A historic main street, and a 1960s housing market
Unionville is a case where the famous history and the actual repair opportunity sit in different places. The village was founded in 1794 by sixty-four German families brought over by William Berczy, the Eckhardt family built the Union Mills on Bruce Creek in the 1830s, and it was officially named Unionville in 1849. Its heritage conservation district study area was designated by by-law in 1976 and the district plan was approved in 1998. But the City of Markham’s own district plan states plainly that major housing development came to Unionville in the 1960s. Historic Main Street is a streetscape rather than a housing market, and the addressable stock is the 1960s through 1980s subdivision ring around it: two storey family homes on nailed plywood subfloor, now fifty to sixty years old. The newer Markham communities nearby, including Upper Unionville and Downtown Markham, are post-2005 and a different proposition.