Woodstock, Ontario

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Woodstock (2006 population: 35,480) is a city and the county seat of Oxford County in southwestern Ontario, Canada. Woodstock is located 128 kilometres southwest of Toronto, north off Highway 401, along the historic Thames River. It is known as the Dairy Capital of Canada and promotes itself as "The Friendly City."

The city was first settled in 1800, when it was determined by Sir John Graves Simcoe, governor of what was then known as Upper Canada, that the area would make a good townsite. Woodstock was incorporated as a town in 1851 and a city in 1901.

Vansittart Avenue (named after Admiral Henry Vansittart, an early settler) in Woodstock's west end has one of the finest residential Victorian streetscapes in the province.

1 Devastating tornado
2 Old St. Paul's Anglican Church
3 Springbank Snow Countess
4 Toyota Plant
5 Hino Motor Sales Canada
6 Business History
7 Media
8 See also
9 Notes
10 External links

On August 7, 1979, the Woodstock area was hit by three tornadoes, two of which registered at least F4 on the Fujita Scale ^[1]. On the west side of town along Ingersoll Road, a Dominion Food Store was heavily damaged and the tornadoes skipped over every other home and business. Dickson's Florist was wiped out and the Fry home was moved on its foundation. Father Grondziel of the new Polish Roman Catholic Church, next to the Dominion Food Store, had just stepped into the washroom when one of the tornadoes passed by and took off the roof of the church and everything in the room he had just been in. No one on the street was injured and the cleanup took many weeks. On the south side, the buildings of the Maranatha Christian Reformed Church and the John Knox Christian School were destroyed, and the only fatality occurred when a vehicle on Highway 401 was blown off the road and the lone occupant killed.

One of Woodstock's most notable historic sites is Old St. Paul's Church, the mother church of the Anglican Communion in Oxford County. Built in 1834 and situated near the intersection of Huron and Dundas Streets, the church tower was infamously used as a temporary jail during the rebellion of 1837. The church, a beautiful, brick cruciform structure surrounded by Woodstock's oldest cemetery, boasts original box pews and dozens of memorial tablets commemorating prominent Woodstock citizens.

Springbank Snow Countess

The "Springbank Snow Countess" was commemorated by a life-size statue (designed by acclaimed Oxford County agricultural artist Ross Butler) which is located on the corner of Dundas and Springbank.

This bell iron and lead statue was made to honour a record-setting milk production by a Holstein Freisian cow named Snow Countess.

The statue was first unveiled on August 4, 1937 by the Holstein Frisian Association of Canada. Snow Countess was born on November 18, 1919 and died at age 16 on August 9, 1936. During her lifetime, she produced 9,062 pounds of butterfat, impressive at the time. The statue and granite base cost $4,000 to design and erect.

The cow has become an important symbol to Woodstock and is used in many cultural events, such as the annual Cowapoloozza Festival.

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In June 2005, Toyota, the world's second largest automaker, announced plans to build a new, $800 million automobile assembly plant in Woodstock on a 1,000-acre (4 km²) undeveloped site in the city's northeast end. The plant is expected to employ 1,300 people and begin full production of RAV4 sport utility vehicles in 2008, at the rate of 100,000 a year. It will be the first auto assembly plant to be built in Canada in two decades.

On February 7, 2006, the president of Toyota Canada announced that the Toyota plant would be much larger than first planned. Instead of costing $800 million to build, the assembly plant will cost $1 billion, instead of employing 1,300 people, it would employ 2,000. Instead of producing 100,000 vehicles a year, it would produce 150,000 per year. [Reference http://cgi.bowesonline.com/pedro.php?id=306&x=story&xid=211991]

Early in March, 2006, Hino Motors, a Toyota Motor Co. subsidiary, announced that it will be the first Japanese truck manufacturer to build its vehicles in Canada with a new Woodstock plant slated to begin production in April, 2006, in the former General Seating plant in the Pattullo Ridge Business Park near Highway 401 and Highway 59.

The $3 million, 120,000 square foot (11,000 m²) plant will employ 45 and assemble 2,000 trucks a year when it begins production.

[Reference http://cgi.bowesonline.com/pedro.php?id=306&x=story&xid=216914]

A major Canadian piano and organ and reed organ company operated under the name of Woodstock Organ Company for many years of the early twentieth century. It was owned by D W Karn, who was at one time mayor of Woodstock. Karn had previously operated an organ and piano manufacturing company under his own name.

Woodstock has one daily newspaper owned by Sun Media Corporation, the Woodstock Sentinel-Review.

There are three licensed FM radio stations: