Cornwall City Map Poster

About Cornwall

Cornwall was incorporated as a town in 1855, and became a city in 1975. The Cornwall Civic Centre is located at the former county courthouse site; it houses the city hall, police station and other municipal departments. The first settlers arrived in this area around 1784 after the American Revolution, when there were no roads or bridges over the St. Lawrence River to bring supplies from Montreal to Upper Canada (now Ontario). In 1800, there were only six homes between Prescott and what is now Morrisburg; these pioneers had travelled by foot along an Indian trail that followed alongside one of many creeks flowing into Lake Ontario on its eastern shoreline near present-day Cornwall. This trail would later become part of Highway 2 following construction of "Lacolle Mill Road" during early pioneer days circa 1830–1850s which connected Lower Town with today's Highway 401 via what is known today as "Olde Base Line Road".