Random Access

Some random notes today.
Is it the Sandford Farm or the Sanford Farm? Over the years, the iconic piece of property at Mavis Rd. and Eglinton Ave. W. has been referred to both ways.
But which is right?
Well... both, according to Doreen McCarthy, the niece of Vincent and Agnes Sandford.
The original family name was spelled without the D, but somewhere along the line, things got changed. Her father Edward was first-born in the family and his surname was Sanford, although his father Martin who bought the farm Dec. 15, 1890, spelled it Sandford.
Edward’s siblings, Agnes, Helen, Vincent and Margaret all had the D.
McCarthy’s theory is that an elderly aunt who either preferred the correct spelling or had forgotten about the change in her dotage, used it to register Edward’s name when he was born.
Vincent, who lived on the farm with his sister Agnes for decades before they died in 1999 and 2000 respectively, never married.
Because of that, the correct spelling of the surname, without the D, still survives in the family. Unfortunately, with the disappearance of the farm house which will be demolished shortly to make way for a new subdivision, the name may no longer remain on the landscape in any form.
• • •
Erratum: The new environmental advisory committee at City Hall is made up of three councillors, not two as stated yesterday.
Ward 1 Councillor Carmen Corbasson joins George Carlson and Carolyn Parrish on the body. With a gas-fired plant in the works for the former Lakeview Generating Station site, Corbasson is a natural for the committee.
Like everyone else, she has her own qualms about how we treat our environment.
“To my great dismay, my own townhouse complex continues to use pesticides to maintain our plush manicured lawns,” says the councillor.
• • •
There was a false alarm in the refrigerant detection system at the NCR building in Meadowvale Tuesday morning, which put many of the 300 or so workers out on the street. That street, Century Ave., is actually named for one of National Cash Register’s products. The company was one of the first on the street (you can see it as you drive eastbound on 401) when it opened in 1972. In 1968, the company introduced the NCR 615 Century series, the first low-cost electronic data processing system to put programs, operating software and data on a hard disk. (Info courtesy of Lorraine Willson at NCR.)
So the street is named for a NCR product: the ultimate branding.
By the way, the last volume in Kathleen Hicks’ entertaining series of local history books sponsored by the City and the Friends of the Library, will be about the fascinating stories behind Mississauga’s street names. Her latest book, Malton: Farms to Flying, has just been published.