Port Hope is a
municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality' ...
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 ...
, Canada, about 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 west of
Kingston
Kingston may refer to:
Places
* List of places called Kingston, including the six most populated:
** Kingston, Jamaica
** Kingston upon Hull, England
** City of Kingston, Victoria, Australia
** Kingston, Ontario, Canada
** Kingston upon Thames, ...
. It is at the mouth of the
Ganaraska River on the north 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 (state), New York. The Canada–United Sta ...
, in the west end of
Northumberland County. The private
Trinity College School opened here in 1868.
History
The
Cayuga people
The Cayuga ( Cayuga: Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫʼ, "People of the Great Swamp") are one of the five original constituents of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois), a confederacy of Native Americans in New York. The Cayuga homeland lies in the Finger Lakes re ...
inhabited the area in the early 17th century, and there was a
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, ...
village named Cochingomink also in the 17th century.
In 1778 a
fur trade
The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal ecosystem, boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals h ...
post was established and the settlement was known as Smith's Creek.
In 1793,
Loyalists
Loyalism, in the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and its former colonies, refers to the allegiance to the British crown or the United Kingdom. In North America, the most common usage of the term refers to loyalty to the British Cr ...
from the northern colonies became the first permanent settlers of European heritage in the area, as the Crown granted them land as compensation for being forced to leave the colonies (much of their property was confiscated by rebel governments) and as payment for military service.
John Graves Simcoe
Lieutenant-General (United Kingdom), Lieutenant-General John Graves Simcoe (25 February 1752 – 26 October 1806) was a British army officer, politician and colonial administrator who served as the lieutenant governor of Upper Canada from 1791 u ...
, then
lieutenant governor of Upper Canada, established the Township of Hope in the early 1790s, named after Colonel
Henry Hope
Henry Hope (1735–1811) was an Amsterdam merchant banker born in Braintree, Province of Massachusetts Bay. He emigrated to the Netherlands to join the family business, the Dutch bank Hope & Co., at a young age. From 1779, Henry became the man ...
, lieutenant governor of the
Province of Quebec
Quebec is Canada's largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, New Brunswick to the southeast and a coastal border ...
.
From 1817 to 1819 the area was known as Toronto or "Toronto at Smith's Creek".
In 1819 the village and township were united and named Port Hope. In 1834 Port Hope was incorporated as a town.
Relatively slow growth from 1881 to 1951 resulted in much of the town's 19th-century architecture surviving. Port Hope's downtown is celebrated as Ontario's best-preserved 19th-century streetscape. The town's chapter of the
Architectural Conservancy of Ontario and the Heritage Port Hope Advisory Committee are very active and advise on the restoration and preservation of architecturally or historically significant buildings.
With over 270 heritage-designated buildings, Port Hope has a higher per capita rate of preservation than any other town or city in Canada. The municipality regulates downtown businesses to maintain the town's unique character. This character makes Port Hope a destination for heritage tourism and people interested in architecture.
In 1978, eight members of the
Satan's Choice Motorcycle Club were charged with a murder that occurred at Port Hope's Queen's Hotel. The trial and conviction of some members—the
Port Hope 8 case—has been described as a miscarriage of justice.
In 2001, the original town amalgamated with Hope Township to form the Municipality of ''Port Hope and Hope'', which was renamed to its current name in November of that year. At the time of amalgamation, the census listed the town's population as 11,718 and the township's as 3,887.
The 2017 supernatural horror film ''
It'', its 2019 sequel ''
It Chapter Two
''It Chapter Two'' is a 2019 American supernatural horror film directed by Andy Muschietti from a screenplay by Gary Dauberman. It is the sequel to '' It'' (2017) and the second of a two-part adaptation of the 1986 novel '' It'' by Stephen Ki ...
'',
and its prequel television series ''
It – Welcome to Derry
''It: Welcome to Derry'' is an upcoming American supernatural horror television series based on Stephen King 1986 novel '' It'' and serving as a prequel to the films '' It'' (2017) and ''It Chapter Two'' (2019). The series was developed by Andy ...
