Oshawa's Secrets

Every city has its secret places.

I’m not talking about tourist attractions; places that get all dolled up for company. Everybody knows about Parkwood Estate, and everybody knows about…well, they know about Parkwood.

(Nice mansion and all, but if I’m the richest guy in Canada, I’m sleeping in a bigger bed, widower or not. But that’s just me.)

I’m referring to those tucked away places that you gotta be a local to know about, or even a delivery guy with occasional access to people’s backyards. And perhaps a few places that the City’s communications department wouldn’t want me crowing about. But I like them.

I always start with the dome of St. George Ukrainian Catholic Church on Albert Street. As a kid, my family weekend adventures took us north into Muskoka, so it was a rare time to have Dad drive east through Oshawa. But I always knew I was in the Motor City when I spied that church, all shiny in the summer sun.

Once you see the church you keep travelling north, crossing the legendary Albert Street Bridge before arriving at Olive Avenue. The bridge, a rickety wood/steel dinosaur that spans the CN tracks, is not for the reckless or the uninitiated. Hit the peak of the bridge too fast – as many a driver has discovered – and you’ll be leaving some of your undercarriage behind.

It’s also one of the prime vantage points to watch the Highway of Heroes processions, which take place when one of our soldiers is killed. The processions take place far too often.

They did some renovations on the bridge a few years ago and I was sure they were going to replace it with something more modern. They didn’t. Good call.

Turn right and you’ll find yourself in the Row Houses community, a few blocks of low rent Victorian-esque townhouses that are still found in inner city neighbourhoods in England. Considering it’s far from a great area of town, most of the tiny units are well maintained.

I think they’re boss.

The tour then heads south into the heart of the self-proclaimed Dirty Shwa at Cedar and Wentworth.

Sure, there are a few sketchy buildings, but there are a few hidden gems as well. South of Wentworth, off Cedar Street, is Thomas Street, which crosses the Oshawa Creek valley lands and gives you a glimpse of the wild places below.

It’s a good time to get out of the car now, because the Oshawa Trail System is a pretty awesome journey up the Oshawa Creek. From Lakeview Park and the Second Marsh Conservation Area (where the chickadees will feed right out of your hand) at the lake to Taunton Road and beyond, the trails are a great way to see Oshawa at its greenest.

The main branch of the creek takes you through downtown – a great place to see the salmon run during the fall – and past beautiful Valleyview Gardens, as well as the ivy-laced Kinsmen (baseball) Stadium. North to Rossland Road takes you into Ainsley Court, where homeowners enjoy panoramic views of the valley lands. 

A few hundred metres farther (as the crow flies) and you’re on Glenwood Drive, where a few lucky residents enjoy houses set back in the forest, with a babbling brook behind them to fool them into thinking (every day they rise) they live at a cottage, not the heart of a city.

A jump north, just beyond Taunton, and you might find yourself in the midst of one very cool trailer park, set in the Cedar Valley Conservation Area. Hidden even from the suburban neighbourhood just metres away, it is an oasis of long-term leases for the lucky few.

At Ritson and Rossland (a little south and east) you will pass what I call Church Corner. While I’m not much of a church-going man, I find the juxtaposition of four churches – all different, but all Christian – fighting for attention on three corners fascinating. For those doing the math, the south-west corner is green space while there are two in the general vicinity of the south-east corner.

A little further east we go until Rossland gives up its ghost at Grandview Road and the Harmony Valley Dog Park.

This place is amazing – and I don’t even own a dog. It’s 25-plus acres of park – most of it off-leash – set in the lush forest and trails of the Harmony Valley Conservation Area. I took the kids there recently to see deep woods, as well as dogs of every description and size; all friendly. The sight of my two year-old grandson and a St. Bernard puppy (already way bigger than Emmett) going mano-a-mano was absolutely priceless.

When you leave the park cruise to the top of the hill and have a look at the view to the south. You can easily see across the 40-kilometre or so span to the U.S. shore, specifically the Somerset Coal Power Plant near Olcott, New York, just west of Rochester.

There are other cool places in Oshawa. The giant GM Autoplex manufacturing centre may not be everyone’s aesthetic cup of tea, but its sheer magnitude takes one’s breath away.

There’s Sikorski Hall, the beautiful shared campus of UOIT and Durham College, the village of Columbus, and Purple Woods in the north; the lakefront homes of Stone Street in the south. There’s the Canadian Automotive Museum on Simcoe South, which is an awesome museum stuck in an awful location; and there’s the many museums at Oshawa Airport (including a Camp X spy museum); as well as the Arthur Erikson-designed McLaughlin Art Gallery downtown.

If you want to see more cool places come out for a visit. I’ll show you around myself.