A New Home for the Freeman Station? 5 possibilities...

The city of Burlington has plans to move the old Freeman Train Station, yes, the one that has been "parked" behind the Fairview St. Fire Station for the last four years! Recently City Hall held an open house to showcase 5 possible spots where the station could be moved to - 4 of the 5 are in the core area and belong to the City. Possible "homes" include: land on the lakefront across the street from the Joseph Brant Museum, the north-west corner of the park behind the Burlington Art Centre, the north-east quadrant on the corner of Elgin St. and Brock Ave, Municipal parking lot 5 on Brant St. across from Elgin St. and lastly, the Burloak Waterfront Park.

At this point, city planners do not know what kind of tenant will take over the restored old station when it does find its new home (see report). This writer is especially excited that something is being done to start the process of restoration of this wonderful local treasure. The station was named after Joshua Freeman, the founder of the village of Freeman. Built in 1904, it was located on the corner of Brant Street and Plains Road. It was in use until 1988. In its heyday, this Grand Trunk Railway station was a hive of activity, especially on shipping days of the Aldershot fruit harvest.

Courtesy of the Burlington Historical Society

Archives of Ontario on the move

On April 2nd, the Archives of Ontario opened its doors to its new state-of-the-art home on the York University Campus. This move has been on a gargantuan scale - 53,000 containers, folders and volumes of archival records have been meticulously packed and moved.

For genealogists and historians, the "one big reading room" as staff refer to it, is 75% larger than the old Archives reading room, offers new microfilm readers, more work stations, state of the art viewing booths for sound and moving images, wireless capability and even a lounge for day-long researchers.

Getting to and from the new Archives from the Halton-Hamilton area may not be as easy as to the old location on Grenville Street. Driving won't be too bad, but for public transit users, visiting the Archives won't be as easy as hopping on a Go Train to downtown Toronto. Apparently plans for a rapid transit busway that will shuttle commuters from Downsview Subway Station to the York University campus have now been finalized. This is very good news for those making their way to this exciting new facility.

"Meet me at the Brant Inn" to be aired on TV

Burlington's own Historical Society dvd "Meet me at the Brant Inn" is going to be televised Saturday, March 21st at 10 p.m. on PBS - WNED Buffalo. Bought copies of the dvd are hard to come by (the Society has sold out twice) and there are 40 holds on the library's 5 copies - don't miss your chance to see this showing.

Valley Inn Road Bridge - last days to drive over it!

The old Valley Inn Road bridge (or better known by decades of local kids, as the clickety-clack bridge) is soon to be closed to car traffic. It will be maintained as a pedestrian throughway, which no doubt local hikers, runners, and cyclists will enjoy more fully without the intrusion of cars. It goes without saying that as a wildlife and nature sanctuary, the closing of the bridge will be seen as a blessing for the area.



It's hard to believe that at one time the Valley Inn Road and bridge served as a major connection for travelers going east from Hamilton towards Toronto, or west towards Dundas. By the late 1800's this route was very busy and the Valley Inn Hotel opened near the west side of the bridge. (Today the City of Hamilton has put an informational marker about the Inn on the site where it stood.) The Hotel was a favourite spot for farmers , who while taking their goods to market, would stop and have a drink. The Hotel was very close to one of the unpopular toll houses (road building was an expensive business) and there are stories of liquored up travelers giving the toll collectors a hard time -there are examples of travelers driving their wagons right through the toll gate and taunting the toll collector to stop them if they could.



The original bridge collapsed in 1964 when a transport truck went over it and the current single lane "Bailey" (military) bridge which was meant to be temporary is the noisy one which has become such a well loved landmark. On a cold sunny weekday morning recently I could barely find a spot to park to take this photograph, and traffic crossing the bridge was brisk, so I would say that interest in the closing of the bridge is high. There are only a couple of months left to drive over the bridge - don't miss out.


How do I find the Valley Inn Bridge? Valley Inn Road intersects York Blvd, just next to the RBG Rock Gardens parking lot. You can drive down Valley Inn Road, cross the bridge and then exit via Spring Gardens Rd (beside Woodland Cemetery) which will take you back out to Plains Road.


