Sharon, Ontario Area

Sharon is a small rural community in the Town of East Gwillimbury, York Region, Ontario, noted for the historic Sharon Temple complex. The village lies within a largely agricultural landscape and serves as a local cultural and heritage focal point.

The main visitor attraction is the Sharon Temple, built by the religious group known as the Children of Peace in the early 19th century (construction of the temple complex dates to the 1820s). The site operates as a museum with preserved buildings and exhibits about the community that erected it.

The village developed in the 19th century around the meeting hall and associated settlement activities of the Children of Peace; the temple complex remains the primary tangible legacy of that period. Other local features include small-scale farms, rural roads and conservation areas on the nearby Holland Marsh.

Sharon sits in south-central Ontario within the Greater Toronto area hinterland, in the Town of East Gwillimbury, north of the city of Toronto and adjacent to the Holland Marsh agricultural region.

• Sharon Temple National Historic Site: The Sharon Temple complex is a designated National Historic Site of Canada and includes the original meeting hall built in the 1820s with surviving period artifacts and exhibits.

What to See#

• Sharon Temple: A combined museum and reconstructed meeting hall dating to the early 19th century, designated as a National Historic Site of Canada and presenting exhibits on the local millennial religious community known as the Children of Peace.