York Region trivia
27 facts and quiz questions about Richmond Hill, Ontario. Each one links to its source. A new fact of the day goes live every morning.
Fact of the day
Richmond Hill Quiz
Starting in 1973, the Royal Canadian Air Farce recorded its first five radio seasons at the Curtain Club Theatre. The cast came back for an anniversary taping in the 1990s.
Richmond Hill Culture
Alias Grace Park opened in 2009. It honours Margaret Atwood's novel Alias Grace, which shows the area in the days of Upper Canada.
Richmond Hill Quiz
Council voted on March 25, 2019, to change its title from town to city. Richmond Hill had been a town since 1957 and a village since 1873.
Richmond Hill Nature
Work at the David Dunlap Observatory gave the first direct evidence that Cygnus X-1 is a black hole. Astronomers there also found that the North Star, Polaris, was becoming more stable.
Richmond Hill History
On July 31, 2019. The University of Toronto ran the observatory from 1935 to 2008, and the City of Richmond Hill now owns the site.
Richmond Hill History
It opened on May 31, 1935, the 70th birthday of astronomer Clarence Chant, who drove the project. Jessie Dunlap paid for it as a memorial to her husband, David.
Richmond Hill History
In May 1939 the train carrying King George VI and Queen Elizabeth on their cross-Canada tour paused on the railway below the observatory.
Richmond Hill Quiz
Its 74-inch (1.88 m) reflector was once the second-largest telescope in the world. It is still the largest telescope in Canada.
Richmond Hill Numbers
Richmond Hill. Much of the growth came from immigration, and many new businesses opened on Highway 7 around Leslie Street.
Richmond Hill History
In 1978. Premier Bill Davis opened the service on April 29, 1978.
Richmond Hill History
The Heritage Centre is in a restored cottage from the 1840s. It has exhibits about local history and runs educational programs.
Richmond Hill Quiz
Lake Wilcox fills a hollow left by melting glacier ice. At 55.6 hectares it is the largest kettle lake on the Oak Ridges Moraine.
Source: Wikipedia, Lake Wilcox
Richmond Hill History
It is named after William Willcocks, a York merchant who owned 800 acres around the lake and later became mayor of Cork, Ireland. Over time, Lake Willcocks became Lake Wilcox.
Source: Wikipedia, Lake Wilcox
Richmond Hill Nature
Richmond Hill is the only municipality in Canada with light pollution laws. They protect the night sky above the David Dunlap Observatory.
Richmond Hill Places
Mill Pond, now a park ringed by heritage homes, once powered a sawmill in the 1800s. Summer Concerts in the Park are held there.
Richmond Hill Quiz
In June 2013 council banned the number 4 from new street numbers, because some East Asian cultures see it as bad luck.
Richmond Hill Nature
Most of Oak Ridges is more than 300 metres above sea level, on the hills of the Oak Ridges Moraine, among small kettle lakes such as Bond Lake and Lake St. George.
Source: Wikipedia, Oak Ridges, Ontario
Richmond Hill Quiz
French Royalists settled along Yonge Street in 1799 and named the place Windham, after British Secretary at War William Windham. By 1840 it was known as Oak Ridges.
Source: Wikipedia, Oak Ridges, Ontario
Richmond Hill Quiz
Its auditorium seats 631. The Richmond Hill Philharmonic Orchestra, founded in 2008, gives concerts there through the year.
Richmond Hill Quiz
Richmond Hill counted 202,022 people in the 2021 Census, up 3.6 percent from 2016. It is the twelfth most populous municipality in Ontario.
Sources: Statistics Canada, 2021 Census Profile, Richmond Hill, Wikipedia, Richmond Hill, Ontario
Richmond Hill Sports
Richmond Green Sports Centre and Park. It has baseball diamonds, two ice rinks, a 300-person amphitheatre and a skateboard park.
Richmond Hill Quiz
Greenhouses made the town a centre of rose growing. Its motto, En la rose, je fleuris, means Like the rose, I flourish. The last rose grower, H. J. Mills, closed in 1982.
Richmond Hill History
From 1896 to 1927 the Schomberg and Aurora Railway ran from Schomberg to Oak Ridges. Its station stood near Bond Crescent, on the west side of Yonge Street.
Source: Wikipedia, Oak Ridges, Ontario
Richmond Hill Culture
In 1984 the local paper, The Liberal, ran a contest for a new town slogan. Council picked three entries, residents voted, and A little north, a little nicer won.
Richmond Hill Sports
The Richmond Hill Dynes Jewellers won the 1972 Softball World Championship.
Richmond Hill Places
Yonge Street through Richmond Hill. It was widened from two lanes to four in 1971 to ease the traffic.
Richmond Hill Numbers
When York Region was created in 1971, Richmond Hill grew from 1,700 acres to 27,000 acres, and its population jumped from about 19,000 to about 34,000.