Saturday, June 14, 2008

Brussels, Ontario

Anglican Church, Brussels, OntarioBrussels, Ontario is a community in the Municipality of Huron East (2006 pop. 9,310) on the Middle Branch of the Maitland River.

In 1854 William Ainley purchased two hundred acres of land. The following year he laid out a village plot which he named Ainleyville. A post office named Dingle was opened in 1856. The community flourished and by 1863 contained a sawmill, a grist-mill, blacksmith shops, a woollen mill and several other small industries. In anticipation of the rapid growth that the expected construction of a branch of the Wellington, Grey and Bruce Railway would bring, Ainleyville, with a population of 780, was incorporated as a village and renamed Brussels on December 24, 1872. Within a decade the population had increased to about 1800.

location of Brussels, OntarioSt John the Evangelist Anglican Church, Brussels, Ontario was built in 1947. It is similar in design to the previous church building destroyed by fire and constructed in 1876. The parish had been established in 1860.