Read more about the Valley Inn Hotel in an article from the The Waterdown - East Flamborough Heritage Society, "Vanished Flamborough: The Valley Inn" Part 1 and Part 2.

In honour of Black History Month - two very different local perspectives

Oakville and the Underground Railroad

From 1820 to 1865, the Underground Railroad secretly transported thousands of fugitive slaves who traveled from the southern U.S. across the border to freedom in Canada. For many escaped African Americans, Oakville harbour was their first view of Canada and a new life of freedom. Oakville native, Captain Robert Wilson (pictured at right) helped hundreds of blacks cross Lake Ontario on his ships. One individual, James Wesley Hill crossed the border in a packing box in the late 1840's, settled on a farm near Oakville, and went on to help many escaped slaves by giving them work picking strawberries. His house still stands today at 457 Maple Grove Drive.

Oakville's influx of newcomers led to integrated schools and church groups in addition to new businesses - there was a distinct change in the fabric of early Oakville society. Emanicpation Day was celebrated in St. George's Square. Freed slaves from all over Ontario returned to Oakville to remember the occasion and march up Trafalgar Road to Captain Wilson's house (which still stands at 41 Navy Street).

To learn more about Oakville's connection to the Underground Railroad, see Deborah Lerech's essay, The Underground Railroad.

Joseph Brant - slave owner

There was an interesting news article in The Toronto Star last week commenting on Joseph Brant and the fact that he owned about 30 slaves. Of particular interest is the story of Sophia Pooley. Born to slave parents in New York state, at about age 12 (different sources vary) she was kidnapped with a sister and sold to Brant in the Niagara area on the U.S. side of the border. When Brant moved to Burlington in 1784 he brought Sophia and his other slaves with him. When she was about 20, he sold her to English settler Samuel Hatt of Ancaster. Sophia lived into her nineties in the Waterloo region. Her story is part of the oral history Refugee: or the Narratives of the Fugitive Slaves in Canada, published in 1856 and makes very interesting reading. To learn more about Sophia Pooley, see this excerpt from Refugee.

Joseph Brant found in Ottawa!

I was fortunate enough to spend my birthday recently wandering the galleries of the esteemed National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa - there I saw 2 famous original oil portraits of Burlington's very own Chief Joseph Brant.

The first portrait by society artist George Romney, was painted when Brant was 33 years old. The portrait was done in Romney's London studio in 1776 when Brant visited the city with Guy Johnson (who was the royal commissioner for Indian Affairs of North America). Brant is shown wearing a white ruffled shirt, Indian blanket, silver gorget and a plumed headress . He is carrying a tomahawk. Romney's painting is gorgeous to see and so well illustrates how Brant straddled both native and western worlds.

In the same gallery I found this second portrait, (bottom picture) by William Berczy. This portrait was believed to have been painted shortly after the Chief''s death at the age of 65. Brant appears as a completely assimilated Mohawk Chief, standing on the banks of perhaps the Grand River pointing to the site of his people's new homeland. The artist has an interesting link to Canadian history - born in Saxony, he studied art in Italy and England before coming to North America. In addition to working as a portrait painter, he was also a writer, town planner, engineer, architect and land developer. It was in his role of land developer that Berczy met Joseph Brant in 1794. He is known to have settled a group of German colonists in the town of Markham.

Photographs courtesy of National Gallery of Canada

"Burlington loves Heritage" - come celebrate Heritage Day at Burlington Central Library

Don't forget to mark Saturday, February 14th (10 - 3:30) on your calendar and plan to celebrate Heritage Day at Burlington Central Library!

Numerous local heritage organizations will have interesting exhibits for your interest - and there is a wonderful lineup of speakers.

10:30 am - former Burlington Mayor Walter Mulkewich speaks on "Why heritage is important to Burlington"
11:30 am - Elizabeth Crouch, archivist of St Luke's Anglican Church, speaks about 175 years of St Luke's history
12:30 pm - Burlington Post columnist, Don Crossley shares unforgettabe articles
1:30 pm - Joseph Brant Museum curator, Paul Stone speaks about the Frank Wright photograph exhibit
2:30 pm - Ken Cruikshank, local author and historian talks about the "People of the Bay"

This free event takes place at Burlington Central Library (2331 New St) on the first floor in Centennial Hall. Ample parking is available. See you there!