School and Contact Information
Havelock-Belmont-Methuen is a township in central-eastern Ontario, Canada, in Peterborough County. It was formed on January 1, 1998, through the amalgamation of Belmont and Methuen Township with the Village of Havelock.
History
The region's history began with an influx of settlers after Belmont and Methuen Township was surveyed in 1823. The community of Havelock, which was named after British general Sir Henry Havelock, was incorporated as an independent village in 1892.[2]
Early settlers built their homes in an area of dense forests, numerous lakes and rivers within the rocky Canadian Shield. They survived by means of fishing, logging and farming. Later in the nineteenth century and continuing to the present, mining became an important economic activity. Early businesses in Havelock included a post office, store, bakery, a blacksmith and a millinery and were located south of the current village on high ground at the intersection of County Road 30 and Old Norwood Road. In 1881 the Canadian Pacific Railway surveyed a right-of-way through the area north of Havelock and a year later laid rails and surveyed and filled the swampy land to make room for a larger village.[2] The current village of Havelock was developed on the filled land by the tracks north of the former village site and was incorporated in 1892. In the fall of 1884, the first full passenger train stopped at Havelock, from Toronto on its way to Smith's Falls. Havelock was an important freight depot from the 1880s to the 1960s. The railway's activity today consists of transporting nepheline syenite and crushed basalt rock from two mines north of Havelock operated by Unimin.[2] In 1998, the village of Havelock was amalgamated with the township of Belmont-Methuen to form the current township of Havelock-Belmont-Methuen.
Historic School
The old school, a two story building now known as the Hilltop Apartments, stands at the Northwest corner of Oak Street and Mathison Street, Havelock. In 1890 to 1963 Havelock area students attended this school which in 1937 was renamed Havelock High School. In 1952 Havelock High School students were transferred to the new Norwood District High School in the neighbouring town of Norwood, Ontario. In 1963 Havelock Public School students were transferred to the new Havelock Public School, east of the Havelock Community Centre. In 1963 the school building was sold and converted to apartments.[2] In September, 2005 the Havelock High School Reunion Committee placed in front of the apartments a commemorative plaque bolted to a large red granite stone from a local quarry.
