Paris, Ontario

The name comes from plaster of Paris: gypsum deposits found nearby in the 1790s were the reason a settlement started here, at the meeting of the Nith and Grand rivers. Levi Boughton, a mason from New York state, brought a cobblestone building technique in the 1830s using rounded stones from the riverbed and glacial deposits set in lime mortar in even courses; two churches and ten houses built this way survive, the first his St. James Church of 1839, and Paris holds the largest concentration of cobblestone architecture in Ontario. The Grand River is a Canadian Heritage River and the town sits on its bank with the rail trail passing through.

History

The town is named after the gypsum found here in 1793 and used to make plaster of Paris, and by late 1794 the Governor's Road reached the east bank of the Grand River at the future townsite. Hiram Capron from Vermont bought the land at the Forks of the Grand for $10,000 and founded the town on 7 May 1829, building a grist mill and mining gypsum; by 1846 it had about 1000 people, three mills, a tannery, a woollen factory and a foundry, Levi Boughton built its first cobblestone building, St. James Church, in 1839, and it became a village in 1850 and a town in 1856 (Wikipedia, Paris, Ontario).

Highlights

• The cobblestone buildings - two churches and ten houses, the first from 1839.
• The river forks - the Nith joining the Grand below the town.
• The gypsum origin - the plaster deposits that gave the town its name.
• The Grand River trail - a rail trail along a Canadian Heritage River.

When to go

May to October for the river and walking the streets; the town is small and quiet year-round. Autumn colour along the Grand is good. Tubing on the river runs in summer.

Practical notes

The cobblestone buildings are private homes and churches seen from the street only. The town is small and takes an hour or two. There is little beyond the architecture and the river.

Nearby

Brantford lies southeast; Kitchener-Waterloo is north.

Key facts