Cobourg ( ) is a town in the

Canadian province Canada has ten provinces and three territories that are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Constitution of Canada, Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North Amer ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, located in

Southern Ontario Southern Ontario is a Region, primary region of the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario. It is the most densely populated and southernmost region in Canada, with approximately 13.5 million people, approximately 36% o ...

east of

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

and east of

Oshawa Oshawa 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 Greater Toronto Area and of the Golden Horseshoe. It ...

. It is the largest town in and seat of Northumberland County. Its nearest neighbour is Port Hope, to the west. It is located along

Highway 401 King's Highway 401, commonly referred to as Highway 401 and also known by its official name as the Macdonald–Cartier Freeway or colloquially referred to as the four-oh-one, is a controlled-access 400-series highway in the Canadian prov ...

(exits 472 and 474) and the former Highway 2 (now Northumberland County Road 2). To the south, Cobourg borders

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 (state), New York. The Canada–United Sta ...

. To the north, east and west, it is surrounded by Hamilton Township.

History

The land which present-day Cobourg occupies was previously inhabited by Mississauga (

Anishinaabe The Anishinaabe (alternatively spelled Anishinabe, Anicinape, Nishnaabe, Neshnabé, Anishinaabeg, Anishinabek, Aanishnaabe) are a group of culturally related Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous peoples in the Great Lakes region of C ...

-speaking) peoples. The settlements that make up today's Cobourg were founded by

United Empire Loyalists United Empire Loyalist (UEL; or simply Loyalist) is an honorific title which was first given by Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester, the 1st Lord Dorchester, the governor of Province of Quebec (1763–1791), Quebec and Governor General, governor ...

in 1798 within Northumberland County,

Home District The Home District was one of four districts of the Province of Quebec created in 1788 in the western reaches of the Montreal District and detached in 1791 to create the new colony of Upper Canada. It was abolished with the adoption of the county ...

Province of Upper Canada The Province of Upper Canada () was a part of British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North America, formerly part of the Province of Quebec since 1763. Upper ...

. Some of the founding fathers and early settlers were Eliud Nickerson, Joseph Ash,

Zacheus Burnham Zacheus Burnham (February 20, 1777 – February 25, 1857) was a farmer, judge and political figure in Upper Canada. He was born in 1777 in Dunbarton, New Hampshire. He arrived in Upper Canada in 1797 and settled in Hamilton Township near th ...

and

Asa Allworth Burnham Asa Allworth Burnham (1808 – May 10, 1873) was an Ontario farmer and political figure. He was a Conservative member of the Senate of Canada from 1867 to 1873. He was born in Cobourg, Upper Canada in 1808, the son of Asa Burnham who was one ...

. The Town was originally a group of smaller villages such as Amherst and Hardscrabble, which were later named Hamilton. In 1808 it became the district town for the

Newcastle District The Newcastle District was a historic district in Upper Canada which existed until 1849. It was formed in 1802 from the Home District, consisting of the counties of Durham and Northumberland. History The legislature had enacted in 1798 that "as s ...

. It was renamed Cobourg in 1819, in recognition of the marriage of

Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales Princess is a title used by a female member of a regnant monarch's family or by a female ruler of a principality. The male equivalent is a prince (from Latin ''princeps'', meaning principal citizen). Most often, the term has been used for t ...

to Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (later

Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (), or Saxe-Coburg-Gotha ( ), was an Ernestine duchy in Thuringia ruled by a branch of the House of Wettin, consisting of territories in the present-day states of Thuringia and Bavaria in Germany. It lasted from 1826 to ...