'' were all filmed in Port Hope, which portrayed the fictional town of
Derry
Derry, officially Londonderry, is the second-largest City status in the United Kingdom, city in Northern Ireland, and the fifth-largest on the island of Ireland. Located in County Londonderry, the city now covers both banks of the River Fo ...
,
Maine
Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...
.
Radiation and cleanup
Port Hope is known for having the largest volume of historic low-level
radioactive
Radioactive decay (also known as nuclear decay, radioactivity, radioactive disintegration, or nuclear disintegration) is the process by which an unstable atomic nucleus loses energy by radiation. A material containing unstable nuclei is conside ...
wastes in Canada.
The waste was created by
Eldorado Mining and Refining Limited and its private sector predecessors, resulting from the refining of
radium
Radium is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Ra and atomic number 88. It is the sixth element in alkaline earth metal, group 2 of the periodic table, also known as the alkaline earth metals. Pure radium is silvery-white, ...
from
pitchblende
Uraninite, also known as pitchblende, is a radioactive, uranium-rich mineral and ore with a chemical composition that is largely UO2 but because of oxidation typically contains variable proportions of U3O8. Radioactive decay of the urani ...
. Radium was used in
radioluminescent paint (such as aircraft dials) and in early cancer treatments.
During World War II, the Eldorado plant produced exponentially more
uranium oxides, which the United States used in the
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development program undertaken during World War II to produce the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States in collaboration with the United Kingdom and Canada.
From 1942 to 1946, the ...
to make nuclear weapons. This plant, now under the ownership of
Cameco, continues to produce uranium fuel for nuclear power plants.
In 2002, a large amount of contaminated soil was removed from beachfront areas.
["Ontario town seeks federal inquiry into radiation pollution"](_blank)
, ''The Voice'', Volume 15, Issue 43, November 16, 2007. Mandy Gardner More recently, testing of over 5,000 properties began, with a plan to remove and store contaminated soil that had been used as landfill. Over $1 billion is expected to be spent on the soil remediation project, the largest such cleanup in Canadian history.
Geography
Communities
Besides the town proper of Port Hope, the municipality of Port Hope comprises a number of villages and hamlets, including Campbellcroft,
Canton,
Dale, Davidson's Corners (partially), Decker Hollow (ghost town), Elizabethville, Garden Hill, Knoxville, Morrish, Osaca, Perrytown, Port Britain, Rossmount (partially), Tinkerville, Thomstown,
Welcome
A welcome is a kind of greeting designed to introduce a person to a new place or situation, and to make them feel at ease. The term can similarly be used to describe the feeling of being accepted on the part of the new person.
Overview
In ...
, Wesleyville, and
Zion
Zion (; ) is a placename in the Tanakh, often used as a synonym for Jerusalem as well as for the Land of Israel as a whole.
The name is found in 2 Samuel (), one of the books of the Tanakh dated to approximately the mid-6th century BCE. It o ...
.
Climate
Port Hope 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) with warm summers and cold winters.
Demographics
In the
2021 Census of Population 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 ...
, Port Hope 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.
Mother tongue (2021):
* English as first language: 93.5%
* French as first language: 1.1%
* English and French as first language: 0.4%
* Other as first language: 4.3%
Economy
Downtown Port Hope offers shopping and a historic main street. Port Hope is served by a Via Rail station. It has a medical center, and a community health centre. It has had a daily newspaper since 1878, the ''Port Hope Evening Guide''. Until 2007, this was part of the
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 ...
chain and subsequently a part of the
Sun Media
Sun Media Corporation was the owner of several tabloid and broadsheet newspapers in Canada and the 49% owner of the now defunct Sun News Network. It was a subsidiary of Quebecor Media.
On October 6, 2014, Quebecor Media announced the sale of ...
organization. In 2009 the newspaper was amalgamated with the ''Cobourg Daily Star'' and renamed as ''Northumberland Today.com''. In November 2017 the newspaper was included in the large-scale closing of many local community newspapers throughout the province of Ontario.
Port Hope's Economic Development Strategic Plan aims to increase job growth at least as fast as population growth. The town has a variety of industries.
