A welcome addition to Vankleek Hill's Main Street has been Expressions of Art, where you can find hand-crafted artisan items: everything from soaps, clothing, handiwork, knitted items, quilted specialties, pottery and more!

Pridham Antiques has beautiful pieces of art, art deco items, furniture, jewellery and more for sale, but get this: you can also buy Belgian Leonidas chocolates right at this same location! Check out their fine antiques -- you will be impressed by the finds inside this shop. You can find Pridham's Antiques right next door to Mary's Country Kitchen, which is busy planning a move down the street to one of Vankleek Hill's historic homes. Watch for more business hours, more space for diners and a specialty food shop. That's what we hear is coming!

Visit Doreen Low and Low's Realty, located at 54 Main Street in Vankleek Hill if she isn't out showing houses in the Vankleek Hill area.

If you visit Vankleek Hill and find you don't want to leave, visit with Rebecca Collett to find out about properties for sale in and around Vankleek Hill. Rebecca usually has a display of property photos in her Main Street storefront window.

If you are in Vankleek Hill or in Eastern Ontario, pick up a copy of The Review, one of the longest-established independent community weekly newspapers in Ontario. Come visit The Review's welcoming premises at 76 Main Street. The Review is hard at work on its online genealogy project, which involves the 117 years of Review archives, coming soon.

The Review offices are open from Monday to Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. unless there is a special event taking place on the weekend. For special events taking place along Main Street, we are usually open to welcome visitors. Call us after hours and take advantage of our new voice mail system to leave a message. If you have a breaking news story you want to tell us about, you can always call the publisher evenings and weekends at 613-678-5466. (Now you KNOW for sure that this is a small town.)

Just across the street from the Vankleek Hill Museum and Tourist Information Centre is the Champlain Township Public Library, at 95 Main Street East. Visit this beautifully restored building, once the location of Scotiabank. The bank safe is now a study area! Champlain Township undertook this project and the restoration design was thanks to J. Denis Séguin, Architect, who lives on Home Avenue and is also involved in the museum and donated his services to design the Higginson Tower Restoration. The Higginson Tower is open 7 days a week, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. right through the summer, until August 31. During September, the Higginson Tower was open Saturdays and Sundays, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.  If you are part of a group which would like to visit the tower, call 1-877-678-3327 and ask for Louise Sproule. The tower is accessible from Highway 34 (across from Martin’s Tire Shop), or on Home Avenue, where the entrance to the tower is right next door to the entrance to Arbor Gallery.

If you visit the Higginson Tower, you can park in the St. John’s Anglican Church parking lot, and from the tower, walk right over to Arbor Gallery, where local artists and innovative shows are always on. Arbor Gallery is located in one of Vankleek Hill’s historic homes, built by William Higginson. The gallery is open from Thursday through Sunday, from noon to 5 p.m.

Vankleek Hill has been proclaimed as the “Gingerbread Capital of Ontario”. It exhibits stunning examples of Victorian-era houses which still boast the original wooden gingerbread ornamentation.

More than 250 homes in Vankleek Hill pay homage to its Victorian history with its gingerbread-style architecture.  “Gingerbread” is often used interchangeably with Victorian; a style named in honour of Queen Victoria, and was introduced as a way to decorate buildings.

At the turn of the 19th century several brick factories flourished in Vankleek Hill, and many of the town’s most beautiful brick homes exist in the same condition as when they were built.  The many homes and buildings have charming, elaborate porches and peaks where “gingerbread” emphasizes these architectural features.

You won’t want to miss a visit to Vankleek Hill and experience some of the finest examples of Victorian architecture still in existence.

For more historical facts visit the Vankleek Hill Historical Society website.