Milton moves to protect three 19th-century houses: an 1854 log house, an 1854 downtown home and an 1837 Brookville stone house

What Council decided

Milton Council took three heritage decisions at its June 22 and July 13, 2026 meetings, according to the minutes. On June 22 it passed By-law 054-2026, designating 11374 Guelph Line as being of cultural heritage value or interest under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act; the by-law records that no objection to the Town's notice of intention was served. At the same meeting, and again on July 13, Council approved staff recommendations to designate 10589 Sixth Line and 90 Mary Street and directed the Town Clerk to give notice of its intention to do so.

Under the process set out in both staff reports, a 30-day objection period follows each notice, and if there are no objections a designation by-law comes back to Council. Designation by-laws for 90 Mary Street and 10589 Sixth Line appear on the agenda for Council's September 14 meeting; the minutes of that meeting had not been posted when this story was written.

The Coxe Family House, 10589 Sixth Line

According to staff report DS-043-26, the two-storey log house was built in 1854 when William and Mary Coxe married and settled on the property, and it has stayed in the Coxe family for four generations. The Coxes were among the pioneer settlers of the former Township of Nassagaweya; their eldest son, Thomas, later served on Esquesing Township Council and as a Milton town councillor. Staff describe it as one of the few remaining settlement log houses in the former township. Board-and-batten siding added before 1914 and aluminum siding added in 1958 were removed from the front and one side in 2019, exposing the original logs. The report says the owners asked for the designation.

The Cowin and Hartley House, 90 Mary Street

Staff report DS-051-26 says Richard Cowin built the one-and-a-half-storey Gothic Revival house in 1854, shortly after buying the lot from Hugh Foster in the Foster Survey, one of Milton's earliest subdivisions, laid out before the Town was incorporated in 1857. Staff call it one of the oldest houses in Milton and likely the first built in the Foster Survey. A later owner, David Hartley, was a farmer, Justice of the Peace and town councillor. Its listed attributes include the original stone foundation, the timber frame beneath the current siding, and two original semi-circular windows with pointed lintels, one centred in the front gable. The report says the owner asked for the designation.

The Easterbrook house, 11374 Guelph Line, Brookville

By-law 054-2026 describes a two-storey Georgian stone house built from 1835 to 1837 by Thomas Easterbrook, who became the first reeve of Nassagaweya, for his wife, Hannah Youart. The settlement now called Brookville was named Easterbrook for a time in the family's honour. From 1865 the house was leased as a hotel and carriage stop when Guelph Line was a busy carriage route between Guelph and Burlington. The protected attributes include the five-bay random-stone walls with quoins, three stone chimneys with double flues, the neoclassical eight-panel front door with Doric piers, multi-pane windows with stone lintels and voussoirs, and the hand-sawn timber rafters of the barn.