Midway between the city of Toronto and Hamilton lies Oakville, Ontario, population around 170,000. The city, like many in the central Ontario area, has a history that goes back quite far, to its establishment in 1793. Of course, that much past means that Oakville has a lot of stories to tell, one of which is that of the Chisholm Clan and the Erchless Estate. The story of the Erchless estate itself started in 1827. In that year, Colonel William Chisholm purchased a tract of land consisting of 960 acres at the mouth of sixteen mile creek. Chisholm, a prominent politician and son of an United Empire Loyalist, laid plans to begin the development of the harbour and the village that would eventually become the city of Oakville. The house, which stands as a museum in Oakville today actually started out as a Customs Office and Warehouse around 1835, and began to be a residence to the Chisholms in1856. In fact, the descendants of Colonel William Chisholm would call the house on Erchless Estate home for six whole generations! In 1967, the last members of the Chisholm family to call the house home decided to sell the entire estate, consisting both of the residence and the additional four acres. After a decade had gone by, the city of Oakville realized that a lot of the history of the area was tied up in the estate at Erchless, and in turn purchased the estate for $550,000. Six years after the purchase by the city, in 1983, the Ontario Heritage Foundation and the Oakville Historical Society teamed up to begin restoration of the house and estate as part of Ontario’s living historical displays. The first part of the estate to be refinished and opened to the public was the Customs House, which was opened as a museum. The family home itself was restored in1989, again through the assistance of the Ontario Heritage Foundation. In fact, the home was restored so that it replicated the same appearance it would have had in the 1920s; this phase of the project was opened to the public in 1991. Since that time, the Coach House has also been restored, and there are plans in place to restore the boundary fences of the estate as well. The work is a great reminder of how one man’s vision can lead to a prosperous community.
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