Sat. February 4th - Heritage Day 2012

You will want to mark your calendar for the upcoming Heritage Day to be held on Sat. Feb. 4th at Burlington Central Library. This year the theme is The War of 1812 and it's 200th year commemoration.

An exciting line-up of speakers has been organized:

• 10:30 am Zig Miziak speaking about the War of 1812 and the Six Nations
• 11:30 am Daphne Smith speaking about Burlington Connections to the War of 1812-14
• 12:30 pm Jane Irwin presenting on The Brants in Burlington
• 1:30 pm Fred Blair talks about the 2nd Regiment of York Militia focusing on the Burlington men
• 2:30 pm Jim Taggert will focus on Everyday Life in 1812 : Medicine, Clothing and Values

In addition there will be many heritage displays - Beach Canal Lighthouse Group, Doors Open Burlington, Freeman Station Group and the War of 1812-14 Commemorative Committee to name just a few. Admittance is free! Central Library is at 2331 New Street between Guelph Line and Drury Lane. There is plenty of free parking available.

Burlington's Lighthouse Needs Your Help!

The Beach Canal Lighthouse Group is having a fund-raising street sale, Sunday July 10th from 8am to 2 pm at 871 Beach Boulevard. This lighthouse is the last of its kind left on Lake Ontario. Built in 1858 of white dolomite limestone, it was decommissioned in 1961 and has since been languishing. The Beach Canal Lighthouse Group is hoping one day to see both the lighthouse restored as well as the cottage next to it that the lighthouse keepers lived. The current vice-chair of the group is Sandy Thompson, descendent of George Thompson, lighthouse keeper from 1846-1875. To learn more about the lighthouse and the Beach Canal Lighthouse Group click here.

2nd Annual Doors Open Burlington

Join us for Burlington's 2nd Annual Doors Open!

On June 11 and 12, residents and visitors to the City will be given the remarkable opportunity to learn about places and spaces normally not open to the general public or for which an admission fee is usually charged. The event will help our community celebrate its historical, cultural and and natural heritage. Admission to all Doors Open events and sites is free! Highlights include historical walking tours, the Fine Art and Craft Festival, a chance to see the Burlington Teen Tour Band practice, and numerous behind the scenes tours at many sites. New sites include The DeGroote School of Business, Ron Joyce Centre, Mountain Equipment Co-op and The Halton Mosque. Don't miss this once a year opportunity.

To view all the sites and find out more information click on the Doors Open Burlington website. We could still use volunteer greeters at some of the sites. Interested? Click here.

First Annual Halton Heritage Conference

Halton Heritage springs to life with the First Annual Halton Heritage Conference. The conference is presented by the Halton Heritage Network and takes place Saturday April 2, 2011. The day runs from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and is located at Halton Region Museum in Milton. See below for details of presentations.

Prof. Ken Weber of U of T is presenting The War of 1812 - Why Canada Is Not a U.S. State

Noted local historian John McDonald speaks about In Search of William Halton

Four break out sessions include : Local History and our Schools; Undertaking Oral History; Copyright - what could go wrong? and Writing Local History

If you are interested in attending click here for details. I hope to see you there!

Heritage Fair in Burlington, Sat Feb 12th

In addition to many interesting heritage organization displays, the upcoming Heritage Fair will feature these interesting seminars:

Courtship in the Victorian Era at 10 am
Interviewing Grannie: doing Oral History in your Family at 10:30 am
Who were the refugees to Canada in 1784? at 11:30 am
Crawford Lake Village at 12:30 pm
Early Burlington Medicine at 1:30 pm
Burlington's Buried History at 2:30 pm

Location is Central Library and all seminars are FREE!

Eileen Collard and Her Costume Collection

If you are interested in the history of fashion you will want to head to the Joseph Brant Museum where there is a small but excellent exhibition of women's clothing from the 1920's. Currently there are 10 dresses (with hats, shoes and purses) on display that make up just a small part of the wonderful Eileen Collard Costume Collection. Especially interesting are the flappers dresses heavily laden with beads and sequins. These items don't often come out of storage due to a shortage of exhibition space. I understand that future costume exhibitions from different eras are in the planning stage.

To find out more about Eileen Collard and her contribution to the history of fashion in Burlington click here.

Scanning Day at Burlington Central Library

Next Saturday, Burlington Public Library in partnership with the Burlington Historical Society is hosting an Old Photos Scanning Day. Grab your old photo albums and come to the library on Saturday, September 25 from 10am to 3pm for our photograph scanning marathon!
If you have any old photos of your family or business taken in Burlington's younger days, we invite you to share them with us. Bring your photos in and we’ll scan them for you. You keep the original and get a scanned copy, and we keep a copy for our archives. Some images may be added to our online historical photo collection. Please provide a memory stick or an email address when you come in. No appointment is necessary and scanning will take place in the Burlington History Room, Central Library, 2nd floor.