In January 2025, the Ontario Government announced plans for a new nuclear generating station to be built at Wesleyville.
Arts and culture

The
Ganaraska River (affectionately known as "The Ganny"), is well known to area anglers for annual salmon and trout runs. It has caused many historic floods, the most recent having occurred on March 21–22, 1980. Every April since until 2020, Port Hope has commemorated the flood with "Float Your Fanny Down the Ganny" ten kilometre boat race. "Participants range from serious paddlers navigating the cold, fast-moving water in kayaks and canoes, to the very entertaining 'crazy craft' paddlers, floating any combination of materials down the river in an attempt to reach the finish line." Due to the
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic.
The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...
pandemic, the event was cancelled in 2020 and 2021, the first time in its history for such action.
Attractions
The
Capitol Theatre is Canada's last functioning
atmospheric theatre. The theatre's main auditorium is styled after an outdoor medieval courtyard and rolling clouds are projected onto the ceiling. The town spent in excess of three million dollars renovating and upgrading the theatre in 2004–2005. It is also used for live events by Port Hope Festival Theatre.

The Municipality of Port Hope is home to many heritage and cultural attractions, and events, including:
* Float Your Fanny Down the Ganny—a water race commemorating the 1980 flood of the
Ganaraska River
* Ganaraska Forest Centre
* Canadian Firefighters Museum (now demolished)
* Port Hope Yacht Club
* Port Hope Festival Theatre at the
Capitol Theatre
* La Jeunesse Youth Orchestra (3 concerts per year)
* Port Hope and District Agricultural Fall Fair
* The All Canadian Jazz Festival
* Port Hope Farmers' Market (May to October)
* Port Hope Christmas and Santa Claus Parade (includes Festival of Trees, Candlelight Walk to Memorial Park, and Carol Singing)
* Port Hope Drive-In (Built in 1952, it is among the oldest Canadian drive-ins still operating)
* Architectural Conservancy of Ontario Annual House Tour, Garden Tour, and Antiques and Artifacts Auction
* Port Hope and District Historical Society Dorothy's House Museum
* Port Hope Archives
* Friends of Wesleyville Village
* Beaches:
** West Beach (parking at the end of Marsh Street)
** East Beach (parking at the bottom of King Street at Madison Street)
* Port Hope Waterfront Trail
* Port Hope Golf and Country Club
Infrastructure
Transportation
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 ...
runs through the north end of Port Hope, with exits at County Road 2/Toronto Road (461) and Highway 28/Ontario Street (464).
Port Hope Transit provides local bus service, and
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 ...
provides passenger service from the
Port Hope railway station along the Toronto-Montreal corridor. The station was built in 1856 for 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 ...
and later
CN Rail
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 ...
. It was restored in 1985.
Pleasure boats dock at the foot of John Street at Hayward Street and share the facilities with Cameco, which has berths for freighters servicing their manufacturing facilities at the mouth of the Ganaraska River.
Education
Public education in Port Hope is under the management of the
Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board, and Catholic education is by the
Peterborough Victoria Northumberland and Clarington Catholic District School Board.
Elementary schools
* St. Anthony's Elementary School, Catholic JK–8
* Ganaraska Trail Public School, Public JK–6
* North Hope Central School, Public JK–6
* Beatrice Strong Public School, Public JK–6
High schools
*
Port Hope High School c. 1871, Public Gr 9-12 - opened in 1853 as ''Port Hope Grammar School''
* Dr M. S. Hawkins Senior Public School, Public Gr 7–8 (same building as Port Hope High School)
* Port Hope High School Student to Work Transition Program (SWOT Campus), Public Grade 9–12
*
Trinity College School, Private Gr 5–12
*
Discovery Academy, International campus (not active)
Notable people
*
David Blackwood (1941–2022) , artist.
*
Lew Cirne, pioneer of
Application Performance Management
In the fields of information technology and systems management, application performance management (APM) is the monitoring and management of the performance and availability of software applications. APM strives to detect and diagnose complex appli ...
, founder of
Wily Technology and
New Relic.
*
William Henry Draper, lawyer, judge, and politician.