, who would later become King of

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

Victoria College-Cobourg-Ontario-CRHP8208-20240901

By the 1830s, Cobourg had become a regional centre, mostly due to its fine harbour on

. In 1835 the Upper Canada Academy was established in Cobourg by

Egerton Ryerson Adolphus Egerton Ryerson (24 March 1803 – 19 February 1882) was a Canadian educator, author, editor, and Methodist minister who was a prominent contributor to the design of the Canadian public school system. Ryerson is considered to be the fo ...

and the Wesleyan Conference of Bishops. On 1 July 1837, Cobourg was officially incorporated as a town. In 1841 the Upper Canada Academy's name was changed to Victoria College. In 1842 Victoria College was granted powers to confer degrees. Victoria College remained in Cobourg until 1892, when it was moved to Toronto and federated with the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

. In 1842,

John Strachan John Strachan (; 12 April 1778 – 1 November 1867) was a notable figure in Upper Canada, an "elite member" of the Family Compact, and the first Anglican Bishop of Toronto. He is best known as a political bishop who held many government posit ...

founded the Diocesan Theological Institute in Cobourg, an

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

seminary that became integrated into the

University of Trinity College Trinity College (occasionally referred to as the University of Trinity College) is a University of Toronto#Colleges, federated college of the University of Toronto located at the University of Toronto#St. George campus, St. George campus in Down ...

in Toronto in 1852.

The Railway to Rice Lake

The

timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into uniform and useful sizes (dimensional lumber), including beams and planks or boards. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, window frames). ...

and other resources of Cobourg's large hinterland were identified as the key to its prosperity, and if they could be brought to the harbour, Lake Ontario opened up a large and prosperous market.

Peterborough Peterborough ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in the City of Peterborough district in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Cambridgeshire, England. The city is north of London, on the River Nene. A ...

to the north, founded in 1825 by

Peter Robinson Peter Robinson may refer to: Entertainment * Peter Robinson (sideshow artist) (1873–1947), American actor and sideshow performer, known for his appearance in film ''Freaks'' (1932) * J. Peter Robinson (born 1945), British musician and film score ...

, had become the principal source area, and in the 1830s the waterways were still the prime method of bulk transport. Rice Lake and the

Otonabee River The Otonabee River is a river in Peterborough County in Central Ontario, Canada. The river flows from Katchewanooka Lake, at the north end of the community of Lakefield, through the city of Peterborough to Rice Lake. It is in the Great Lakes B ...

were brought into use when James Gray Bethune established a steamer running across the lake and up the Otonabee which was navigable through to Peterborough. This meant goods and passengers could be brought at least to the south shore of Rice Lake. The remaining 8 miles of rough tracks was viable for passengers and light goods, but no use for the valuable timber and mine products. By 1835, only 10 years after the first steam railway in the world, there was active discussion about building a railway up to what later became Harwood. However, the townspeople invested instead in a plank road, using 300,000 feet of 3-inch wooden planks, allowing horse-drawn vehicles to haul heavy goods. By 1850 the plank road was breaking up, and was impassible in wet conditions, so the railway scheme was revived. By 1852, there was considerable enthusiasm for the railway project within the town. River traffic had become seen as yesterday's solution by this time, so the plans were expanded to include a long bridge across Rice Lake, to take the railway right up to Peterborough. By 1854 the rails reached the shore of the lake, and it found good work transporting passengers and nearly 2 million feet of lumber from the Rice Lake down to Cobourg that summer. However, revenue from the project had to be diverted into building an ill-fated bridge, using hundreds of wooden trestles, 31

Burr Truss The Burr Arch Truss—or, simply, Burr Truss or Burr Arch—is a combination of an arch and a ''multiple kingpost'' truss design. It was invented in 1804 by Theodore Burr, patented on April 3, 1817, and used in bridges, usually covered bridges ...

spans, and a centre-pivot

swing bridge A swing bridge (or swing span bridge) is a movable bridge that can be rotated horizontally around a vertical axis. It has as its primary structural support a vertical locating pin and support ring, usually at or near to its center of gravit ...

to allow boats to pass. The prime mover locally for getting the Railway company off the ground was D'Arcy E. Boulton, a lawyer based in Cobourg, who enthused the town with the plan. They agreed to begin funding the scheme that was initially expected to cost £150,000, but ended leaving many people with worthless railway bonds and the town council with a debt that was only finally repaid in the 1930s. The man appointed to manage the project was Samuel Zimmerman, who had previously been instrumental in building the

Great Western Railway (Ontario) The Great Western Railway was a railway that operated in Canada West, today's province of Ontario, Canada. It was the first railway chartered in the province, receiving its original charter as the London and Gore Railroad on March 6, 1834, b ...

