In 1615,
Samuel de Champlain travelled through the area, coming down from
Lake Chemong and portaging down a trail, which is approximated by present-day Chemong Road, to the
Otonabee River and stayed for a brief time near the present-day site of
Bridgenorth, just north of Peterborough.
19th century In 1818, Adam Scott settled on the west shore of the
Otonabee River. The following year he began construction of a sawmill and gristmill, establishing the area as Scott's Plains. The mill was located at the foot of present-day King Street and was powered by water from Jackson Creek. This location, adjacent to the Ontario government Ministry of Natural Resources building, and Peterborough's Millennium Park may have been the site of landfall for a portage which connects in a direct line with Bridgenorth. The site has an Ojibway name "Nogojiwanong" which means "the place at the end of the rapids". in 1991 The year 1825 marked the arrival of
Irish immigrants from the City of
Cork to Scott's Plains. In 1822, the British Parliament had approved an experimental emigration plan to transport poor Irish Catholic families to
Upper Canada.
Peter Robinson, a member of the
Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada and a prominent businessman from
York, Upper Canada was the man who took on the emigration plan of 1825. Scott's Plains was renamed Peterborough in his honour. Robinson interviewed families and individual males to make the long voyage. These families had to meet specific criteria in order to be eligible for the voyage. The specifics required for Robinson's settlers were that they had to be Catholic, poor and with a knowledge of farming. Males had to be less than forty-five years of age, in good health, and families were unrelated. The majority of the Irish emigrants were chosen from
Fermoy, North Cork. Robinson was urged by landlords to remove the "pauper and undesirables". He resisted and stated that he had "no wish" to hold out a bounty to persons of bad character. But as Robinson travelled through the countryside they became flesh and blood 'people of a good sort' he called them, 'bred to farming. I found them much more intelligent than I expected. Most of them could read and write'". Thomas Poole, a nineteenth century writer, wrote that all 2,024 passengers boarded nine ships in June 1825, with everything they owned, from Cork across the Atlantic Ocean to
Quebec City. The journey took 30 days to cross the Atlantic, and on board the ship they were provided with bunks and food rations. Hard tack or ship biscuits were one of the many foods that were made to provide energy for the passengers. Hard tack was very easy to make and could be stored for months without spoiling. After the settlers landed in Quebec City, they travelled further down the
St. Lawrence River, eventually reaching
Lachine where they boarded a bateau, heading west to
Kingston, and ultimately to Kingston and
Cobourg. They camped in tents in Cobourg for several weeks until Peter Robinson joined them to lead them up to their final destination. The long voyage across the ocean was enough to weaken the emigrants but having to camp out in tents in the mid-summer heat brought on several other complications. Nearly all of the settlers experienced fever and ague, and several perished from it. Even faced with these hardships they forged ahead and put their trust in Peter Robinson, the man leading them to their settlement in Peterborough. In 1845,
Sandford Fleming, inventor of
Standard Time and designer of Canada's first postage stamp, moved to the city to live with Dr. John Hutchison and his family, staying until 1847. Dr. Hutchison was one of Peterborough's first resident doctors. By 1846, the community was flourishing, with a population of about 2000. A stone jail and court house had been built and there were seven churches and various government offices. There was a fire company, two newspapers and a post office that received mail daily. Industry included two grist mills, two saw mills, one brewery, one ashery, two distilleries, three foundries, three tanneries and tradesmen of various types worked here. One school and one bank agency were operating. Peterborough was incorporated as a town in 1850, with a population of 2,191. Beginning in the late 1850s, a substantial canoe building industry grew up in and around Peterborough. The
Peterborough Canoe Company was founded in 1893, with the factory being built on the site of the original Adam Scott mill. By 1930, 25 percent of all employees in the boatbuilding industry in Canada worked in the Peterborough area. Peterborough would also see extensive industrial growth as one of the first places in the country to begin generating hydro-electrical power (even before the plants at
Niagara Falls). Companies like
Edison General Electric Company (later Canadian General Electric) and America Cereal Company (later to become
Quaker Oats, and in 2001 PepsiCo, Inc.), opened to take advantage of this new cheap resource.
20th century , constructed in 1904 The first major events of the 20th century in Peterborough occurred in 1904. The first occurrence was the completion of the
Peterborough Lift Lock on July 9, eight years after construction was initially approved. To this day, many landmarks in Peterborough memorialize
Richard Rogers, conceptual father of the Lift Lock, such as Rogers Cove on
Little Lake and Rogers Street in the eastern part of the city. On July 1, 1905, Peterborough was incorporated as a city with a population of about 14,300. The city's
flag and
coat of arms were adopted later, in 1951. In the 1970s, the
Government of Ontario helped sponsor the building of Peterborough Square with the aid of the Ontario Downtown Renewal Programme (ODRP). The mall was anchored by an
Eaton's store until the collapse of the Eaton's chain of stores in the late 1990s; it now houses offices, stores and a food court. The provincial government relocated the central office of the
Ministry of Natural Resources to 300 Water Street, kitty-corner from Peterborough Square.
21st Century In 2008, the
Peterborough Regional Health Centre opened, replacing the Civic Hospital and St. Joseph's Health Centre. Lansdowne Place, the primary shopping centre in Peterborough, underwent a renovation in 2009, adding over 15 000 m2 (165 000 sqft) of retail space. In September 2025,
GE Vernova announced their plans to demolish the former
General Electric factory complex, located at 107 Park St N. Despite controversy surrounding the plan for demolition, Peterborough city council approved GE Vernova's plan to demolish 26 vacant buildings on the property on October 14, 2025. ==Geography==