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THE ERA Era Wed Seot The Second Section Sports News District News Entertainment AUXILIARY SELLS SERIES There are a multitude of colorful and historically fascinating homes in Newmarket Liberty Hall the family home of J Caldwell at St Eagle St c the simple boyhood home of Chief Justice Sir John Beverley Robinson the lavishly Victoria house of the Davis family The Cedars on Victoria St the old Timothy Rogers farmhouse on Pearson St the Syke3 house on Main and many others Aurora artist Dorothy whose drawings appear below wrote in explaining her choice of these four for her first series on historic Newmarket buildings Mrs chose them because each one represents a landmark to which everyone of the present time can easily relate Her drawings have been faithfully repro duced as hasty notes the first printing of which came on the market this September They are on cream colored paper and are printed in brown ink which almost exactly duplicates the original drawings Each has a descriptive paragraph on the back The cards were packaged by the boys in the physio therapy department of the Ontario Hospital Aurora in an acetate foldover pack with a gold seal three copies of each drawing plus envelopes in each pack and are being sold exclusively by the Newmarket branch of the Auxiliary to York County Hospital They are on sale in the Auxiliarys shop at the hospital Artist Dorothy McCIure The Robert Simpson house Robert Simpson who is remem bered by most people as the founder of the great Toronto merchandising empire which still bears his name arrived in Newmarket from his na tive Scotland in the and took employment with Sutherland and Sons Dry Goods relatives of his cou sin Mrs James Sutherland In 1858 he and William Trent opened a store at Timothy and Main streets and in Simpson went into business for himself Later that year i became a partner and firm was called Simpson and Ba- J J He had the house at St at left which is now owned by architect Don Ritchie and his family built for double the interest rates of the local bank Against these loans the farm ers bought goods from the store the following year Thus Simpson the canny Scot assured himself of both capital and customers while the farm ers usually ended up with the loan discharged but in debt to the store Business boomed and the firm moved across the road to larger pre mises but in fire wiped it out Loss was estimated at and only 8000 worth was insured Robert reopened two days later on the premises of his fatherinlaw Mr J J and later in the year moved back into his renovated premises which according to the His tory of Newmarket were where Mens Wear now stands Shortly thereafter Robert and his wife headed south to the booming city where they opened on the cor ner of Queen and streets The Simpsons had one child a girl who married a Mr Hamilton Merrill The railway station Artist Dorothy chose the railway station for her collection because the railroad it represents was the living heartbeat of our coun trys growth From the 1850s on the railroad meant new life vitality boom ing expansion vital transport wonder Mrs McCIure 1853 the Toronto the first steam locomotive manufactured in Up per Canada chugged north along the iron rails of the newlybuilt Ontario and Huron Railway to the lit tle town of Machelis Corners now Aurora and then the end of steel ii By June the line had reached Newmarket and the first construction train arrived stopping at Timothy St creek because there was no bridge It was a cold clear crisp win ter morning on Jan 1855 when the first excursion train ran through New market on its way to Collingwood Tickets in Toronto sold for first class 75 cents second class Only a few of the waiting crowd could find standing room in the towns first sta tion then on the south side of Huron St Davis Dr It was built in 1854 on land purchased from George for The railroad brought prosper ity to Newmarket barrels of flour left Newmarket in one year but its sister towns such as Holland Landing and Bogarttown strangled Alexander School Alexander Muir Public School shown left in Mrs drawing was built in 1691 and is thought to be the fourth school to stand on lhat Pros pect St site Alexander Muir is best known in Canadian history as the man who wrote The Maple Leaf Forever but he was also a popular teacher and school principal during 1873 and at the school on the site Later Mr served as village clerk The present school Is the fourth to on the Prospect St site The first was thought to have been a log struc ture built In lata and even that was not Ihe first school in the district The Society or Friends established ihe first school on St in The twostorey sixroom brtck building cost he village to build in and this was considered a substantial sum by the ratepayers of the day many of whom opposed the expenditure arguing that the munici pal debt was already loo high at 31000 The cornerstone was laid in Hay 1891 and sealed in a metal box within it were copies of The Era and the Toronto morning dailies several small coins and a document used In the stone laying ceremony The new building was opened for use by its first pupils Oct 30 of that year and later former stu dents of Alexander Muir placed a tabfet in the school in his memory Pickering College The hopes and the dreams which eventually led to the attractive red brick and white stone Georgian build ing overlooking the Holland River which now houses Pickering College were born in the little frame Quaker meeting house on Yonge St In The Society of Friends half- yearly meeting that year supported the idea of establishing a boarding school in Canada for children of Friends The concept first took concrete form on a farm in Prince Edward County near Bloomfleld where a school was established in a converted farmhouse in 1841 Financial trouble forced its closing in 1869 but later a new site was found In Pickering and a new school opened It was known as Pickering College During Christmas vacation of fire wiped the school out again Determined to