History of Richmond Hill, Ontario - Richmond Hill Incorporated

Richmond Hill Incorporated

In 1872, a movement to incorporate Richmond Hill as a village began to pick up steam, led by the York Herald. Previous attempts in 1853 and 1857 had failed, the first because Richmond Hill had less than half the needed 1000 people to qualify for incorporation under provincial law, and the latter because their inclusion of the Elgin Mills area to meet the 750 needed under newer legislation was felt to be "too expansionistic". The community at the time was split between Vaughan township west of Yonge Street, and Markham township east of Yonge Street. This division of the community made it hard for either township to effectively meet the needs of the community. The village of Richmond Hill was incorporated by act of the York County Council on June 18, 1872 to come into effect January 1, 1873. The boundaries of the new village were set at Markham-Vaughan Road (today's Major Mackenzie Drive) in the south, around today's Levendale Road in the north, just beyond Mill Pond in the east and the CNR tracks in the west. An election was held on January 6, 1873 to elect a reeve and four councillors. Abraham Law was elected the first reeve of Richmond Hill, in a campaign that centred on the need for a new high school. The new high school was built, and opened to students in November 1873.

The town continued to grow slowly after incorporation. One of the first services offered by the newly incorporated town was a fire department. On April 15, 1866, a large fire had destroyed four buildings in Richmond Hill and seriously damaged two others. After two less serious fires that year, a volunteer fire department had been organised. The town recognised the volunteer fire department, but tried not to interfere in their affairs. The volunteer fire department disbanded in 1877 when the town council refused to buy them a new fire engine. Richmond Hill founded its own fire department in 1880 which incorporated in 1881. The village purchase a second-hand fire truck for the department that year.