6 Friday, February 11, 2022brooklintowncrier.com In the spring of 1954, Myron Vipond so upset Brooklin townsfolk that a petition was started to halt him in his tracks. What had he done? Vipond had just severed and sold 100 acres of his Brooklin farmland to four Toronto lawyers, Montgomery, Mitchell, Ferguson and Cassels, to build 600 ranch style houses. For over 50 years, there'd been virtually no residential and commercial construction in the area. So it explains why the sale elicited a strong negative reaction from people who had been content with the status quo. However, the petition opposing the development did not affect the outcome. The first building permit from Whitby Township was obtained by the developer on July 8, 1954, and Meadowcrest Homes broke ground in September.The following year, construction began on what became known as "the subdivision" and it was finished in 1958, expanding the village to the west of Baldwin Street. This brought in a period of growth on a scale never before seen in Brooklin. Early buyers The first three houses sold quickly. Bill Vipond was the first to take possession at 23 Montgomery Avenue in 1955 and lived there with his family until his death in 1991. Allan and Eleanor Holman moved to 24 Montgomery shortly after. They had bought the property directly from those lawyers as real estate agents did not yet exist. In 1956, the Ballards bought the furnished model home. Those three houses were surrounded by land waiting to be developed. Water came by hose from an Artesian well, later to be replaced by the famous water tower erected in 1962. The waste management was through septic tanks until the mid 1980s when the town brought in sewers. At the time, Vipond Road was just a farm track and Cassels Road a dirt lane which slowed construction to a crawl. After the first three houses were built, Meadowcrest Homes ran into a few snags, so the building stalled for a while. People pre-ordered their houses and so, to keep up with the demand, lots were sold to other builders. Check out the price! In late 1955, General Motor workers went on strike and out-of-work buyers were given a price reduction if they chose to finish off the interiors themselves. A three-bedroom, one bathroom finished house on a 75' x 110' foot lot sold for approximately $12,000. Brooklin certainly benefited from the services that came along with the subdivision. Meadowcrest Public School, for instance, opened in 1958 and within six years construction of Brooklin's post office at 2 Price Street was underway. The Bell Telephone Company erected a building and a new fire hall was built. In 1961, the Brooklin Public Library opened. More importantly, the development naysayers discovered that the "subdivision newbies" were thoughtful, caring people who contributed much to the community. For several decades, there was no further major development until the mid-1990s when construction began east of the village between Queen Street and Thickson Road. The rest, as they say, is current history! When Development Arrived By Jennifer Hudgins