. The bridge was constructed over the summer of 1854 and was officially opened on 29 December that year. Three days later, it collapsed when ice movements shifted the trestles out of line, splintering the Burr Truss sections. The proposed solution was to stabilise the trestles (or 'stilts' as their critics dubbed them) by an infill of soil, which did happen on the southern side, still visible as a strip of land still remaining running into the lake near Harwood. But funds were not forthcoming for the northern side, and winter ice and shifting lake mud meant that it was frequently unusable. A further problem emerged when Port Hope, not far along the coast, pursued its own plans for a Railway to Peterborough. In 1857, the Port Hope and Lindsay line was constructed, and the following year opened a branch to Peterborough, going round the western end of the lake, in direct competition with the struggling Cobourg route. The response of the Cobourg directors was to oust D.E. Boulton, who then invested in the Port Hope line. Conflicts of interest among various personnel resulted in the deliberate removal of the bolts on sections of the bridge in early 1861, ensuring that when the ice moved again the bridge was destroyed, and this time it was left unrepaired. The railway reverted to linking Cobourg harbour with Harwood and the Rice Lake water traffic. In 1865, the railway was bought by a consortium of Pittsburgh steel manufacturers, who had already bought the Marmora Iron quarries north-east of Rice Lake. They established an iron-ore supply route using barges up the Trent River and across Rice Lake to the railway at Harwood. From there it was brought along the Railway to Cobourg Harbour for shipment across Lake Ontario to feed the steel mills of America. This provided a steady income for the railway and the town until the ore ran out in 1878. It also had two longer term spin-offs in the form of a rail car company and the beginnings of a tourist industry.

Crossen Car Works

When the iron ore scheme was getting underway, a small iron foundry based in Cobourg, was approached to cast the wheels and frames of wagons to move the Marmora iron ore down to the harbour. James Crossen saw an opportunity to combine his cast-iron products with the abundant local timber to produce railway rolling stock. With the foundry located near both the Cobourg line and train station of the

Grand Trunk Railway The Grand Trunk Railway (; ) was a Rail transport, railway system that operated in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario and in the List of states and territories of the United States, American sta ...

, which had been built along the shore of Lake Ontario in 1856, it was well placed to expand as Canada's railway network grew. It was later named the Crossen Car Manufacturing Company and went on to become the largest builder of timber-framed rail cars in Canada, making everything from coal and freight wagons through to dining cars and first-class carriages. By 1910, wood was going out of date, when all-steel cars took over, and in 1915 the company, unable to adapt, went into liquidation, and parts of the site reverted to being an iron foundry. A replica of one of the Crossen ore cars was built in 2016 and is on display near Cobourg waterfront.

Wealthy Americans

The connections and trade links which developed through the iron shipments brought many American industrialists to Cobourg, which became a popular summer destination. High class hotels were established, followed in the late 19th century and early 20th century by enormous summer homes for wealthy Americans, a few of which still stand today. One notable home, on King Street East, later became the Brookside School, a youth detention centre. (It has now closed, and the property stands idle.) A major ferry service connected Cobourg and

Rochester, New York Rochester is a city in and the county seat, seat of government of Monroe County, New York, United States. It is the List of municipalities in New York, fourth-most populous city and 10th most-populated municipality in New York, with a populati ...

from 1907 to 1952, transporting passengers and cargo across Lake Ontario, allowing Americans to reach the town more readily.

Victoria Hall

For a brief moment in 1856, the town, with both its new railway link to the interior and an east–west rail connection along the Grand Trunk Railway, was feeling secure in its future prosperity, and thought a new Town Hall would encourage further investment and be an asset to the area. Victoria Hall stands at the heart of the downtown, a building that now serves as the town hall, as well as home of the Art Gallery of Northumberland, the Cobourg Concert Hall, and an

Old Bailey The Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, commonly referred to as the Old Bailey after the street on which it stands, is a criminal court building in central London, one of several that house the Crown Court of England and Wales. The s ...

