St. Jacobs

Horse-drawn buggies share the road, the famous farmers' market draws visitors from across Ontario, and the village shops can make an afternoon disappear. St. Jacobs is Mennonite country at its most welcoming. The village sits on the Conestogo River, and King Street runs past nineteenth-century mills, inns and storefronts. The Mennonite Story visitor centre on King Street explains the Mennonite history of the township. More than 100 shops, galleries and restaurants fill the village, many in historic buildings such as the Country Mill, the Village Silos, the Mill Shed and the Old Factory, where potters, quilters, glassmakers and blacksmiths work. The Millrace Trail follows the old millrace beside the river under the trees. The St. Jacobs Farmers' Market is part of every visit, as Canada's largest year-round farmers' market with about a million visitors a year, and on market days the Waterloo Central Railway's heritage train runs between the market, the village and Elmira.

The area on the Conestogo River was settled from 1830, mostly by Mennonites from Pennsylvania. Jacob C. Snider built a dam and mills by 1852, and the village was named Jakobstettel, Jacob's Village, after him and his son. The hardware business that Walter Hachborn and Henry Sittler bought in 1949 became Home Hardware in 1963, and its head office is still in St. Jacobs. The farmers' market was founded in 1975.

The 2021 census counted about 725 homes in St. Jacobs. About two in three are single detached houses, and about one in five are in apartment buildings under five storeys. Semi-detached and row houses make up most of the rest. About a quarter of homes were built in 1960 or earlier and another quarter between 1961 and 1980. More than a third were built in 2001 or later.

King Street (Regional Road 85) runs north to Elmira, about 7 km away, and south to Waterloo. Uptown Waterloo is about 8 km away in a straight line, and Highway 85 begins just south of the village. Highway 401 is about 20 km to the south. Grand River Transit's 21 Elmira route runs through the village to Conestoga station in north Waterloo, which connects with ION light rail. The Millrace Trail, part of the Trans Canada Trail, follows the Conestogo River for about 2 km, and the Health Valley Trail continues along the river.

Snider Park, Queensway Park, Optimist Park, Schaner Park, Valleyview Park and Riverside Meadows are township parks in the village, and there is a wooded off-leash dog park reached from the Health Valley Trail. The village has an arena and community centre. The St. Jacobs branch of the Region of Waterloo Library is at 29 Queensway Drive, in a library first built in 1934. The St. Jacobs Farmers' Market and its outlet shops are a short drive south.

• St. Jacobs Public School — JK to Grade 8. The public school for the village, on Queensway Drive.
• Elmira District Secondary School — Grades 9 to 12. The public secondary school, about 7 km away in Elmira.
• St. Teresa of Avila Catholic School — JK to Grade 8. Woolwich's Catholic elementary school, about 6.5 km away in Elmira.
• St. David Catholic Secondary School — Grades 9 to 12. The Catholic secondary school for St. Teresa of Avila's family of schools, in Waterloo.