Postcard Memories is a series of historic views, stories and photos of Bradford West Gwillimbury, a trip down memory lane on a Saturday morning.
The war years marked a turning point for agriculture in the Holland Marsh. By the summer of 1942, about half of the 7,000 acres opened to cultivation by Prof. Day’s drainage scheme were under production, and there was great interest in the land within the polder.
In 1946, Holland River Gardens opened a new facility that included an icing plant, that could “ice” a railway car, packed with fresh vegetables destined for New York City – developing new markets, in addition to traditional markets in Toronto, Hamilton and London.
That year, the Holland Marsh Co-operative opened a vegetable storage facility at Dissette and Holland St. East, and the Bradford Marsh Growers Co-operative Association built Bradford Co-op Storage Ltd., still in operation on Dissette St.
In 1948, Bradford Reeve C.T.S. Evans proclaimed Thursday, Nov. 4 as Bradford’s Day, to promote vegetables grown in the Marsh.
“A special train will pull out of the Bradford Station that day loaded with nothing but vegetables. A cavalcade of trucks will come from Toronto around 10:30 Thurs. morning and will return to Toronto in the afternoon loaded with vegetables,” the Reeve wrote. The goal? “That the publicity arising out of the event will make this section of the country well-known over the whole Dominion.”
Details from the Archives at the BWG Public Library, and Governor Simcoe Slept Here: The legacy of West Gwillimbury.
