Ancaster, Ontario

Ancaster
township established 1793
Community within City of Hamilton
The historic 1834 Griffin House
Coordinates: 43°13′N 80°0′W / 43.217°N 80.000°W / 43.217; -80.000
Country	Canada
Province	Ontario
City	Hamilton
Government
• MP	Filomena Tassi
• MPP	Ted McMeekin
Population
• Total	33,232
	2006 Census
Time zone	EST (UTC−5)
• Summer (DST)	EDT (UTC−4)
Forward sortation area	L9G, L9K
Area code(s)	905 and 289

Ancaster is a community within the city of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and is located on the Niagara Escarpment. This former town was founded officially in 1793 and was one of the oldest European communities established in present-day Ontario along with Windsor (1749),Kingston (1780), St. Catharines (1787–89), Grimsby (1790), Niagara-on-the-Lake (1792) and Toronto (1793). It amalgamated with the city of Hamilton, Ontario, in 2001.

By 1823, due in large part to its easily accessible water power located at the juncture of already existing historical trading routes, Ancaster had become Upper Canada's largest industrial and commercial center. Additionally, Ancaster had at that time attracted the 2nd largest populace (1,681) in Upper Canada trailing only Kingston (population 2,500), but surpassing the populations of nearby Toronto (1,376) and Hamilton (1,000). After this initial period of prosperity beginning in the late 18th century, sudden significant water and rail transportation advancements of the early 19th century would soon better benefit Ancaster's neighbouring towns situated closer to the Lake Ontario waterfront. Stationary steam engines for industries were also being rapidly developed in the 19th century that would eventually make Ancaster's water powered industries less vital. As a result, after the 1820s, Ancaster's influence during the remainder of the 19th century would begin to wane.

From the late 19th century Ancaster's population would remain static until 1946 when new subdivisions around the village were established. The population expanded further with the completion of the Hamilton-Ancaster section of Highway 403 in 1968 and the introduction of sewer systems in 1974. After 1970, its population essentially doubled from 15,000 residents to its present-day 33,000.

Ancaster's geography has had a very significant effect on human settlement patterns throughout its prehistory and in the present day. A highly influential geographical formation has been the Niagara Escarpment consisting primarily of limestone formed from ancient fossilized sea organisms that spans from present day New York State through Ontario to Illinois. The escarpment itself created the water power that encouraged early European settlers to gravitate to the area in the late 1700s. However, this energy source would not have been accessible if the escarpment were not navigable. This long-meandering landform generally proved to be an inhospitable transportation barrier for thousands of years for past indigenous cultures. However, a natural break in this escarpment in the precise area that would become Ancaster village had for millennia created an opportunity for people to traverse up and down the escarpment providing a relatively easy navigable land transportation gateway from the head of the lake to the surrounding land on the escarpment and vice versa.