-style courtroom that is now used as the Council chamber. Victoria Hall was designed by architect

Kivas Tully Kivas Tully, Imperial Service Order, ISO (1820 – 24 April 1905) was an Irish-Canadian architect. Life Born in Garryvacum in County Laois, Ireland, Kivas Tully was the son of John P. Tully, a lieutenant in the Royal Navy, and Alicia Willington ...

. The landmark is known for its impressive stone work. Charles Thomas Thomas (1820-1867), an English-born master stonecarver and building contractor, executed the fine stone carvings, including the bearded faced keystone over the main entrance into the building. Victoria Hall was officially opened on September 6, 1860 by the

Prince of Wales Prince of Wales (, ; ) is a title traditionally given to the male heir apparent to the History of the English monarchy, English, and later, the British throne. The title originated with the Welsh rulers of Kingdom of Gwynedd, Gwynedd who, from ...

, later to become

King Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria and ...

. At that time, Cobourg was a significant town in the

Province of Canada The Province of Canada (or the United Province of Canada or the United Canadas) was a British colony in British North America from 1841 to 1867. Its formation reflected recommendations made by John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, in the Report ...

, and some townspeople felt that Cobourg would be a suitable capital for the newly united provinces; this privilege went to

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

, Ontario, however.

Heritage Centre

One of the oldest buildings in the town was for many years known as The Barracks, suggesting military connections. However it is equally likely that it was built for industrial uses, either in the very early 1800s or as a malting house and brewery by James Calcutt in the early 1830s. It probably served that purpose until a larger brewery was built by the McKechnies in 1863. The old stone-built building had a variety of industrial and storage purposes, and twenty different owners. In 2000 it was acquired in a run-down state by the

Cobourg Museum Foundation The Cobourg Museum Foundation was incorporated under the laws of the province of Ontario on November 22, 1999. Letters Patent of Incorporation were issued on November 22, 1999, with Douglas Sifton, Muriel Edwards and Joan Chalovich as the firs ...

, who have restored it and it is now open as the Sifton-Cook Heritage Centre.

Cobourg Jail

In 1906 on 77 Albert Street the Cobourg Jail, originally referred to as The County Jail, began to house inmates. Over time the Cobourg jail continued to expand to house the increasing population of inmates. In 1998 the jail closed and the year after in 1999 was purchased by private buyers. The jail has since been converted to a tourist attraction called the King George Inn with the jail still intact to see or stay in. Additionally, a family restaurant was implemented for guests and non-guests of the hotel.

Crash landing

On 20 December 1951, Cobourg experienced media attention as a chartered

Curtiss C-46 Commando The Curtiss C-46 Commando is a low-wing, twin-engine aircraft derived from the Curtiss CW-20 pressurized high-altitude airliner design. Early press reports used the name "Condor III" but the Commando name was in use by early 1942 in company p ...

airplane, bound for

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the List of municipalities in New Jersey, most populous City (New Jersey), city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, the county seat of Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County, and a principal city of the New York metropolitan area. ...

, made an emergency landing in local farmer Charles Wilson's field, alongside Highway 2 and Roger's Road. The pilot had lost his way after losing radio contact, and unwittingly drifted north. The 44 passengers and three crew escaped unhurt, but extremely cold in the sub-zero temperatures. The plane, having crash landed on deep snow, was able to be repaired and the field smoothed out enough for it to get airborne again. Cobourg was the site of No. 26 Ordnance Depot, later Canadian Forces Station Cobourg, from 1953 to 1971.

Regeneration

Throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, the town invested heavily in purchasing property along the waterfront and beautifying the area. A boardwalk was developed to connect the harbour and large sandy beach while further pathways were created to encompass Victoria Park and the historic downtown. Because of this renewal and revitalization, many community activities now revolve in and around these spaces.

