page_title: Richmond Hill, Ontario
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Richmond Hill, Ontario / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Richmond Hill Cenotaph - "1914. To the memory and in honour of the men of Richmond Hill who gave their lives in the Great War. 1918."
context_page_description: Richmond Hill is a city in south-central York Region, Ontario, Canada. Part of the Greater Toronto Area, it is the York Region's third most populous municipality and the 28th most populous municipality in Canada.
  Richmond Hill has seen significant population growth since the 1990s. The city is home to the David Dunlap Observatory telescope, the largest telescope in Canada.
context_section_description: The village of Richmond Hill was incorporated by a bylaw of the York County Council on June 18, 1872, coming into effect January 1, 1873. In September 1956, the Ontario Municipal Board approved its elevation to Town status, effective January 1, 1957.
  The Regional Municipality of York was established by Bill 102 An Act to Establish the Regional Municipality of York of the provincial parliament, passed on June 26, 1970, and coming into force on January 1, 1971. The act expanded Richmond Hill's borders, annexing parts of Whitchurch Township, Markham Township, Vaughan Township and King Township into Richmond Hill, expanding the area covered from 1,700 acres (6.9 km²) to 27,000 acres (110 km²) and the population from a little over 19,000 to some 34,000.  The town grew to encompass the communities of Gormley, Dollar, Langstaff, Carrville, Headford, Elgin Mills, Jefferson, Bond Lake, Temperanceville, Lake Wilcox, Oak Ridges and Richvale. While Richmond Hill was a prosperous, well developed town, many of the outlying areas annexed were far more rural, with dirt roads, no water mains or sewers and no streetlights, and the time needed to bring municipal services up in these areas, combined with residual unequal tax assessments caused considerable conflict in the municipal politics. Policing was taken over by the York Regional Police, but fire protection remained with Richmond Hill, whose firefighting force quickly grew. Having hired its first full-time employee in 1967, it had fourteen full-time employees by 1971.
  Yonge Street through Richmond Hill expanded from two lanes to four in 1971, relieving congestion on what was known as "Ontario's worst stretch of highway".
  The Richmond Hill Dynes Jewellers softball team was the 1972 Softball World Champions. The Royal Canadian Air Farce was recorded at the Curtain Club Theater in Richmond Hill for its first 5 seasons on radio, beginning in 1973.  The Air Farce returned for an anniversary recording in the 1990s. Also in 1973 was the centennial of the town's incorporation as a village, and the town set up a number of celebratory activities, including a beard growing contest, commissioning a centennial song, a parade, a street dance and the unveiling of a historic plaque honoring the town's founding in front of the municipal offices.  June 27 was officially declared Russell Lynett Day, named after the town's clerk, only the third in its existence.  1973 also saw the sale of the last of the original rose-growing greenhouses in Richmond Hill.  Development had led to increasing property taxes and the H.J. Mills greenhouses relocated to Bayview Avenue and Elgin Mill Road.  The site of the greenhouses was developed as a subdivision.  The fast-growing town set aside significant areas for parks, with five new parks dedicated in 1973, and two more in 1974.  The Richmond Hill Historical Society was founded in 1973.  The society was dedicated to preserving the history of Richmond Hill and raising awareness of the town's history.  Their first action was to restore a 150-year-old house, known as the Burr House.
  As the 1970s went on, the population growth of Richmond Hill remained large.  In 1976, home prices in Richmond Hill were among the highest in Canada. By this time, the town council was split over whether to keep expanding rapidly.  The deadlock over a fifty-five house subdivision named Springmills Estate led to one councilor saying that it was not the reform council it was dubbed, but a "deformed council".  Other housing projects faced similar problems as councilors debated many things, including the need for affordable housing and the encroachment of homes into the farmland and the Oak Ridges Moraine.
  GO train service was extended to Richmond Hill in 1978, officially opened on April 29, 1978 by Bill Davis.
  Growth in Richmond Hill slowed towards the end of the 1970s, with M.L. McConaghy Public School closing in 1979 due to dropping enrollment.  At the same time, Richmond Hill began to make official plans for future land development.  The first official plan concerned a 700-acre (2.8 km²) indust
caption: Cenotaph on Yonge Street
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