1941, when the federal government established a water distribution system at DIL Pickering Works in Ajax, the Pickering Village requested a connection to the DIL water plant, for its 136 houses and several small businesses. However, the request was denied, and the Village had to wait another 15 years for running water. Municipal status By 1850, when the Pickering Village achieved a formal village status, it had over 300 residents. It had 4 churches, a brewery, two hotels, a doctor, two water mills, and several merchants. As a commercial center, it attracted visitors from the surrounding rural areas, including Scarborough, Uxbridge, and Whitby. On 2 June 1900, the Village of Pickering was formally designated as a police village, authorized under bylaw number 580 by the County of Ontario. The first meeting of the Village's trustees was held on 20 June. On 1 March 1953, the village achieved full municipal status, incorporating as the "Municipality of the Village of Pickering". At that time, it had a population of nearly 900. In the late 1960s, the Government of Ontario proposed the idea of Regional Municipalities, which would replace the County Councils, taking over the municipal and transportation services common to multiple towns and cities. The former Ontario County would be replaced with the Regional Municipality of Durham, which would include lower-tier city or town municipalities. To gain or retain the lower-tier municipal status, an area had to have a population of at least 8,000. Pickering Village (population 2,535) fell considerably short of this threshold, and was to be merged with either the Township of Pickering (population 17,000) or the Town of Ajax (population 12,000). Some of its residents resented the idea of losing their distinct identity with this merger. After a series of negotiations between the various municipalities and the provincial government, on 1 January 1974, Pickering Village merged with Ajax within the Durham Region. To satisfy the residents of Pickering Village, the town of Ajax enacted strict development guidelines to ensure that the village retained its "distinctive flavour". See also History of Ajax, Ontario References Bibliography External links Former municipalities in Ontario Neighbourhoods in Ajax, Ontario Populated places disestablished in 1974