Huntingdon, Quebec
| Huntingdon | |
|---|---|
| City | |
Huntingdon Town Hall
|
|
 Location within Le Haut-Saint-Laurent RCM |
|
 Huntingdon
|
|
| Coordinates: 45°05′N 74°10′W / 45.083°N 74.167°WCoordinates: 45°05′N 74°10′W / 45.083°N 74.167°W | |
| Country |
 Canada
|
| Province |
 Quebec
|
| Region | Montérégie |
| RCM | Le Haut-Saint-Laurent |
| Constituted | October 9, 1848 |
| Government | |
| • Mayor | André Brunette |
| • Federal riding | Salaberry—Suroît |
| • Prov. riding | Huntingdon |
| Area | |
| • Total | 2.80 km2 (1.08 sq mi) |
| • Land | 2.60 km2 (1.00 sq mi) |
| Population (2011) | |
| • Total | 2,457 |
| • Density | 944.1/km2 (2,445/sq mi) |
| • Pop 2006-2011 |
 5.0% |
| • Dwellings | 1,138 |
| Time zone | EST (UTC−5) |
| • Summer (DST) | EDT (UTC−4) |
| Postal code(s) | J0S |
| Area code(s) | 450 and 579 |
| Highways |
 Route 138 Route 202
|
| Website | www villehuntingdon |
Huntingdon is a small town in Huntingdon County in the Haut-Saint-Laurent Regional County Municipality and the Montérégie region of the province of Quebec, Canada. The population as of the Canada 2011 Census was 2,457. The town is located 75 kilometers (47 mi) southwest of Montreal, and 15 kilometers (9.3 mi) from the border with New York State.
The town was first settled by British soldiers after the War of 1812 and the fertile land in the area led to a successful farming economy. Once the fear of attack from the Americans was gone, in the 1820s businessmen established lumber and grist mills on the banks of the Chateauguay River.
During the first few decades of the 20th century, when transport from major urban centers to the outlying rural areas became economically feasible, the textile industry began expanding at a rapid rate in various towns throughout the province of Quebec. By the 1930s, Huntingdon was home to a small but thriving textile industry founded by Alex Fawcett & Hiram Leach as Leach Textiles. After World War II, entrepreneurs François Cleyn and Alec Tinker acquired the textile businesses in Huntingdon and built their company, Cleyn & Tinker Limited, into one of the most successful woolen mills in all of Canada. In Huntingdon, the business expanded to five interconnected operations around the town and the decades of the 1950s through to the early part of the 1970s saw the town prosper and the company acquire subsidiaries in Sherbrooke, Quebec and in Castlecomer, Kilkenny, Ireland.
Huntingdon was also home to Huntingdon Mills (Canada) Ltd., another textile business and a significant employer in the town. In December 2004, the company filed for bankruptcy protection and announced they would have to close putting more than 215 employees out of work. Cleyn & Tinker too announced it would be closing its operations in the town in April 2005. Shortly after the announcement, some of the company's assets and supply contracts were acquired by the Greensboro, North Carolina based International Textile Group, Inc. who have a partnership with China Ting Group, a textile manufacturer based in Kabul, Afghanistan. On January 28, 2005, Mayor Stéphane Gendron announced that the town was purchasing the five textile plants that were closing with the expectation that they could be sold to new businesses.
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Wikipedia