Windermere

Photo by Alan L Brown - Posted May, 2005

Plaque Location

The District of Muskoka
The Township of Muskoka Lakes
In Windermere, at the southwest corner of
Windermere Road and Golf Avenue Road

Coordinates: N 45 09.949 W 79 32.910

Plaque Text

In the early 1860s, the government promoted agricultural settlement in Muskoka. Newcomers, including the Fife, Aitken and Forge families, settled near Lake Rosseau, working at farming and lumbering. In 1868, Windermere post office opened at the mouth of the Dee River to the north, but shortly afterwards moved nearby to the house of Thomas Aitken. Like others, Aitken boarded tourists in his home, at first informally. Once the railway reached the steamboat port of Gravenhurst in 1875, people poured into the Muskoka lakes for restorative wilderness holidays. In response, Aitken developed his famous Windermere House in the 1880s. That resort, representative of the region's lakeside hotels, served as the focal point for Windermere's evolution into a well-loved vacation destination.

Related Ontario plaque
Steamboating in Muskoka 1866-1959

More
Information

More
Settlements

More
Muskoka Lakes Plaques

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