City Departments
Historical Information - Evolution of Cambridge
Historical Evolution of Cambridge:
Cambridge began as a composite city in 1973, when the three municipalities of Galt, Preston and Hespeler and the settlement of Blair were amalgamated into a single legal entity under a new name. (A new name that was not so very new -- Preston was once known as Cambridge Mills.) Each of the communities possessed a long and proud history and there was considerable resistance among the local population to this "shotgun marriage" arranged by the Provincial government. A healthy sense of rivalry had always governed relations among our three communities. Even today, while our residents will tell the outside world that they call Cambridge home, they will often identify themselves to each other as citizens of Galt or Preston or Hespeler.
While the original communities have come together well in the years since amalgamation they began life apart and as a result Cambridge is blessed with not one but three historic core commercial areas to preserve for future generations. As Cambridge has developed and the open spaces between the original municipalities have been filled in a fourth commercial core, entirely modern in its construction has emerged, a core that cannot be claimed for any one part of the city but only for Cambridge as a whole. And, as one of the very few cities outside of Metro Toronto to have the Macdonald-Cartier Freeway (401) running through its midst and not along its edges, it is well poised to take advantage of all opportunities for growth now and in the future.
Cambridge began as a composite city in 1973, when the three municipalities of Galt, Preston and Hespeler and the settlement of Blair were amalgamated into a single legal entity under a new name. (A new name that was not so very new -- Preston was once known as Cambridge Mills.) Each of the communities possessed a long and proud history and there was considerable resistance among the local population to this "shotgun marriage" arranged by the Provincial government. A healthy sense of rivalry had always governed relations among our three communities. Even today, while our residents will tell the outside world that they call Cambridge home, they will often identify themselves to each other as citizens of Galt or Preston or Hespeler.
While the original communities have come together well in the years since amalgamation they began life apart and as a result Cambridge is blessed with not one but three historic core commercial areas to preserve for future generations. As Cambridge has developed and the open spaces between the original municipalities have been filled in a fourth commercial core, entirely modern in its construction has emerged, a core that cannot be claimed for any one part of the city but only for Cambridge as a whole. And, as one of the very few cities outside of Metro Toronto to have the Macdonald-Cartier Freeway (401) running through its midst and not along its edges, it is well poised to take advantage of all opportunities for growth now and in the future.