The Alton Mill is a late 19th century industrial stone complex located on the bank of Shaw’s Creek in the heart of the village of Alton in the Town of Caledon and us just five minutes south of Orangeville. The Alton Mill was built by pioneering settlers of Alton over 120 years ago and the 3.4 hectare site comprises of the main two-storey stone mill building and three-storey water tower, a brick chimney stack, a stone livery, the remains of the stone wool warehouse, and the adjacent mill pond and dam. For the full history of the Alton Mill click here.

Standing over the falls on the banks of the Credit River, the Alton Mill has been fully restored and brought back to life as a creative arts centre. It is now home to more than 30 artists in their studios, plus galleries, a heritage museum, café and unique retail shops. The Alton Mills Complex has been recognized for its heritage value by the Town of Caledon, By-law number 2004-201. For more info on the Alton Mill please see their website.

The above photo was take back in early April, I processed the original raw image with the Photomatix software to create an HDR image to help bring out the colors better, to see the original pictures untouched click here.

The Millcroft Inn is a hotel, restaurant and spa located in Caledon near the town of Alton, Ontario. The Millcroft Inn was originally built by Benjamin Ward as a knitting mill in 1881 to harness the power from the adjacent Shaw’s Creek. The mill continued to run until 1965, when the mill ceased production and the contents of the building were sold. The Millcroft Inn & Spa has been elaborately renovated to preserve its architectural beauty. For more info on the Millcroft Inn click here to check out their website. Click on the images for larger pictures.

Google Canada today revealed more than 130 Canadian cities to be viewed in the 3D environment of Google street view mode. Among those cities are Bolton, Orangeville and surprisingly many parts of Caledon, Ontario. Even the smaller the towns of Caledon Village, Caledon East, Alton & Mono Mills are mapped as well as many of the main roads through all of Caledon. Mapping by the famous google camera car was done this past summer, I actually saw it in person in Orangeville one weekend.

Street View is a free feature in Google Maps, Google Earth, and Google Maps for mobile. It was first launched in 2007 and it now includes imagery from 18 countries in North America, Europe, Asia, and Latin America. To start exploring, simply visit maps.google.ca and zoom in to the lowest level or drag the orange “Pegman” icon from the left side of the map onto a blue-lined street.

Google Street View has also become a great tool for real estate, it provides people an easy way to show what is around the house that is for sale in the neighbourhood, gives people a better idea of a property and area instead of just blindly showing up. However on the other side of things Google has come under fire for privacy concerns surrounding the service and has addressed those issues by blurring out the faces of people in the photos, as well as licence plates on vehicles.

If you see anything of interest in the Caledon area on Google Maps Street View please leave a comment here.