families settled the area in 1794, the Eckhardt family’s Union Mills ran on Bruce Creek in the 1830s, and the village took the name Unionville in 1849. The old village along Main Street is a heritage conservation district; Markham set its study area by by-law in 1976 and the plan was approved in January 1998. Most homes are newer. The City of Markham’s district plan says major housing development came to Unionville in the 1960s, and the 2021 census for the L3R postal area, which takes in Main Street Unionville and the southwest Markham neighbourhoods around it, counted 21,155 occupied dwellings: 1.5 per cent built in 1960 or earlier, 17.1 per cent from 1961 to 1980, 34.7 per cent from 1981 to 1990 and 15.4 per cent from 1991 to 2000 (Statistics Canada, 2021 Census Profile). Most are single-detached houses, 58.4 per cent, on sheet subfloor now 25 to 65 years old, where a squeak usually comes from a nail or panel that has loosened at a joist. A building on Main Street is older again and may have plank subfloor, which we confirm before choosing a fix.
