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The Stiver Mill is an historic landmark symbolizing Unionville’s important role in the agricultural economy that once characterized Markham. About 1900, grain elevators and other storage buildings were constructed next to the Grand Trunk Railway Station, on land leased from the railway. The Stiver grain elevator was located between the buildings of the Matthew Grain Company to the east, and the Maynard grain elevator to the west. In 1916, Charles and Francis Stiver purchased and repaired the Matthew Grain Company’s structures, which had been damaged by fire. Stiver Brothers had grain elevators and business offices in Unionville and Stouffville, and a warehouse in Aurora. After Charles Stiver died in 1917, his wife Marein managed the Unionville operation until her son, Ewart Stiver, returned from World War I.
Stiver Brothers sold grain, seed, coal, and feed for livestock. Locating this type of business next to the railway line was typical of grain elevators across the country, facilitating convenient shipping and receiving. In 1935, Stiver Brothers added a feed mill, replacing the chopping mill formerly located at Union Mills, which had burned in 1934. To accommodate the feed mill operation, an addition was constructed on the east side of the Stiver grain elevator, housing a diesel engine to power a chopper and mixer. In the early 1950s, Charles Stiver’s sons, Ewart and Howard, moved the business office and store from Main Street, Unionville, to a new building on Station Lane, opposite the mill. Stiver Brothers operated until 1968. Following that, Dominion Coal and Building Supplies was the last business to lease the land and buildings. The Town of Markham purchased the property from Canadian National Railways in 1993.
The grain elevator, constructed of plank-on-plank construction, is similar in design to those seen along railway lines in Canada’s Prairie Provinces. The elevator is clad in sheet metal siding to protect the underlying wood structure from the weather. Inside, machinery, grain bins and chutes remain as artefacts from the Stiver Mill’s days as a working feed mill.
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