Roches Point
Roches Point is a small residential community on the eastern shore of Lake Simcoe in Ontario, Canada. It was named after the Irish settler James O'Dell Roch,[1] who obtained land in the area sometime before 1812 and sold it after being forced to retreat during the War of 1812. It became Government Reserves by 1822, and the name disappeared within the new community of Keswick, beginning in 1824.
After the War of 1812 the Roches Point area was considered as a possible alternative capital to replace York (now Toronto), as it was farther from American encroachment.[2]
Points of interest
- Roche's Point Anglican Church, c. 1862
Beechcroft and Lakehurst Gardens
Beechcroft and Lakehurst Gardens National Historic site consists of two properties along the shoreline of Lake Simcoe.
The Beechcroft property was an estate on 97 acres that had been owned by Captain Issac May around the 1860s.[3] The English-landscape-inspired grounds were laid out for the owner Anson Greene Phelps Dodge, an American-Canadian lumber baron and short-lived Member of Parliament,[4] around 1870 and are believed to have been designed or influenced by Frederick Law Olmsted. Unlike Beechcroft, Lakehurst Gardens was a formal horticultural garden.
Although designated historical, the grounds are privately owned, with no public access.
References
- https://www.georgina.ca/sites/default/files/page_assets/roches_point.pdf
- http://www.eureka4you.com/wtower-on-r/RochesPoint.htm
- https://www.pressreader.com/canada/grand-magazine/20150310/282462822396488
- Buggey, Susan; Stewart, John J. (1981). "Lakehurst and Beechcroft: Roches point, Ontario, Canada". The Journal of Garden History. 1 (2): 174–166. Retrieved 26 June 2020.