Port Perry is a community located in Scugog, Ontario, Canada. The town is located northeast of central

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

and north of

Oshawa Oshawa ( , also ; 2021 population 175,383; CMA 415,311) is a city in Ontario, Canada, on the Lake Ontario shoreline. It lies in Southern Ontario, approximately east of Downtown Toronto. It is commonly viewed as the eastern anchor of the ...

and

Whitby Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in the Scarborough borough of North Yorkshire, England. Situated on the east coast of Yorkshire at the mouth of the River Esk, Whitby has a maritime, mineral and tourist heritage. Its East Cl ...

. Port Perry has a population of 9,453 as of 2016. Port Perry serves as the administrative and commercial centre for the township of Scugog. The town is home to a 24-bed hospital ( Lakeridge Health Port Perry), Scugog Township's municipal offices and many retail establishments. Port Perry serves as a hub for many small communities in the Scugog area, such as Greenbank, Raglan, Caesarea, Blackstock and Nestleton/Nestleton Station. The Great Blue Heron Charitable Casino is a major employer. Located at the basin of the Trent-Severn Waterways is

Lake Scugog Lake Scugog is an artificially flooded lake in Scugog, Regional Municipality of Durham and the unitary city of Kawartha Lakes in central Ontario, Canada. It lies between the communities of Port Perry and Lindsay. The lake has been raised and l ...

, one of Ontario's largest man-made lakes.

History

The area around Port Perry was first surveyed as part of Reach Township by

Major Major ( commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicato ...

Samuel Street Wilmot Samuel Street Wilmot (March 29, 1773 – December 1856) was a surveyor, tanner, farmer and political figure in Upper Canada. He represented Durham in the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada from 1820 to 1824. He was born in New York state ...

in 1809. The first settler in the area was Reuben Crandell, a

United Empire Loyalist United Empire Loyalists (or simply Loyalists) is an honorific title which was first given by the 1st Lord Dorchester, the Governor of Quebec, and Governor General of The Canadas, to American Loyalists who resettled in British North America ...

who built a homestead with his wife in May 1821. Their original home is still in use and can be seen on King Street between Prince Albert and Manchester. In November 1821, Lucy Ann Crandell became the first child of European descent born in the area. In 1831, Crandell and his family moved to a homestead at what became Crandell's Corners (later called Borelia). It had its own Post Office, near the present-day junction of Queen Street and Highway 7A. Settler Peter Perry laid out village lots on the shore of

in 1848 on the site of a former native village known as Scugog Village. The townsite was named Port Perry in 1852 and its first Postmaster was Joseph Bigelow. It was incorporated as a village in 1871. At the time there was an intense rivalry between Port Perry and two nearby towns, Prince Albert and Manchester. Expecting great things for "his" town, Peter Perry predicted that goats would eat grass off of Prince Albert's main street. At the time, Prince Albert sat astride a planked toll road running south to

. Grain and lumber from areas throughout the area south-east of Lake Simcoe fed through Prince Albert, which was a major grain trading area. Perry and others in Port Perry felt a railway was a much better option, and Perry's prediction would eventually come true. A group of local businessmen started the process of bringing the

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a p ...

to the town in 1867, and the first train on the

Port Whitby and Port Perry Railway The Port Whitby and Port Perry Railway (PW&PP) was a railway running from Whitby to Port Perry, running north–south about 50 km east of Toronto. It was built to connect local grain and logging interests with the railway mainlines on the s ...

reached the terminus in Port Perry in 1872. In the following year the grain elevator was built, still standing today as Canada's oldest existing

grain elevator A grain elevator is a facility designed to stockpile or store grain. In the grain trade, the term "grain elevator" also describes a tower containing a bucket elevator or a pneumatic conveyor, which scoops up grain from a lower level and deposi ...

. Cargo from all over northern Ontario was shipped via the Trent-Severn Waterway to Port Perry via

, and then via the railway to Whitby, where it could be loaded onto the CP or CN mainlines running along the shore of

Lake Ontario Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York. The Canada–United States border sp ...

