Four corners were once a bustling centre
Lavender on the Townline between Mulmur and Nottawasaga (now Clearview) is a very old settlement. Even before Creemore got its start, Lavender was a very busy village. This may seem puzzling. Here is an explanation. The provincial government, in its early days, designated the road from Port Credit (now part of Mississauga) on Lake Ontario to Collingwood on Georgian Bay, part of Lake Huron, as Hurontario Street. To the south, Hurontario Street became Highway 10. It doesn’t deviate from a straight line until it reaches Mulmur. By various twists and turns, it gets through that township and arrives at Lavender. From there to Collingwood, the twists and turns are minimal. Lavender was seen as an important centre on a main road.
Israel Masten operated a hotel on the Mulmur side well over 150 years ago. Part of this hotel still serves as the Davidson farm home. During remodelling, records were discovered to indicate it was built in 1837. When a post office was secured for the settlement, it was called Masten’s Corners. Mr. Masten was the first postmaster and brought the mail from Creemore once a week. He is also credited with owning the first team of horses in the settlement. Lavender did not receive its present name until 1860.
Lavender of today has only enough houses to count on the fingers of one hand. In the past, it boasted a hotel, stores, post office, blacksmith shop, Sons of Temperance Lodge Hall, two churches, a parsonage and a thriving cheese factory which used the milk supplied by farms for miles around. Rural mail delivery from Creemore now replaces the post office. An advancement was made in communications when the Noisy River Telephones were installed. The hydro lines were built through the district in 1948, and electric power was first delivered to Lavender homes in that year.
Lavender is now a community of farm homes with the exception of the few houses at Lavender Corners. The brick church still exists but is closed. The cemetery is composed of one and a half acres bought in 1880 from John Dixon.
A sad part of the history of the Lavender community lies in the many places once homes, which raised families and are now marked by a few old apple trees, a clump of lilac bushes, a tumble-down stone foundation or perhaps only a memory. These old farms each had ten to 12 children. They told of the “good old days” when the young men of the district were numerous enough to play football when they gathered at the corner on a summer evening.
Information taken from Mulmur: The Story of a Township, 1951.
