

January 2025
Palermo
Within the boundaries of the busy Town of Oakville, Ontario, are the remains of several former villages and hamlets. In the years after what was then known as Trafalgar Township was surveyed in 1806, one of three townships that were created after the purchase of land from the Mississauga Nations the previous year.
One of the hamlets that sprung up at the intersection of current-day Dundas Street and Old Bronte Road (Concession Line 7) was Palermo. Originally named Hagartown, it was established by Lawrence Hagar in 1805, who settled in the area after leaving Pennsylvania. Hagartown was re-named Palermo, in hounour of Royal Navy hero Horatio Nelson, Lord of Palermo, in 1836.
By 1875, the village had an iron foundry, two stores, a wagon shop, blacksmith shop, harness shop, a brick school house, churches, a telegraph office, a drill shed for the local militia company and a hotel, with a total population of 150.
In 1962, the Trafalgar Township was amalgamated into the Town of Oakville.
Very little remains of Palermo today, with a handful of houses and most prominently, Palermo United Church, being the only remnants of this once quiet hamlet.
Trafalgar


Founded in around 1807, when the Post family settled in the area, the Village of Trafalgar grew up around the modern-day intersection of Dundas Street and Trafalgar Road (Seventh Line). The village was originally known as Post’s Corner, but this was changed to Postsville in 1851.
Ephriam Post who owned two lots, one on the north east corner and another on the south west corner, operated an inn, Posts Inn, which was very busy rest stop for horse drawn stagecoaches that ran along Dundas Street.
Sometime prior to 1877, the name of the village changed again, this time to Trafalgar. The village had about 80 residents by this time and featured two hotels, a butcher shop, a grist mill and carriage maker and a blacksmith.
As with Palermo, some remnants of the old village remain today. A small, two-storey house, stucco-clad house, built in 1850, stands of the west side of Trafalgar Road, a little north of Dundas Street East. Directly beside it is Queen Anne-style house, built around 1890 for Dr. John A. Johnstone, who served as the veterinary inspector for Halton County and also as a deputy reeve of Trafalgar Township.
In July 2023, Oakville Town council passed a Notice of Intention to Designate Dr. Johnstone’s house as a heritage property, describing the house as follows:
“The house has an asymmetrical and eclectic design, typical of the style. Built on a lakestone foundation, the house is clad in horizontal wood siding and contains a number of design elements reflective of the Queen Anne style, including: the first storey bump-out with a rounded window; segmentally-arched windows throughout; the projecting second storey underlined by a bracketed frieze; decorative half-cove (or a close approximation of) shingles in the third storey gable; exposed eaves; and matching sets of decorative corbels on the second storey corners.”
Further north along Trafalgar Road are two other abandoned houses, a few hundred yards south of 275 Burnhamthorpe Road East, and an abandoned former blacksmith shop can be found on Burnhamthorpe, just west of the Trafalgar Road intersection.


Munn’s Corner

The intersection of Dundas Street and Sixth Line was once known as Munn’s Corners, named after the Munn family, who bought land on the northeast and southeast corners in 1803. Daniel Munn operated an Inn on the south corner. The Munn’s were on the land by 1806. A small corner of the northeast lot was set aside for a Methodist Church. However, preachers would continue to hold meetings in the family home until 1844,when the first frame building was erected. A cemetery was opened across the road and in 1898 the present brick building was consecrated.
The congregation voted to join the United Church of Canada in 1925. As the township grew, Dundas Street needed widening to accommodate the increasing traffic in the 1970s. Unfortunately, the aging church was in the way, but unlike many buildings that find themselves in the way of progress, the church was moved 40 feet back from the road, thus saving it from demolition.
An addition was built at the rear of the church in 1991.
Munn’s United Church is an example of the Gothic revival style, common in 19th-century church architecture.
A Zone in Transition
What was once Trafalgar Township is currently under transition. While neither Palermo, Trafalgar or Munn’s Corners are deserted ghost towns, the urbanization of Oakville slowly consuming this once rural farming community, including the historic hamlets that once dotted the former township.
Sources: Palermo, Ontario – Wikipedia, Appleby – Neighbourhood Guide, https://hikingthegta.com/tag/trafalgar/, https://tths.ca/early-communities, Notice of intention to designate – 3048 Trafalgar Road, Trafalgar Township – Wikipedia.
REMEMBER THIS? The rich history of the Village of Lowville – Burlington News