Climate

Cobourg has a

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers, and cold ...

(

Dfb DFB may refer to: Music * Dem Franchize Boyz, an Atlanta hip hop group * Dysfunctional Family BBQ, a New York festival Sport * DFB-Pokal, a football cup competition in Germany Organisations * Furka Steam Railway (), Switzerland * German Footbal ...

) with warm summers and cold winters.

Transportation

and Northumberland County Road 2 (formerly Highway 2) pass through town. County Road 45 (formerly Highway 45) begins in Cobourg and heads north-east to Norwood. The

Canadian Pacific The Canadian Pacific Railway () , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadian Pacific Kansas City, Canadian Pacific Ka ...

and

Canadian National The Canadian National Railway Company () is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN is Canada's largest railway, in terms of both revenue an ...

main railway lines (

–

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

) traverse the town.

Via Rail Via Rail Canada Inc. (), operating as Via Rail or Via (stylized as VIA Rail), is a Canadian Crown corporation that operates intercity passenger rail service in Canada. As of December 2023, Via Rail operates 406 trains per week across eight ...

offers passenger service to Cobourg railway station with multiple daily departures on the Toronto – Ottawa/Montreal route.

Cobourg Transit Cobourg Transit is a fully accessible community transit system that serves the Cobourg, Ontario, Town of Cobourg, operating with a fleet of diesel Bus, buses. The buses are separated into two areas on the interior, the front having low floors wit ...

is a fully accessible community transit system that provides daily bus service to the town. The community transit system ends its runs by 7pm, which can hamper travel for those without other means of transportation. It formerly ran until 9:30pm however the hours were reduced. The Ontario Waterfront Trail passes through Cobourg and cyclists can be found moving through daily during the warmer months.

Demographics

In the

2021 Census of Population The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sli ...

conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; ), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and culture. It is headquartered in ...

, Cobourg had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021. Age Distribution in Cobourg 2006

Age Profile *Age 0-14: 18.1% *Age 15-24: 11.9% *Age 25-44: 24.7% *Age 45-64: 24.2% *Age 65-74: 10.8% *Age 75+: 10.3% Religious Make Up *56.1%

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

*23.9%

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

*2.2% other Christian *0.7% other religions *17.1% non-professing Racial Profile *91.4%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

*4.4%

Indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology) In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often populari ...

*3.8%

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean **Korean dialects **See also: North–South differences in t ...

*0.7%

Black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

Government

The Town of Cobourg is governed by a seven-member town council. The Town is responsible for delivering a variety of local services, including planning, transit, fire and police protection, and the maintenance of local roads and parks. Certain responsibilities, such as waste management or paramedic services, are the responsibility of Northumberland County. There are six advisory committees appointed by the city council. These bodies are made up of city councillors. * Accessibility Advisory Committee - effective 2023 * Civic Awards Advisory Committee - to re-convene in 2024 * Cobourg Heritage Advisory Committee - effective 2023 * Cobourg Police Service Board - effective 2023 * Cobourg Public Library Board - effective 2023 * Committee of Adjustment - effective 2023 Previous bodies include: * Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee - no longer active * Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee - no longer active * Planning and Development Advisory Committee - no longer active * Sustainability and Climate Change Emergency Advisory Committee - no longer active * Transportation Advisory Committee, Zero Emission Ad Hoc Committee (on hold) The Town maintains an independent municipal police force, the Cobourg Police Service, which provides policing services to all areas of the municipality as well as seasonal by-law enforcement services in the neighbouring Township of Hamilton. The Town of Cobourg had an approved operating budget of in 2023 and a capital budget plan of . The town's revenues include subsidies from the

Government of Canada The Government of Canada (), formally His Majesty's Government (), is the body responsible for the federation, federal administration of Canada. The term ''Government of Canada'' refers specifically to the executive, which includes Minister of t ...

and the Government of Ontario (for programs mandated by those governments). The town's largest operating expenditure is the Harbour Rehabilitation project costing nearly in 2023.