, or onto ships in Port Whitby. Businesses quickly moved out of Prince Albert and moved to Port Perry, leaving Prince Albert effectively a suburb of Port Perry today. The Port Perry Granary still stands as a tall sentinel on the shores of Lake Scugog and proud of being Canada's oldest grain elevator outlasting numerous fires and modern day demolition. Port Perry grain mill and elevator circa 1930

Port Perry grain mill and elevator circa 1930

The village was amalgamated with Cartwright,

Reach Reach or REACH may refer to: Companies and organizations * Reach plc, formerly Trinity Mirror, large British newspaper, magazine, and digital publisher * Reach Canada, an NGO in Canada * Reach Limited, an Asia Pacific cable network company ...

and Scugog Townships to form the Township of Scugog in 1974 upon the creation of the Regional Municipality of Durham. An Ontario Historical Plaque was erected at the Scugog Shores Museum by the province to commemorate cartoonist

Jimmy Frise The Canadian cartoonist James Llewellyn Frise (, 16 October 1891 – 13 June 1948) is best known for his work on the comic strip ''Birdseye '' and his illustrations of humorous prose pieces by Greg Clark (journalist), Greg Clark. Born in ...

's role in Ontario's heritage.

Culture and recreation

Former Port Perry Town Hall NHS- Port Perry- Scugog- Ontario-4211-20211230

Port Perry's Victorian-era downtown is a tourist destination, with clothing stores, restaurants, cafés, bookstores, galleries and antique shops. In the summer, the town features the festivals Mississauga First Nation Pow Wow, the Highland Games, the Dragon Boat Races and StreetFest. Port Perry is also home to th
Theatre on The Ridge
summer theatre festival featuring 6 shows performed at Townhall 1873 during July and August. Its annual fair, held every

Labour Day Labour Day (''Labor Day'' in the United States) is an annual holiday to celebrate the achievements of workers. Labour Day has its origins in the labour union movement, specifically the eight-hour day movement, which advocated eight hours for ...

weekend, has been running for over 150 years. There are also golf courses, both public and private. Other attractions in Port Perry and surrounding area include the Great Blue Heron Charity Casino, Scugog Memorial Library (featuring the Kent Farndale Art Gallery), the Scugog Shores Historical Museum and the Town Hall 1873 Centre for the Performing Arts. At many local farms, visitors may pick their own seasonal fruit (strawberries, raspberries, apples). In the summer, bass tournaments and lakeside activities are also featured. The Lake Scugog shoreline offers two popular lakeside parks, Palmer and Birdseye. There are active fishing seasons, both winter and summer. In the winter months, Lake Scugog is dotted with ice-fishing huts and is a destination for ice fishermen and snowmobilers.

Notable residents

* Kate Beirness, TSN sports broadcaster and Port Perry native * George Burnett, hockey coach in

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey sports league, league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranke ...

American Hockey League The American Hockey League (AHL) is a professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary developmental league for the National Hockey League (NHL). Since the 2010–11 season, every team in the lea ...

Ontario Hockey League The Ontario Hockey League (OHL; french: Ligue de hockey de l'Ontario (LHO)) is one of the three major junior ice hockey leagues which constitute the Canadian Hockey League. The league is for players aged 16–19. There are exceptions for overa ...

and

Hockey Canada Hockey Canada (which merged with the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association in 1994) is the national governing body of ice hockey and ice sledge hockey in Canada. It is a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation and controls the majority ...

* George A. Cope, CEO, Bell Canada Enterprises *

Gertrude Spurr Cutts Gertrude Eleanor Spurr Cutts (1858–1941) was a Canadian artist. Career Born in Scarborough, Yorkshire, England, Gertrude Spurr began her career as an artist in England, exhibiting her work with the Royal Society of British Artists and the ...

, English-born painter spent latter part of her life in Port Perry * Ty Dellandrea, forward for the Dallas Stars of the

* Brad Goreski, celebrity fashion stylist and TV personality born in Port Perry *

Vladimir Hachinski Vladimir Hachinski is a Canadian clinical neuroscientist and researcher based at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry at Western University. He is also a Senior Scientist at London's Robarts Research Institute. His research pertains ...

