In 1818, Hiram White travelled from Concord, Vermont to Vaughan, Ontario. It is suggested that Concord may be named after White’s birthplace.

The Northern Railway was built in 1853 and ran from Toronto to Collingwood. For many years, the station located in Concord was called the Thornhill Railway Station. In 1854, the Concord Post Office was established and John Duncan served as the first postmaster for 17 years until 1871.

 

By 1875, Concord had a population of 600 and began appearing on maps. Some notable pioneers of Concord include:

 

The Smellie Farm located on Lot 8, Concession 2, was well-known for its award-winning sheep and cattle. The farm was sold to the City of Toronto and became the Women’s Municipal Jail Farm. During the Second World War (1939-45), the farm was used as a psychiatric hospital. By the mid-1980s, the Salvation Army’s House of Concord was situated on the Smellie Farm property.

Church services were held in homes until the Concord Methodist Church (known as White’s or Bowe’s Chapel) was established on the corner of William Bowes Farm. In 1886, a brick church was built and used until its closure in the 1930s.

 

The Cober Dunkard Church on Dufferin Street was built in 1888. Prior to the Cober Dunkard Church being built, services had been held in homes.

The first schools were also held in homes. Teachers were paid 50-cents a month by each student and shortly after 25-cents a month with the remaining balance paid by taxes. In 1842, a round log schoolhouse was built and was later replaced by a larger brick building in 1900. In 1930, a fire destroyed the brick building and a new school was built.

 

With the opening of Highway 400 in 1951, Concord slowly started becoming Vaughan’s industrial district. Construction of the Canadian National Railway by-pass of Toronto was underway with a 4-kilometre freight yard and an industrial park added near Jane Street.

 

Housing developments also began east of Keele Street in the 1950s. A residential area, Glen Shields, was built in the 1970s and 1980s in the southeast, west of Dufferin. Another neighbourhood, Dufferin Hill, was built in the 2000s in the northeast near Dufferin Street and Rutherford Road.

 

In the 1970s, the northern part of the Greater Toronto Area started becoming industrialized. A plaza and industrial buildings developed east of Keele Street on Highway 7, with more industrial development continuing into the 1980s.

 

When Highway 407 opened in 1977, it brought three new interchanges to Vaughan. Concord’s access to several major highways is a key factor for businesses, where headquarters for many large multi-national and domestic operations can be found today.