Doors Open 2011 Here We Come!

I think that the numbers speak for themselves. Burlington's very first Doors Open event drew just shy of 5,000 site visits over June 12 and 13th. 15 sites including St. Luke's Church, Ireland House, Knox Presbyterian Church, the Gingerbread House, the Estaminet, Lowville School House and Lowville United Church hosted tours, provided storyboards, and allowed access to archives. Several sites even provided homemade scones, tea,coffee and lemonade. Many visitors said they have been devoted fans of Doors Open events in other communites and commented that they were more than pleased that Burlington partipated this year. Hopefully this will just be the start.

Historical re-enactment - a different take

We often think of historical re-enactments as having to do with military events, such as the yearly re-enactment of the Battle of Stoney Creek at Battlefield House. But St. John's Anglican Church on Dundas St. and the Ireland House Museum have a different idea. On Sunday, June 6th guests will be welcome to become a member of the wedding party during the re-enactment of a historic Ireland Family wedding.

During the re-enactment guests will follow the wedding couple, Eliza Ann and John Ireland, through the day including a wedding brunch, shower, visit to the family home of Ireland House culminating in the wedding ceremony and banquet at St. John's Anglican Church.

For details and tickets call the museum at 905-332-9888.

Tales from the Crypt!

For those of you who have visited the Hamilton Cemetery and wondered what it was like inside a a crypt - I can tell you. The answer is deep, dark, dank and a little creepy. I was fortunate (some would disagree) to be able to go down into the Colonel Robert Land crypt two weeks ago. The Hamilton Chapter of the United Empire Loyalists were unveiling a plaque denoting Robert Land's crypt as a Loyalist burial site.

John Land, a descendent of Robert Land, was on hand to share with the audience a brief history of his ancestor's life. And what a life it was - Robert Land can be described as the first white settler in Hamilton, a loyalist spy, prisoner, pioneer and explorer. To learn more about Robert Land click here. I also highly recommend Robin McKee's tours of the Hamilton Cemetery.

Desjardins Railway Disaster

If you have walked along the Hamilton West Harbour cycling path you may have noticed a plaque commemorating the Desjardins Railway Disaster of 1857. The historic marker is on the path just underneath the High Level Bridge. I have always been extremely interested in this important if gruesome event in Hamilton's history, and now, thanks to a digitized project undertaken by the Hamilton Public Library, I can satisfy my curiosity. The library has done a beautiful job of digitizing the original booklet that reads like a forensic study of the disaster. You can flip through an online copy of the "Full Details of the Railway Disaster of the 12th of March, 1857 at the Desjardins Canal on the line of the Great Western Railway". Here you will read about how the train fell through the swing-bridge into the icy canal below killing 57 passengers in an instant. You will read about the community's response to the event and learn something about the victims - among them a Church minister, plough maker, bookseller, gas inspector, quartermaster, flour merchant and stock breeder, as well as several infants. Click here to read this wonderfully copied orginial document.

Government promises funding to help celebrate 200th Anniversary of the War of 1812

On March 4th the Federal budget promised an influx of $75 million to upgrade historic sites connected with the Bicentennial of the War of 1812. This is good news for our area as the Battle of Stoney Creek, a pivotal conflict during the War took place June 6, 1813. The Ontario Ministry of Tourism has said the bicentennial will be a major event for Ontario, with close to 13 million Americans and Canadians saying they will attend an event. Both Hamilton and Burlington have committees currently planning events. More about these as I get the details. To learn more about the War of 1812 and the upcoming Bicentennial click here.

Volunteers needed for Burlington's First Doors Open

Burlington is hosting it's very first Doors Open event this June (Sat. June 12 and Sun. June 13). For those of you who haven't had the pleasure to attend a past Doors Open event in a participating community, here's how it works. A community will pick a number of heritage related sites and those sites kindly open their doors for free to the general public. It usually runs over a weekend, and each site is run by volunteers who welcome, interpret and answer questions about the historic importance of each location. Sites are usually located within walking distance to each other, while others require a drive in the country. Nearby communites such as Hamilton, Guelph and Oakville have had great turnouts in past years. To read more about Doors Open events in Ontario in general click here. To reach Doors Open Burlington website click here. Volunteer application forms and information are on the site. The event is entirely volunteer driven and we will need well over 100 volunteers to make it work. I encourage anyone interested in Burlington's heritage to consider giving a few hours of your time and sign up for this great event.

