Location
The County of Hastings - Belleville
On the east side of the park road in Victoria Park, west off South Front Street just south of Dundas Street
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Text from the Plaque
By 1790 the mill, tavern and stores established here near the Bay of Quinté had stimulated the growth of a settlement. Named "Belleville" in 1816, the village progressed steadily as a milling and shipping centre, and in 1834 the thriving community became a police village. The completion in 1856 of the Grand Trunk Railway between Toronto and Montreal, a booming lumber trade, and the development of a fertile agricultural hinterland fostered significant commercial and industrial growth in Belleville, which had became a town in 1850. Following the discovery of gold near Madoc in 1866, Belleville was known as the "golden gate" of Hastings County, and after 1872 became a major Canadian marketing centre for cheese. In 1877 it was incorporated as a city.
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