Why We Love AYR
When I was a kid, we’d frequently pass through Ayr on our scenic, pastoral route home via Paris, Ontario. It was a zigzag left-right turn off the appropriately named Swan Street, past the laundromat with big bubbles on its sign. Just after the Little Short Stop variety store, my dad would slow the Cutlass Supreme so we could look for the swans that were always skimming the surface of the storybook Watson Pond.
In 1973, Ayr was amalgamated into North Dumfries Township, part of the regional municipality of Waterloo. Living in nearby West Galt (Cambridge) for several years as an adult, I watched Ayr “grow up,” too, as the sweet rural village of century homes along the Nith River expanded into an affordable bedroom community. The downtown became spirited by independent businesses, enterprising chefs and home design shops. Now? Ayr has become a hot spot for entrepreneurs opening shared-space brew pubs and culinary schools.
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In 1798, Colonel Joseph Brant of Six Nations sold a parcel of land to Philip Stedman for a tidy 8,841 pounds. William Dickson, a visionary from Dumfries, Scotland, bought the prime real estate from Stedman in 1816, recognizing the potential of the Nith and Cedar Creek. In 1817, there were 38 families (163 people) living on Dickson’s tract of land.