Celebrate Heritage in Burlington all month long

This year the Burlington Heritage Week Committee has stretched the community celebration to last the entire month of February. The events are spread throughout the city. For example - Paletta Mansion is having an open house as is the Halton Region Museum, Joseph Brant Museum in holding an Antique Clinic, and Central Library is hosting a number of talks such as The Design of an Historic Garden at Dundurn Castle and also The History of the Freeman Railway Station. Details about these events and many more can be found by clicking here, (be sure to scroll down to where it says "For a detailed list of upcoming Heritage Month Events" for the information).

PS - you have to love technology - I am posting this blog entry from Glasgow, Scotland having just visited the fabulous Stirling Castle!

Sir John A Macdonald and his birthday party

The Sir John A. Macdonald Society in Hamilton hosted another successful birthday party for our nation's first charismatic Prime Minister who was born January 11, 1915. A Scottish piper led the parade of 100 or so people in the biting cold to the monument of Sir John A. in Gore Park where wreaths were laid by a number of dignitaries. Back in the auditorium of the Crowne Plaza Hotel (nice and warm I might add), MC Steve Paikin introduced author Roy MacSkimming who talked about the writing of his novel, entitled Macdonald. Other speakers included Hamilton Councillor, Bob Bratina who spoke about Macdonald and the building of the railroad and past mayor of Hamilton, Bob Morrow who led the audience through a rededication of Canadian Citizenship. What with the Highland dancing and the Union Jack birthday cake, a good time was had by all. To read the novel Macdonald go to the Burlington Public Library catalogue, the library owns 5 copies - http://www.bpl.on.ca/ . To learn more about Sir John A. click here.

'Tis the Season

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Back again in 2010.

New Plaque at Burlington's Union Burying Ground

Next time you are driving by Ikea, slow down and take a moment to realize that you have just passed a unique heritage cemetery. Better yet, park your car in the lot near Sears Home and wander around to the front of the cemetery where you will find a new plaque. The Hamilton Chapter of the United Empire Loyalists had the unveiling of this plaque, Sunday, November 15th.

The new plaque will let people know of the hardworking United Empire Loyalists, who are buried here. Established in 1848, the Union Burying Grounds was founded by ten pioneer families who were members of the Methodist Union. The families holding plots here were major contributors to the early growth, prosperity, and well-being of Nelson and the Village of Wellington Square: Baxter, Crosby, Cummins, Davis, Fisher, Gage, Galloway, Ghent, Kerns and Pearl. I find it impressive that almost 150 years later, the descendants of its founders continue to manage and maintain this historic burial place. The fine brick wall was built by Jabez Bent in 1888 - sadly it is in much need of restoration. The wrought iron gates and original name plaque also date from 1888. The grave markers are invaluable historic records and also merit preservation. This cemetery feels especially unique given it's setting of urban development.

*photo courtesy of The Burlington Historical Society

Home Children - in the news

From 1869 to 1939, an estimated 100,000 orphaned or abandoned children were taken off the streets of Britain and sent to Canada and other former British colonies with the promise of a better life. Some studies have shown that up to two-thirds were abused by their patrons in Canada. Yesterday, November 16th, Australia offered a formal apology to all Home Children sent there, with Britain planning to do the same thing next year. The Canadian government has said that no such apology is being planned. There is currently a private member's motion to declare 2010 as the Year of the Home Child. Read about current news. Learn more about Home Children.

photograph - immigrant children from Dr. Barnardos Homes at Landing Stage, St. John, New Brunswick, undated.

The Estaminet - new heritage designation

The old Estaminet Restaurant - which has been Emma's Back Porch downstairs and The Water Street Cooker upstairs for nearly 20 years - has been voted by Burlington City Council to be protected under the Ontario Heritage Act.* This historic building which opened in 1919 is in the middle of the Old Lakeshore Road precinct, an area to undergo future development. You can read the Old Lakeshore Road Precinct Urban Design Guidelines if you want to learn more.

*Once a property has been designated under Part IV of the Act, a property owner must apply to the local municipality for a permit to undertake alterations to any of the identified heritage elements of the property or to demolish any buildings or structures on the property.

Books - new, old and create your own

I want to bring your attention to the 19th Annual Book Fair sponsored by the Waterdown-East Flamborough Heritage Society. It will take place Saturday, November 14th, from 9:30 am to 3 pm at St. James United Church in Waterdown (306 Parkside Drive). You will be able to buy new and used books, antiquarian books, genealogy supplies, and meet local authors. Several new local history books will be available - these kind of publications are often very hard to find. Of special interest to the family researcher is a 1 hour seminar at 10:30 am given by Rick Roberts of Global Genealogy - it is called "Publishing a Local or Family History: Six Steps to Success". I will be marking it on my calendar - maybe I'll see you there.