Port Perry
Port Perry is the administrative and economic center for the township of Ontario and is located on the banks of the Scugog River. Port Perry, which is situated near Bowmanville, is home to the municipal offices of Scugog Township as well as a slew of retail companies.
Greenbank, Raglan, Caesarea, Blackstock, and Nestleton/Nestleton Station are just a few of the minor settlements that make up the Scugog region who have made Port Perry their home. The Great Blue Heron Charitable Casino is a significant employer in the community. Lake Scugog, one of Ontario’s largest man-made lakes, is located at the confluence of the Trent and Severn Waterways basins.
Major Samuel Street Wilmot conducted the initial survey of the area surrounding Port Perry in 1809 as part of the Reach Township. The first inhabitant in the area was Reuben Crandell, a United Empire Loyalist who moved to the area with his wife in May 1821 and established a homestead there. Their original building, which can still be seen on King Street between Prince Albert and Manchester, is still in use today.
Lucy Ann Crandell was born in the area in November 1821, making her the first child of European heritage to be born in the area. Crandell and his family relocated to a property at what would become known as Crandell’s Corners, subsequently known as Borelia, in 1831. At the time, it had its own Post Office, which was located at the current intersection of Queen Street and Highway 7A.
In 1848, settler Peter Perry laid out village lots on the shores of Lake Scugog on the site of a former native hamlet known as Scugog Village, which had been abandoned for several years. The townsite was officially designated Port Perry in 1852, and Joseph Bigelow served as the town’s first postmaster. It became a village when it was incorporated in 1871.
At the time, Port Perry and two neighboring towns, Prince Albert and Manchester, were embroiled in a bitter rivalry with one another. Peter Perry, who had high hopes for “his” town, prophesied that goats would graze on the grass beside Prince Albert’s main street, and he was right.
At the time, Prince Albert was perched atop a planked toll road that ran south from the city to Whitby. A important grain trading center, Prince Albert served as a conduit for grain and lumber from locations all across the area south-east of Lake Simcoe. Perry and others in Port Perry believed that a railway would be a much better option, and Perry’s prediction would come true in the long run.
