06/17/2026
A few weeks ago, a replacement plaque was installed on Lakeshore Road East.
1341 Lakeshore Road East
John C. Harris House
The property where 1341 Lakeshore Rd. E. is located is part of Subdivision Plan 1008, Lot 19, which was once described as being part of Lot 7 in the 3rd Concession South of Dundas St. which in, its entirety, was 200 acres.
After the Mississauga Purchase, lot 7 was Crown Land was acquired by Richard Wilcox in 1812. The same year he sold it to John C. Harris. Harris also owned Lot 7 in the 4th Concession South
of Dundas St. (below the present-day Lakeshore Rd. E.) from 1812 to 1842, as well as briefly owning Lot 26, Con 1 SDS.
According to the Town of Oakville, the first phase of the house was constructed c1820. The original building was a one storey hewn wood residence constructed by John C. Harris.
John C. Harris was born in Preston, Connecticut, USA in 1769. He was married to Rebecca Conover, and they had several children. It is unknown when Harris crossed to the border into Upper Canada, however, he first appears in the 1806 Trafalgar Twp. Map, residing on Lot 26 in the First Concession SDS which he acquired from the Crown and lost to a Deed Poll in 1810. In July 1812 he acquired 100 acres from Richard Wilcox, consisting of the south half of Lot 7 in the 3rd Concession SDS. Interestingly, in March of the same year, Harris and another individual named William Lawrence submitted a land claim to the Home District stating that they had cleared and fenced 5 acres on Lot 7 Con 3 SDS, and that a house of eighteen feet square had been erected. Wilcox, although having initially received the land from the Crown, may have
lost it to Harris for failing to fulfill the specific “settlement duties”, such as clearing the land and building a home. His fellow claimant, William Lawrence, was not involved in the transaction.
In Hazel Mathews’ book “Oakville and The Sixteen”, it states that apparently Harris had
petitioned to receive an award for the invention of a method of extracting stumps. In his disappointment at not having received such reward, he decided to petition to the
Lieutenant-Governor, Sir Peregrine Maitland, for a grant of land on the 16 Mile Creek,
presumably to build a mill. He secured the signatures of 100 settlers to no avail. Maitland preferred to sell the reserves of 12 and 16 Mile Creeks through public competition.
Perhaps the land on Lot 26 Con 1 SDS was to be the consolation prize.
John Harris continued to live on Lot 7 Con 3 SDS, where he sold 10 acres to James Steele in 1840. Upon his death on 20 April 1841, the land went to his youngest son, Levi, as was stated in his Last Will and Testament. In 1842 Levi sold 50 acres to Michael Buck and in 1848, the remaining 40 acres, including the house, was sold to George W. Griggs.
George Griggs and his brother Barnet, residents of New Jersey, had decided to follow some of their Loyalist friends to Upper Canada. Barnet purchased the property at 1475 Lakeshore Rd. E. which has recently been illegally demolished. George initially settled on Lot 10 of the 4th Concession, building a house which still stands located at 1028 Lakeshore Rd. E. George Griggs was married to Polly McArthur and together they had two sons and six daughters. Griggs sold his property at 1028 Lakeshore Rd. E. just prior to acquiring the Harris house. He was a contractor and built many of the early houses in Oakville. Griggs died in 1860 and the house was sold by his widow Susan (his first had wife died in 1827), the same year. According to the Town of Oakville, it is probable that it was George Griggs who carried out the first major
renovation of the house. The second renovation occurred while the property was owned by William Blackwell in 1872. In the early 1900s the house was converted into a residence for the elderly and was operated by the Independent order of Oddfellows and known as the “Oddfellows Home”.
