Buttonville, Ontario

Buttonville
Community
Location within York
Coordinates: 43°51′52″N 79°21′45″W / 43.86444°N 79.36250°WCoordinates: 43°51′52″N 79°21′45″W / 43.86444°N 79.36250°W
Country	Canada
Province	Ontario
Regional Municipality	York
City	Markham
Government
• Founder	William Berczy
Elevation	636 ft (194 m)
Time zone	Eastern Standard Time (EST) (UTC-5)
• Summer (DST)	Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) (UTC-4)
Forward sortation area	L3R
Area code(s)	905 and 289
NTS Map	030M14
GNBC Code	FANMF

Buttonville is a community named after the founder of the former farmlands, John Button, within the city of Markham in the west part of Unionville. About 30,000 residents live in the area. Rouge River is to the northeast and Buttonville Airport is directly west of the community Highway 404 is to the west with four interchanges and the nearest interchange with the Highway 407 Express Toll Route (ETR) is 2 km south on Woodbine Avenue. The population live in the eastern, northeastern and the northern parts while the industrial area of Markham is to the west and the south down to Steeles. The industrial area is home to many technology companies near the airport (which incidentally is the location of where weather reports are taken for the Weather Network). There is talk about renaming the community, the John Button Community after its founder and getting rid of its nickname Buttonville, since there has been lots of confusion between Unionville and the nickname Buttonville, which is also located in Unionville.

History

The area was first settled by William Berczy who got an original crown grant of land. The village in Unionville was named after John Button (b. 1772) who bought property here in 1808. By 1860, John Button's descendants owned a number of lots in what is today Buttonville. By 1878 the village had a post office, a grist mill, a wagon maker, a school, a Lutheran church and a Methodist church.^[1]

Unionville housing developments did not began until the 1960s near Cachet Woods at Woodbine Ave. and Major Mackenzie Drive, and the industrial area began to appear further south. In the 1980s housing developments came to the western part of Markham along with the industries which later flowed with technological and financial companies including Allstate. Buttonville was first accessed when Highway 404 opened several interchanges in the 1970s. Between 1994 and 1996, more houses continued northeast of Buttonville and a few years later, north of the airport and more housing continued until 2004.

Geography

• Population:
  • 1990: about 10,000
  • 2002: about 30,000

Laberta Court Markham

Farmlands formerly surrounded Buttonville and forests were around Buttonville especially to its south. Between 1980 and 2000, the farmlands were developed into residential areas.

Transportation

• Toronto/Buttonville Municipal Airport is located within Buttonville at 16th Avenue and Highway 404

Public transit in Buttonville is served by:

• Viva/YRT operates bus rapid transit service (Viva Pink and Viva Purple routes) on Highway 7
• York Region Transit routes 1 (Highway 7), 85 (Rutherford-16th Avenue) and 24 (Woodbine) operates regular bus service with

stops in Buttonville.

Buttonville is served by two major highways and several arterial roads:

• 407 ETR runs east-west on the south side of Buttonville.
• Highway 404 runs north-south on the west side of Buttonville and connected to east-south streets
• Highway 7 runs east-west on the south side of Unionville's Buttonville.
• York Regional Road 73 runs east-west on the north side of Buttonville.
• Woodbine Avenue runs north-south on the east side of Unionville's Buttonville.

Nearest communities

• Richmond Hill, west
• Unionville, east
• Milliken, south
• Stouffville, north

References

1. For a fuller history, cf. Isabel Champion, ed., Markham: 1793-1900 (Markham, ON: Markham Historical Society, 1979), pp. 228-231; 138; 158. See also the detailed 1878 map, "Township of Markham," Illustrated historical atlas of the county of York and the township of West Gwillimbury & town of Bradford in the county of Simcoe, Ont. (Toronto: Miles & Co., 1878).