Education

Public education in Cobourg is under the management of the

Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board (known as English-language Public District School Board No. 14 prior to 1999) is a Canadian public, secular, English-language school board headquartered in Peterborough, Ontario. It extends from the Kawa ...

, and Catholic education is by the

Peterborough Victoria Northumberland and Clarington Catholic District School Board The Peterborough Victoria Northumberland and Clarington Catholic District School Board (known as English-language Separate District School Board No. 41 prior to 1999) is the Catholic English school board for the region and is headquartered in Pet ...

. Cobourg also has a satellite campus of

Fleming College Fleming College, also known as Sir Sandford Fleming College, is an List of Ontario Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology, Ontario College of Applied Arts and Technology located in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. History The college was named ...

. In 1871, Cobourg's first Collegiate Institute was erected on King Street East. In 1899, the student population at the original Cobourg Collegiate Institute had outgrown the school. New plans for another school on the west end of King Street were put in place and the new school building on 135 King Street was built. This new building was called the West high school and the older school building was then named the East high school. The West high school had many additions in the 1920s as the school continued to grow. The two schools co-existed for 116 years until the closing of both schools in 2015. The purpose of closing the two schools was to bring them back together with the fabrication of a brand new Cobourg Collegiate Institute in 2015. The new school was built on the property of the old east high school. The old west high school was not demolished, but renamed William Academy Cobourg West and is a functioning co-ed private school for grades 7-12.

Schools

Attractions

Cobourg retains its small-town atmosphere, in part due to the downtown and surrounding residential area's status as a Heritage Conservation District. The downtown is a well-preserved example of a traditional small-town main street. Victoria Hall, the town hall completed in 1860, is a

National Historic Site of Canada National Historic Sites of Canada () are places that have been designated by the federal Minister of the Environment on the advice of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (HSMBC), as being of national historic significance. Parks C ...

. The oldest building in the town is now open as the Sifton Cook Heritage Centre and operated by the

Cobourg has several parks. The Cobourg Waterfront Festival, held in Victoria Park and the nearby beach and harbour, is an annual arts and crafts event occurring on Canada Day. It began in 1987 as part of the town's sesquicentennial celebrations, and was conceived by the Art Gallery of Northumberland's former Director/Curator Peter Tulumello and former Concert Hall Manager Mark Finnan. Cobourg's oldest annual event, the Cobourg Highland Games, was started in 1963 in Donegan Park by Dave Carr to celebrate the Scottish culture in the area. The event is now held in Victoria Park in June. Cobourg's beach, Victoria Park Beach, is used as a location for volleyball tournaments, events, beach days, family picnics and other events. The beach is equipped with a splash park, playground set, park area for eating, local restaurants and a pier. Additionally, there is a small trailer park located directly next to the beach. There are lifeguards on duty some days and it is safe to swim and play in. Close to the downtown, tourists can shop in local shops and eat out at many of Cobourg's restaurants. Cobourg is home to the Port Hope Drive-In, Canada's oldest drive-in.

Media

Print

*''

Northumberland Today Northumberland ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England, on the Anglo-Scottish border, border with Scotland. It is bordered by the North Sea to the east, Tyne and Wear and County Durham to the south, Cumb ...

'', owned by

Osprey Media Osprey Media L.P. was a Canadian newspaper regional chain that published 20 daily newspapers, 34 non-daily newspapers, and a number of shopping guides and magazines in the Canadian province of Ontario. Formerly an independent income trust, Osprey ...

, is a daily newspaper with content contributed from the Cobourg Star and Port Hope Guide.

Radio

Five radio stations are licensed to Cobourg, providing music, news and local programming to Northumberland County and surrounding areas. * FM 89.7 - CFWN, not-for-profit community-based, volunteer driven, programming focused on the community * FM 90.7 - CHJJ,

Christian music Christian music is a genre of music that has been written to express either personal or a communal belief regarding Christianity, Christian life and faith. Common themes of Christian music include praise, worship, penitence and lament, and its f ...

