Lorne Park is a suburban residential neighbourhood located in southwestern Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, that was first established as a resort.
[2] On September 5, 1806, the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation and the Crown signed the Head of the Lake Purchase, in which the Mississaugas ceded 70,784 acres of land bounded by the Toronto Purchase of 1787 in the east, the Brant Tract in the west, and a northern boundary that ran 6 mi (9.7 km) back from the shoreline of Lake Ontario.
In addition, the Mississaugas also reserved the sole right of fishing at the Credit River and were to retain a 1 mi (1.6 km)-mile strip of land on each of its banks.
The first european settler in the Clarkson-Lorne Park area was Thomas Ingersoll, who established the Government Inn and trading post on the Credit River in 1798.
The larger of these rural communities were Clarkson, Cooksville, Erindale, Meadowdale, Malton, Port Credit and Streetsville.
The rise of the Industrial age prompted rapid urban growth and a steady economic and population decline in many rural Ontario communities.
With access of the QEW highway, suburbanization of the original lands and surrounding area ensued in the post WWII period.
LPEA Homeowners are responsible for municipal taxes and upkeep of the LPEA lands, and are also co-operatively responsible for the maintenance, insurance and taxes on their 15 ha (37 acres) reserve; including their roads, forests, walking trails, a cottage, a private park and amenities area (the 'Commons') and their 0.8 km (0.5 mi) of private beaches with riparian rights.
The park was officially re-opened in May 1889 ( the Marquis of Lorne had been departed from Canada in 1883 at this point and he was no longer governor General) .
Trains, carriage and steamers left Toronto on a regular basis to ferry visitors to the wharf, picnic areas, dining pavilion and eating establishment.
Most of the names of the original investors are reflected in the street names Roper, Stockwell, and Henderson, however, the streets proposed at that time did not all survive as entertained, the Toronto and Lorne Park summer Resort Company did not thrive past 1903, when the wharf collapsed and 3 bystanders were splashed by Lake Ontarios frigid waters.
The end of the wharf was a mixed blessing for the community as its temperate residents became increasingly annoyed by members of the greater community, who routinely only wished to use the wharf for transportation into the city of York (Toronto), rather than patronise the dry Lorne Park amenities as their choice of recreational destination.
The hotel and common lands were purchased by investors keen to re-invent the park as a motor club: and the hotel was renamed the Lakeshore Country club, which failed, because an attempt to procure a liquor license was thwarted by the resident homeowner shareholders within the park, and the LCC was foreclosed upon by the Farmers Bank in 1911.
This coincided with the WW1 real estate market downturn and actually was a fortuitous turn of events for Mr Small who was saved further losses by his non-development as houses did not start selling again until after World War II.
The survey of 1922, shows slight changes to the lot configuration under the auspices of Lorne Park Estates Limited.
According to "A Village Within a City - a Story of Lorne Park Estates" (1980), some people were purchasing two to four lots in order to create larger properties of up to 0.4 ha (0.99 acres).
Campbell, McIntyre, Neville, Venn, Hill Dale and Moore avenues have to date not been developed but most notably Boustead Terrace, the grand lakefront promenade feature of the Victorian era park, has disappeared through the erosive effects of the lake and parkland mismanagement.
Of the summer homes that were initially built, a number were designed by Edmund Burke in the English Arts and Crafts style as two-storeys with deep verandas and sleeping balconies to catch the breeze of Lake Ontario.
Throughout the 1930s the school was a centre of community activity, hosting concerts, Christmas festivities, dinners and village events.