On The Road Again
 
Planning an antiquing road or train trip in Ontario this year?
 
Ontario has dozens of favourite scenic drives and hundreds of unique destinations for collectors of antiques and collectibles.
 
If you have a favourite antiquing road trip in Ontario, e-mail the details and we will share it with our readers.
 
Each of our antiquing town listings includes the official web link for the town.
 
Our first six towns profiled are Belleville, Cookstown, Elora, Picton, Port Hope and Port Perry.
 
 
 
Antiquing Towns
 
Belleville - Cookstown - Elora - Picton - Port Hope - Port Perry
 
Port Perry
 
Port Perry
 
Bellville
 
Belleville
 
Cookstown
 
Cookstown
 
Elora
 
Elora
 
Picton
 
Picton
 
Port Hope
 
Port Hope
 
Port Perry - A Queen Street charmer

While in Port Perry, visit:
Caviar & Cobwebs, 255 Queen Street

By John Cosway
Some small towns in Ontario have main streets that quickly put you in the mood for antiques, tea and cookies, and this is one of those towns.
 
Queen St. E., in contrast to Hwy. 7A - a major highway a few blocks away that cuts through Port Perry - generates a laid-back atmosphere.
 
The charm of Queen St. E., with its tea rooms, antique stores, specialty shops and Victorian architecture, is heightened year-round by the spectacular view of Lake Scugog at the foot of the street.
 
Several times a year, the population of Port Perry increases for popular weekend antiques, collectibles and craft shows held at the local high school and at the town's arena complex.
 
As in any town with 19th century houses, churches and other landmarks, there is history to be told and longtime residents are up to the telling.
 
If you ask what was special about 1992, they will tell you it marked the 200th birthday of Peter Perry, a politician whose mark earned him a large slice of local history.
 
Perry's parents were United Empire Loyalists who fled the United States following the American Revolution and settled in Bath, Ontario, where he was born in 1792. In 1824, the Reform Party candidate for Scugog was elected to the provincial legislature.
 
His achievements during 12 years in the legislature and his efforts as a businessman to develop the village of Scugog were not forgotten. When he died of a kidney disorder in 1851, Scugog was quickly renamed Port Perry.
 
Railroad buffs will be told Perry's vision of a railway linking the village with Port Whitby became a reality in 1871, thanks partly to his son, John, who continued the campaign as a municipal politician after his father died.
 
The railroad, renamed Midland Railway when Lindsay was added, made its last run in May of 1939 during the Royal Visit.
 
Postcard collectors will note two dozen steam-boats once operated on Lake Scugog in the 1800s, some of them ferrying passengers from Port Perry to Lindsay. But the new Lindsay-Haliburton railway led to their demise in the early 1900s.
 
Why would collectors of chiropractic paraphernalia be interested in Port Perry? Hoping, perhaps, to find anything relating to Daniel David Palmer, who was born here March 7, 1845, and moved to the U.S. in 1865.
 
Palmer coined the word "chiropractic" in 1895 after a patient regained his hearing when he manipulated a bump in his back. The Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa, has been accepting students for almost a century and neck and back pain sufferers can tip their hats daily to Palmer.
 
Planning to stay awhile? The walleye, muskie and large-mouth bass are usually biting in season on Lake Scugog; the tranquil Nonguon Wildlife Preserve is nearby; waterfront parks and playgrounds provide year-round activities etc.
 
For more about Port Perry, visit the BIA web site at thttp://www.township.scugog.on.ca/
 
 
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