*
Sue Gardner
Sue Gardner (born May 11, 1967) is a Canadian journalist, not-for-profit executive and business executive. She was the executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation from December 2007 until May 2014, and before that was the director of the C ...
, executive director of the
Wikimedia Foundation
The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. (WMF) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California, and registered there as foundation (United States law), a charitable foundation. It is the host of Wikipedia, th ...
.
*
J.J. Hagerman,
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...
railroad
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...
and mining magnate who went on to become one of founders of
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...
.
*
William Leonard Hunt ("The Great Farini"), entertainer.
*
Watson Kirkconnell (1895-1977),
linguist
Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...
,
public intellectual
An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and Human self-reflection, reflection about the nature of reality, especially the nature of society and proposed solutions for its normative problems. Coming from the wor ...
, father of
multiculturalism in Canada
Multiculturalism in Canada was officially adopted by the Government of Canada, government during the 1970s and 1980s. The Canadian federal government has been described as the instigator of multiculturalism as an ideology because of its public em ...
, and a highly important figure in both
Canadian poetry
Canadian poetry is poetry of or typical of Canada. The term encompasses poetry written in Canada or by Canadian people in the official languages of English and French, and an increasingly prominent body of work in both other European and Indigen ...
and the
culture of Canada
The culture of Canada embodies the Canadian art, artistic, Canadian cuisine, culinary, Canadian literature, literary, Canadian humour, humour, Music of Canada, musical, Politics of Canada, political and social elements that are representative o ...
.
*
Archibald Cameron Macdonell, commander of the
1st Canadian Division
The 1st Canadian Division (French: ) is a joint operational command and control formation based at CFB Kingston, and falls under Canadian Joint Operations Command. It is a high-readiness unit, able to move on very short notice, and is staffed and ...
during the First World War.
*
Charles Vincent Massey, first Canadian-born
Governor General of Canada
The governor general of Canada () is the federal representative of the . The monarch of Canada is also sovereign and head of state of 14 other Commonwealth realms and resides in the United Kingdom. The monarch, on the Advice (constitutional la ...
.
*
Claire Mowat, writer.
*
Farley Mowat
Farley McGill Mowat, (May 12, 1921 – May 6, 2014) was a Canadian writer and environmentalist. His works were translated into 52 languages, and he sold more than 17 million books. He achieved fame with the publication of his books on the Ca ...
, conservationist and writer.
*
Alice Munro
Alice Ann Munro ( ; ; 10 July 1931 – 13 May 2024) was a Canadian short story writer who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013. Her work tends to move forward and backward in time, with integrated short story cycles.
Munro's ...
, author and Nobel Prize winner, lived in Port Hope.
*
Dennis O'Brien,
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.
*
Shane O'Brien, NHL hockey player.
*
David Piccini (born 1988), politician, Ontario’s
Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training & Skills Development
*
Cal Quantrill, Major League Baseball player.
*
Paul Quantrill, Major League Baseball player.
*
Jim Roberts, NHL hockey player.
*
Wade Rowland, writer and journalist.
*
Joseph M. Scriven, author of the hymn "
What a Friend We Have in Jesus
"What a Friend We Have in Jesus" is a Christian hymn originally written by preacher Joseph M. Scriven as a poem in 1855 to comfort his mother, who was living in Ireland while he was in Canada. Scriven originally published the poem anonymously, a ...
".
*
William Sims, U.S. Naval Admiral, awarded 1921 Pulitzer Prize for History.
*
Ron Smith, NHL hockey player.
*
Ambrose Thomas Stanton, Chief Medical Officer for the British colonies. Born in Kendal and attended Port Hope High School.
*
Paul Terbenche, NHL hockey player.
*
Arthur Trefusis Heneage Williams, politician.
* Major-General
Arthur Victor Seymour Williams.
See also
*
List of townships in Ontario
This is a list of township (Canada), townships in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. Townships are listed by List of census divisions of Ontario, census division.
Northern Ontario Northeastern Ontario Algoma D ...
*
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Lower-tier municipalities in Ontario
Municipalities in Northumberland County, Ontario
Populated places on Lake Ontario in Canada