rebuild the So ciety of Friends chose a site in New market in tribute to the pioneer Qua ker families who first settled much of the district from Aurora to Holland Landing East Gwillimbury eastward to the fourth concession the eastern part of King Township and all of the northwest corner of Whitchurch A Rogers of Toronto a des cendant of one of those early settlers purchased the farm for the purpose Fittingly the farm had originally been deeded by the Crown to another early Friend John The new building opened as a coeducational boarding school but after serving as a military hospital during World War I it reopened In 1921 as a boys school The present school It not under control of the Yearly Meeting of Can adian Friends but Friends continue to hold their annual conference within its walls go away their necks They dont understand the procedures for appealing their assessment One man told the story of a friend from Aurora who had the court of revision because properties near his own assessed substantially lower The court of revision told the Aur- man that comparison was not valid basis for appeal But at last weeks meeting regional assess Ken Andrews said comparison is a valid appeal criterion They were further confus ed by such apparently conflicting statements from Mr as York Countys assessment is bas ically correct and Every time we start on a program of tax reform we face an enormous stumbling block because of assessment data The minister added however that by the end of the year we hope to have the kind of assess ment integrity we can depend on in York and Peel Counties He said he felt such inte grity would afford the provincial government the necessary base on which to build a program of tax reform for the two counties What wed like to do as a minimum is to keep the same ratio of business to residential taxes as before said Mr The two easiest ways are to adjust the split mill rate or to increase the business taxes Probably what we will ultimately do will he a com bination of both these methods The ministers prediction that different mill rates for business and residential properties will be part of corrective legislation within two years drew a heated retort from Aurora Reeve Evelyn Buck You have received repeated requests from York County begg ing you for a differential milt rate for industrial and residential prop- be done Now we hear you any that this will be done What youre say ing is that the people of York and Peel Counties are bearing a burden that wont be imposed on any other part of Ontario Reeve Buck charged that Mr have prepared such legislation two years ago after the Smith Committee had predicted market value That committee had recom mended the use of an equalization factor that would have maintained the traditional tax balance but the provincial government ignored that suggestion Reeve Buck said Now youre saying it will be done after the people of York County have suffered for two years she snapped Oh I wouldnt put it quite that way replied Mr McKeough Why not We have to pay dont we lamented a voice from the back of the room Mrs Bucks comments drew the evenings loudest applause Earlier when asked by York Centre MPP Don Deacon why the province wouldnt allow municipal- Darcy taxes RICHMOND HILL says he looks forward to the day when his home Is reassessed at market value The Minister of Municipal Affairs said here last week that he believes taxes may be twice as high as they should be His township has not yet been reassessed but he said he felt reassessment would cut his pre sent lax burden ties to apply an equalization factor Mr McKeough replied Because we dont want to the tax legislation in this province One of the nights heaviest assaults on Mr came from Dora who lives on the Gormley Sideroad She said her taxes jumped from in 1969 to 904 this year and her zoomed to from 3790 Im being asked to pay this preposterous sum of money and Im not getting anything from it in the form of municipal ser vices said Miss Strachan The only reason Im getting the fresh air is because you havent been able to withhold it She added that her township Whitchurch has done absolutely nothing about adopting one of the provinces temporary relief mea She had heard nothing from Reeve Stuart Burnett after a conversation several months she said cannot even sell my prop erty she continued I being forced off my property The town ship wants to take my property because I cannot afford to pay my To Miss Strachans complaint that assessment officials bad told her she had been undertaxed be fore reassessment Mr have gone too high some too low Some of the difficulties that have been experienced in York County and there have been worse difficulties elsewhere only indicate how far off the mark assessment practices have been for the last years the minister He said assessors in past years had tended to value business property too high and residential property too low and market value should correct this Several questioners asked how assessors can accurately place a market value on a home without going inside Mr Andrews said that on a normal house its not always necessary to go inside after its dimensions Another taxpayer whose assessment jumped from 000 to asked Mr Andrews the said the criteria Is based on the normal method of financing in municipality MPP Deacon retorted that market value should be based on cash value not on normal financ ing procedures Cut out presents irate mother RICHMOND HILL Education taxes should not be used to buy birthday presents for York County students an angry lady ratepayei told Municipal Affairs Minister here last week She said her son had brought home several rock and roll comedy record albums from his school library last year The included such artists as Bill Cosby The Beatles Led Zeppelin and Johnny Winter she said As fax as Im concerned these are birthday presents and I want my tax dollar going for birthday presents she told the minister Mr suggested she attend nomination night and nominatl a school board candidate who agree with your choice of records