Sunningdale

Golf & Glen Abbey
In 1814 land that is now Glen Abbey was granted to King's College. In the 1930s Toronto mining executive André Dorfman purchase 350 acres for a country estate which he called Raydor (ré-Dor). The Toronto diocese of the Society of Jesus, (the Jesuits), purchased the estate for $265,000 in 1953. It was used as a retreat until 1963 when Clearstream Developments purchased the property for a golf course.  Great Northern Capital later purchased the course and in 1974 reached an agreement with the Royal Canadian Golf Association to have the course redesigned by Jack Nicklaus as a permanent home for the Canadian Open. The renamed Glen Abbey Golf Club held its first Canadian Open in 1977.  The RCGA leased the estate's house for its headquarters and golf museum until 1983 when it purchased the property. In 1999 the RCGA sold Glen Abbey to ClubLink when it was decided to rotate the Canadian Open amongst different locations.

Smith-Triller Viaduct
First conceived in 1984 as a key requirement for Oakville's northern development, this "viaduct" was the first bridge to be constructed at this location because of a very high bank on the east side (a "viaduct" is also called a bridge, but usually arches over a valley).  Financed by the Province of Ontario, the Town of Oakville and three land development companies, the total cost of the bridge and it's approaches was thirty-five million dollars. It was completed in 1993 under budget and one year ahead of schedule, in part due to an innovative "segmental-concrete" construction process.  The bridge was named after two neighbouring pioneers. The location of the 1838 Smith land was just south of the bridge, on the west side flats. The Triller farm, "Hickory Grove", extended north from the bend in the Sixteen up to Dundas Street.

Sunningdale Community
The residential community known as Sunningdale is bounded by Sixth Line, the Oakville Golf Club, Sixteen Mile Creek and Upper Middle Road. It centres on Sunningdale Park and Sunningdale School.  After the Mississauga treaty of 1806, three lots of 200 acres each had been surveyed in this area, which by 1858 were owned and farmed by the Culham family. In 1914 Trafalgar Township established a development of one acre lots for veterans on part of this land, which was not a success due to poor soil conditions. In the 1960s the Town of Oakville intervened to assist the redevelopment of this property into smaller more conventional lots. New homes were built there in the 1970s.  The area west of Sunningdale School, previously part of the Dorfman estate, was developed for housing in the 70s and 80s. This completed a community of schools, parks and shops that became one of Oakville's most popular neighbourhoods.

Sawmills on the Sixteen
Water powered our first industries.  By 1851 there were 15 sawmills on Trafalgar Township streams. Five were on the Sixteen between Dundas Street and Lake Ontario. They were:

• Phillip Trille's mill above Upper Middle Road (c. 1810)
• George Chalmer's mill at Dundas Street (1827)
• William Chisholm's mill at Speers Road (1830)
• Hiram McCraney's mill above the QEW (1835)
• Thompson Smith's mill below Upper Middle Road (1838)

Thompson Smith also built the first steam- powered mill on the west bank of the Sixteen below the harbour bridge in 1851. Later owned by the McCraneys and the Dotys, in the 1870s it became "one of the largest mills in the country" producing boards, shingles and railway ties.

Read Deborah Lerech's essay "Sawmills on the Sixteen"