Sharon is the East Gwillimbury community people drive through on Leslie Street, and then a handful who know better buy in it. It's the town's historic heart: the village where the Sharon Temple was built, home to some of the nicest established lots in York Region, and within a few minutes of the 404. If you're comparing East Gwillimbury's four villages, Sharon deserves a serious look. Here's what I tell buyers about it.
The History That Gives Sharon Its Soul
Sharon's heritage is tangible. The centrepiece is the Sharon Temple, the three-storey timber building on Leslie Street built between 1825 and 1832 by the Children of Peace, a community of Quaker-led dissenting families who settled these farmlands. It's a National Historic Site of Canada and the heart of the Sharon Museum and Gardens, one of the oldest museum sites in the province, surrounded by heritage buildings and parkland. It's the only place I know of in the GTA where you can walk into a building from the 1830s on a weekday and feel the township's actual history.
That heritage carries through the community's character today: the streets around the village centre, the mature public buildings and the unhurried pace. Sharon has grown, of course, but the new development was planned around the heritage core rather than replacing it, which is one of the things that makes the community feel settled even while it's growing.
The Homes: Older Lots and Newer Streets
Sharon isn't one housing market, and the split is what makes it interesting. On Leslie Street, and on the streets behind the temple, the older areas have mature trees and generous lots, with detached homes that have been restored and updated over the years. Then the newer residential areas, including the planned Sharon neighbourhood, bring fresh builds with modern layouts and brand-new finishes, often right beside open park space. Around the edges, where the municipality gives way to the countryside, properties sit on larger rural parcels.
For buyers, that variety is a gift: you can compare a character home on an established lot against a brand-new build in the same week and decide which reality suits your life. It also means pricing at the edges has to be done pocket by pocket, which is exactly the kind of micro-market comparison I do for every Sharon buyer and seller.
Parks, Recreation and the Sports Complex
For a small community, Sharon is strong on amenity. The East Gwillimbury Sports Complex, on Mount Albert Road, is the Town's main recreation building: ice pads, meeting space, and a splash pad and playground attached. Sharon Park beside it is a proper passive park with new playground equipment, and the trail network, including the sections of the Nokiidaa and Simcoe trails along the Holland River corridor, connects right into the greenway system that runs the length of the town.
Kids' sports, weekend skates, dog walks on the trail and a museum visit for out-of-town company; that's Sharon's rhythm. Recreation feels genuinely local here, which is a fine addition to the conversation for families choosing between the East Gwillimbury villages.
Schools: Sharon Public School and the Boards
Sharon is served by the York Region District School Board and the York Catholic board. Sharon Public School is the local public elementary, and it moved into a brand-new facility in recent years to keep pace with the town's growth. There are no secondary schools inside East Gwillimbury, so public high school students travel to Newmarket; the assigned school depends on the address and the board's boundary reviews.
School catchments shift as the town grows, so I never rely on second-hand lists. Use the YRDSB and YCDSB official school locators, and confirm the school for the exact address before you buy.
Getting Around: The 404 and the GO Station
Sharon sits on the west side of East Gwillimbury, which matters practically: Green Lane takes the village to its interchange with Highway 404 for a direct north-south corridor, and the East Gwillimbury GO Station at 845 Green Lane East, on the Barrie line, is a few minutes of driving from most of Sharon. That makes the village a genuinely strong commuter option, not just a country town.
South and west, Newmarket is on the other side of the boundary and provides the shopping, services, hospital and schools that round out daily life. Sharon gives you what amounts to a small-town detached-home base with urban connectivity at the end of the drive.
Who Fits Sharon?
Families who want local sports and a real school community, commuters who need the 404 and GO station, buyers who love the idea of owning a piece of York Region's early settlement history: they all find their match in Sharon. If you're the kind of buyer who would rather have one mature neighbourhood street and its trees than the newest subdivision in the province, Sharon hits differently.
Of course I'm happy to explain the whole picture in your terms. I've sold more homes in East Gwillimbury than any other Realtor over the past 10 years, and that history includes plenty of transactions sitting at every kind of address in Sharon. If you'd like, start with my Sharon community page, or send me a note and we'll walk through what you're weighing up.
Thanks, Lee