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What Are Five Little Known Facts About Brantford?

  • What Are Five Little Known Facts About Brantford?

Most people know Brantford as the birthplace of the telephone and the hometown of Wayne Gretzky. But there are many other interesting things that we keep secret (we don’t really keep secret but they are cool nonetheless). Your dentist in Brantford at Lifetime Dental is proud to be part of a city with such a rich past and cultured present. Here are five facts about this lovely city that not many outside know about.

textWhat Are Five Little Known Facts About Brantford?

What Are Five Little Known Facts About Brantford?

1. Brantford Was Once Canada’s Third-Ranked Industrial City

In the first half of the 20th century, Brantford ranked third among all Canadian cities for the cash value of manufactured goods exported. Farm equipment giants like Cockshutt and Massey-Harris operated massive factories here, and the city’s position at the deepest navigable point of the Grand River made it a natural hub for shipping and rail. The industrial boom shaped Brant County’s economy for decades before the factory closures of the 1980s and 1990s brought a painful transition.

2. Canada’s First Telephone Factory Was Built Here

Everyone knows Alexander Graham Bell conceived the telephone in Brantford. Fewer people know that Canada’s very first telephone factory was also located in the city. James Cowherd built and operated the facility starting around 1879, and the first telephone business office in the country opened in Brantford in 1877, run by Bell’s father Melville and Reverend Thomas Henderson. The Henderson Home, located beside the Bell Homestead on Tutela Heights Road, preserves that original office for visitors.

3. Hollywood Keeps Coming Back to Brantford

Brantford has served as a filming location for some of Canada’s biggest television productions. CBC’s hit series Murdoch Mysteries has shot scenes at the Carnegie Building and Victoria Square in downtown Brantford. The Handmaid’s Tale filmed at Brant’s Crossing Park, Fordview Park, and near the Lorne Bridge along the Grand River. Silent Hill was filmed here! Same with parts of Schitt’s Creek (love that show).

The city’s collection of well-preserved heritage buildings makes it an attractive stand-in for period settings, and local officials actively encourage production companies to use the city.

4. A Brantford Street Hockey Tournament Holds a Guinness World Record

In 2010, the Walter Gretzky Street Hockey Tournament set a Guinness World Record for the largest street hockey tournament ever held, with over 2,000 players competing. Named after Wayne Gretzky’s father, Walter, the event is held annually and reflects Brantford’s identity as a sports-obsessed community. The city was officially declared the Tournament Capital of Ontario in 1988, hosting hundreds of local, regional, and provincial sporting events each year.

5. The City Sits on 12,000 Years of Indigenous History

Archaeological sites in northwest Brantford contain artifacts from every major pre-European contact time period, from the Late Archaic through the Late Woodland era. That represents roughly 12,000 years of continuous human activity along the Grand River. The Woodland Cultural Centre, housed in the former Mohawk Institute Residential School, preserves and promotes this Indigenous history through exhibits, art, and education programs. Today, Brantford has the highest number of Indigenous residents of any city in southern Ontario outside of a reserve.

Hopefully, little lists like this entice you to come visit or stay (forever!). As a follow up, here is our guide to the Five Best Places to Live in Brantford which breaks down the neighbourhoods that make this city a great place to call home.

And if you have not yet explored the city’s top landmarks, take a look at our article on the Top Six Things to See in Brantford for a guided tour of the places that bring this history to life.

References

  1. Statistics Canada. Census Profile, 2021 Census of Population: Brantford, Ontario. 
  2. Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Brantford.” 
  3. Brant Land Trust. “Cultural History.” 
  4. Empire Communities. “5 Things You Didn’t Know About Brantford.” 
  5. City of Brantford. “History: Bell Homestead.”Â