* FM 93.3 - CKSG,

adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...

* FM 103.1 - CFMZ, classical * FM 107.9 -

CHUC CHUC-FM is a Canadian radio station broadcasting at 107.9 FM in Cobourg, Ontario, Canada. The station airs a classic rock format branded as ''Classic Rock 107.9''. It is owned by My Broadcasting Corporation.classic hits

TV

Cobourg uses cable 10 to broadcast local events and weather. Apart from that, Cobourg has no local

terrestrial television Terrestrial television, or over-the-air television (OTA) is a type of television broadcasting in which the content is signal transmission, transmitted via radio waves from the terrestrial (Earth-based) transmitter of a TV station to a TV rece ...

stations; the closest is

CHEX-TV CHEX-DT (channel 12) is a television station in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, part of the Global Television Network. Owned-and-operated station, Owned and operated by network parent Corus Entertainment, the station maintains studios on Monaghan ...

Peterborough, Ontario Peterborough ( ) is a city on the Otonabee River in Ontario, Canada, about 125 kilometres (78 miles) northeast of Toronto. According to the 2021 Census, the population of the City of Peterborough was 83,651. The population of the Peterborough ...

Notable people

* John Douglas Armour,

Puisne judge Puisne judge and puisne justice () are terms for an ordinary judge or a judge of lesser rank of a particular court. The term comes from a combination of the two French words, (since, later) and (born) which have been combined as or ; meaning ...

of the

Supreme Court of Canada The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC; , ) is the highest court in the judicial system of Canada. It comprises nine justices, whose decisions are the ultimate application of Canadian law, and grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants eac ...

* Ada Blenkhorn, hymn writer who wrote "

Keep on the Sunny Side Keep on the Sunny Side (Roud 10082, also known as Keep on the Sunny Side of Life), is a popular American song originally written in 1899 by Ada Blenkhorn (1858–1927) with music by J. Howard Entwisle (1866–1903). The song was popularized in a ...

" and "Let the Sunshine In" *

Charles Arkoll Boulton Charles Arkoll Boulton (April 17, 1841 – May 15, 1899) was an army officer and militia member who played roles in the Red River and North-West Rebellions. Biography He was born in Cobourg, Canada West in 1841, son of D’Arcy Edward Bou ...

, militia leader in the

Red River Rebellion The Red River Rebellion (), also known as the Red River Resistance, Red River uprising, or First Riel Rebellion, was the sequence of events that led up to the 1869 establishment of a provisional government by Métis leader Louis Riel and his f ...

Fern Blodgett Sunde Fern Alberta Blodgett Sunde (; July 6, 1918 – September 19, 1991) was a Canadian wireless radio operator who served on board the M/S ''Mosdale'', a Norwegian merchant vessel, during the Battle of the Atlantic. She was the first Canadian woman t ...

, first Canadian woman to serve with the merchant marines during the Second World War * Alan Bradley, author * Jeremiah Brown, Canadian Men's Eight Rowing Team, won silver at the 2012 London Olympic Games *

Mandy Bujold Mandy Marie Brigitte Bujold (born 25 July 1987) is a Canadian former amateur boxer. She won gold medals in the women's flyweight category at the 2011 and 2015 Pan American Games and won a bronze medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. ...

, Canadian boxer * James Cockburn, lawyer and Father of

Confederation A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a political union of sovereign states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...

* cleopatrick, rock band *

Martin Dobkin Martin Lyon Dobkin (born May 8, 1942) is a physician and former politician in Ontario, Canada. He was elected on October 1, 1973, as the first Mayor of the new City of Mississauga, Ontario, and served as Mayor from 1973 to 1976. He was the inaugur ...

, first mayor of the City of

Mississauga Mississauga is a Canadian city in the province of Ontario. Situated on the north-western shore of Lake Ontario in the Regional Municipality of Peel, it borders Toronto (Etobicoke) to the east, Brampton to the north, Milton to the northwest, ...

and served as Mayor from 1973 to 1976. *

Marie Dressler Leila Marie Koerber (November 9, 1868 – July 28, 1934), known professionally as Marie Dressler, was a Canadian-born stage- and screen-actress and comedian, popular in Cinema of the United States, Hollywood in early silent film, silent an ...

, silent film actress, Academy Award winner best actress 1931 * Francis P. Duffy, Canadian-born military chaplain of the Fighting 69th New York Regiment during WWI *

Sandford Fleming Sir Sandford Fleming (January 7, 1827 – July 22, 1915) was a Scottish Canadian engineer and inventor. Born and raised in Scotland, he immigrated to colonial Canada at the age of 18. He promoted worldwide standard time zones, a prime meridian, ...

who helped create and define the idea of time zones *Rev.

John Weir Foote John Weir Foote, (May 5, 1904 – May 2, 1988) was a Canadian military chaplain and politician. He received the Victoria Cross for his actions during the Dieppe Raid in 1942. Foote is the only Canadian chaplain to be awarded the Victoria C ...

, politician, chaplain, and

Victoria Cross The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious decoration of the Orders, decorations, and medals of the United Kingdom, British decorations system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British ...

recipient *

Ed Greenwood Ed Greenwood (born July 21, 1959) is a Canadian fantasy writer and the creator of the '' Forgotten Realms'' game world. He began writing articles about the Forgotten Realms for ''Dragon'' magazine beginning in 1979, and subsequently sold the rig ...

, author of the

Forgotten Realms ''Forgotten Realms'' is a campaign setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'') fantasy role-playing game. Commonly referred to by players and game designers as "The Realms", it was created by game designer Ed Greenwood around 1967 as a setti ...

setting for

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical ...

W. A. Hewitt William Abraham Hewitt (May 15, 1875September 8, 1966) was a Canadian sports executive and journalist, also widely known as Billy Hewitt. He was secretary of the Ontario Hockey Association (OHA) from 1903 to 1966, and sports editor of the ''To ...

, sports executive and journalist, Hockey Hall of Fame inductee; *

Paul Kane Paul Kane (September 3, 1810 – February 20, 1871) was an Irish-born Canadian painter whose paintings and especially field sketches were known as one of the first visual documents of Western indigenous life. A largely self-educated artist, P ...

, Irish-born Canadian painter *

Henry Bowyer Lane Henry Bowyer Joseph Lane (1817–1878) was an English architect who worked in Toronto from . Lane was born to Henry Bower Lane, a Royal Artillery Captain (OF-2), Captain and Elizabeth Lacey in 1817 and moved to Devon, England, Devon, England a ...

, English born Toronto architect * John Murray, pioneering oceanographer, marine biologist and limnologist. Considered the father of modern oceanography. * Ebenezer Perry (1788–1876), politician and Cobourg's first police commissioner * Josh Richards, internet personality, musician and actor * William Renwick Riddell, judge and historian * Dave "Goldie Rogers" Sherwin, professional wrestler * Virna Sheard, poet and novelist * Steve Smith,

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

hockey player *

Justin Williams Justin Craig Williams (born October 4, 1981) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey right winger. He played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Philadelphia Flyers, Carolina Hurricanes, Los Angeles Kings, and Washington Capitals ...

hockey player, 3-time Stanley Cup champion, winner of 2014

Conn Smythe Trophy The Conn Smythe Trophy () is awarded annually to the most valuable player (MVP) of his team during the National Hockey League's (NHL) Stanley Cup playoffs. It is named after Conn Smythe, the longtime owner, general manager, and head coach of the ...

Twin towns – sister cities

Cobourg is twinned with: *

Coburg Coburg ( , ) is a Town#Germany, town located on the Itz (river), Itz river in the Upper Franconia region of Bavaria, Germany. Long part of one of the Thuringian states of the Ernestine duchies, Wettin line, it joined Bavaria by popular vote only ...

, Germany

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Lower-tier municipalities in Ontario Populated places on Lake Ontario in Canada Towns in Ontario