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History of Stratford


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The town was originally a railway junction. Furniture manufacturing became an important part of the local economy by the twentieth century. A 1933 strike by furniture workers in Stratford, led by the Communist Workers' Unity League, marks the last time the army was deployed to break a strike in Canada.

The city's economy took a major turn when the Stratford Shakespeare Festival started in 1953. The annual festival now brings hundreds of thousands of theatre goers and tourists to the area. Celebrities such as Alec Guinness, Christopher Plummer, Peter Ustinov,Dame Maggie Smith, and William Shatner have performed at the festival. The Canadian novelist and playwright Timothy Findley performed in the first season, and had an ongoing relationship with the festival, eventually moving to Stratford in 1997.

The world-renowned festival takes place in four theatres throughout the city: the Festival Theatre, the Avon Theatre, Tom Patterson Theatre and the Studio Theatre.

Timeline

1828 - Settlement begins.

*   1832 - Thomas Mercer Jones, an agent of the Canada Company, names the village "Stratford" and renames the portion of the Thames River running through it the "Avon River."

*   1849 - The Perth County News is Stratford's first weekly newspaper.

*    1853 - Perth County is created, with Stratford as its county seat.

*    1854 - Stratford is incorporated as a village.

* 1859 - Stratford is incorporated as a town.

*   1864 - The 17-year-old American telegraph operator Thomas Edison had briefly lived at 19 Grange Street.

*    1885 - Stratford is incorporated as a city with a population of 9,000.

*    1918 - A gift from a Michigan CNR employee, swans come to live in Stratford.

*    1933 - The army is called in to attempt to end a general strike and try to systematically remove communist
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