Hespeler, Ontario

Hespeler, Ontario, is a town and community located in Cambridge, Ontario, on the Speed River.

In 1830, Joseph Oberholtzer purchased land along the speed river. The settlement that followed was to become known as New Hope. In 1845, Jacob Hespeler arrived in new hope, we his own new hopes. He purchased some land along the river, and built several industrial mills. Hespeler brought stregnth to the village, with was aided by Great Western Railway stopping in the settlment between Galt and Guelph. In 1857, Hespeler called for a Census to find out if the ammount of residents in the settlment would be enough to name it a village. The Sensus took place in July, 1858, and the Settlment was named the Village of Hespeler on January 1st, 1859. The village continued to grow until it was named a town in 1901. The town flourished into the 20th century, and housed Dominion Woollens and Worsteds Ltd., one of the largest textile producers in the country. The town also developed a history in hockey, as a hockey stick manufacuturer, consequently named Hespeler, manufactured hockey sticks. The Hespeler Shamrocks, a pee-wee to minor level hockey team also developed and flourished. .^[1]

Queen Street is often described as the Downtown of Hespeler. There are many local businesses and dining establishments located on Queen Street. Some of them including The Java Garden, a local high-class coffee shop, The Grub Hub, a resturaunt serving wraps, salads and coffee, Induldge, an ice cream shop opened from spring to fall. It is conected to and owned by the Grub Hub, Ernie's Roadhouse, is the local bar of Hespeler ,Classical Guitars and Accesories, is a guitar and music shop, Art the Barber, is one of the oldest shops in Hespeler, and on Queen Street, and has become an icon in the community, Village on the River Spa, is a high class spa, The Hub, is a local bike sales and repair shop, Old Town Hall/Fire Hall, is one of the oldest buildings in Hespeler. It was originally used as a town hall in the days when Hespeler was a independent municipality. Now it is the home of the Community of Neighbors, a organization founded by Bill O'Krafka. The fire hall is still used and maintained as a fire hall to this day, Hespeler Library, was originally and old carnegie style Library. In the early 2000s, it was decided that an expansion was needed. Rather, than the typical expansion of another building, the existing library structure was placed in a Class cube, so as to protect the historic significance of the building, Hespeler Train Station, was a train station that was located on Guelph Ave, but none the less a part of the Queen Street community. The station was used for passenger trains in the early 1900s to 1950s. Queen Elizabeth passed through the station in the 1950s. It was burned to the ground Halloween night, 2003. Recently new developments have been coming to the downtown area of Hespeler. Once considered a run-down downtown area, high-class development came beginning with the new library. Soon following, developers started planning to turn the old American Standard factory into high-end condos.^[2] Construction on these Condos is expected to start in 2010, and to be completed in 2011. To cater to the needs of the oncoming high-end demographic, several high-end businesses opened. The Java Garden, a specialty coffee shop, opened in the spring of 2009, and a appetiser bar is expected to open in late 2009.

Hespeler has several Elementary schools, and one High School, named after the founder of Hespeler, Jacob Hespeler. ^[3] The one source of post-secondary education is Heritage Bible College and Seminary.