, renowned clinical neurologist and researcher in stroke and dementia; born in

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inva ...

and raised in Port Perry *

Bill Lishman William Lishman (February 12, 1939 – December 30, 2017) was a Canadian sculptor, filmmaker, inventor, naturalist and public speaker, president of William Lishman & Associates Limited, Vice President of Paula Lishman Limited and Chair Emeritu ...

, sculptor, filmmaker, inventor, naturalist and public speaker; lived in nearby Blackstock *

James Howden MacBrien Major General Sir James Howden MacBrien (30 June 1878 – 5 March 1938) was a Canadian soldier and Chief of the General Staff, the head of the Canadian Militia (renamed the Canadian Army in 1940) from 1920 until 1927. Military career Educate ...

, Commander of the Canadian Army and RCMP; born in nearby Myrtle and raised in Port Perry *

Jayde Nicole Jayde Nicole (born February 19, 1986) is a Canadian model and businesswoman. She was ''Playboy''′s Playmate of the Month for January 2007 and was named the 2008 Playmate of the Year in the June issue of the men's magazine. She is the first Cana ...

, Canadian Model, born in Scarborough and raised in Port Perry *

Daniel David Palmer Daniel David Palmer (March 7, 1845 – October 20, 1913) was a Canadian American chiropractor who was the founder of chiropractic. Palmer was born in Pickering, Ontario, but emigrated to the United States in 1865. He was also an avid proponen ...

, the founder of Palmer School of Chiropractic; born in Port Perry *

J. F. Paxton John Franklin Paxton (October 14, 1857May 12, 1936) was a Canadian ice hockey administrator. He served as president of the Ontario Hockey Association (OHA) and also acted as president of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association during World Wa ...

(1857–1936), Canadian ice hockey administrator *

Thomas Paxton Thomas Charles Paxton (November 27, 1820July 3, 1887) was a Canadian politician, businessman and sheriff. As a partner in industrial business ventures, he was one of the founding fathers of Port Perry. He helped establish the first steam-power ...

(1820–1887), Port Perry industrial businessman, politician and sheriff *

Dan Petronijevic Daniel Petronijevic (born March 28, 1981 in Scarborough, Ontario), known professionally as Dan Petronijevic, is a Canadian actor who has appeared in various feature films, including the '' American Pie'' franchise, and in TV shows such as '' 19-2 ...

, television actor *

John Ross Roach John Ross Roach (June 23, 1900 – July 9, 1973) was a Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender who played in the National Hockey League between 1921 and 1935. His nicknames were "Little Napoleon", "The Housecleaner", and "The Port Perry Cucum ...

, NHL goalie of the 1930s and born in Port Perry * Craig Russell, female impersonator, best known for his lead role in the movie, ''Outrageous!''; buried in Port Perry * Emily VanCamp, film and television actress; born and raised in Port Perry * Fred Whitcroft, amateur and NHA hockey player, inductee of Hockey Hall of Fame; born in Port Perry

In film

Port Perry has attracted many film crews over the years, both for

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

and

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

; it doubled as the fictional

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and nor ...

town of Mooseport in the 2004 film '' Welcome to Mooseport'' and was used briefly as a small town in

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

during the sixth season of ''The West Wing''. The town was the primary production location for the 1996 film, '' Fly Away Home'', based on Port Perry inventor

's experiments in the 1980s and 1990s imprinting geese in order to alter and preserve migration routes. The film fictionalized Lishman's personal life, but used him as a consultant for its aerial and technical production. Port Perry is also used as exteriors for the TV series ''Hemlock Grove'' which is set in Western Pennsylvania. American TV Series "Jack Reacher" (Season 1) was shot around Downtown Port Perry in 2020–2021. The town's "Piano Inn & Cafe" was changed into a "JJ's Ale House" for the shoot. Port Perry is being used as a small town known as Lakeside for season three of the Amazon show '' American Gods (TV series)''. They painted the Mill black and added fake shops, the "PORT PERRY" wording at the top of the Old Mill will be changed to "LAKESIDE as well as adding fake snow around the town.

References

External links

Discover Downtown Port PerryPort Perry
at Geographical Names of Canada {{authority control Communities in the Regional Municipality of Durham Former municipalities in Ontario Populated places disestablished in 1974