TOLLKEEPER'S COTTAGE APRIL NEWSLETTER
The sun was warm but the wind was chill.
You know how it is with an April day--Robert Frost
UPCOMING EVENTS
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SUNDAY APRIL 12, NOON-2:30 PM
will be our open Sunday this month
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SUNDAY APRIL 26, 2-4 PM ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
for all Community History Project Members
(memberships available at the door)
SPEAKER: HENRY KNIGHT is a stained glass artist and restorer who has been working to rediscover the lost history of Toronto's Victorian glaziers.
TOPIC: Naming Names: Who Made Toronto's Victorian Stained Glass Windows? Join us to be among the first in a century to know the names behind all the art.
All those who have taken out their a membership since November 1 last year are entitled to attend the AGM, vote and run for the Board of Directors. We have a roster of 11 possible Board Members, with 10 standing for the office. We need one more, especially one interested in marketing and outreach to get our museum known to interested visitors. At this meeting you will find out about our successes and challenges of the last year. Please let us know if you will attend at tollkeeperscottage@gmail.com. Hope to see you there!
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NEXT MONTH: TALK ON MAY 3, TIME TBD
MARINE BOAT ENTHUSIASTS MARK YOUR CALENDARS!
RON BEAUPRE will talk about a fisheries patrol vessel built at Polson's in Toronto. She was named VIGILANT and was involved with disputes between U.S. fishing vessels on Lake Erie and elsewhere.
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SO LONG, BILL!
This month the Community History Project will experience a departure from the Board of our long-standing colleague and advisor, Bill Kindree (photo above). A devoted history buff and preservation advocate, Bill has been involved with the Toronto Historical Society, a supporter of the York Pioneers and has dedicated himself to working with the Community History Project for over 30 years!
Originally an Ottawa boy, Bill excelled at math and science and pursued these subjects at the University of Toronto and then Waterloo, while also being involved with the earliest microcomputers in the mid-1970s. He had a satisfying career as a programmer-analyst but felt the tug of his heritage, perhaps arising from an early interest in vintage movie posters and liking things that were “oldish.”
Finding out that an old cottage was being rescued by the Community History Project (CHP) on Howland Avenue, he and a small group prepared the Tollkeeper’s Cottage for travel to the Wychwood Barns. He and former Board Member, archeologist Roberta O’Brien, worked on the Cottage from 1996-2002, using their carpentry skills and lathing skills to replace siding and the lathing in three of the four walls (the other side continues to have the original lathing). At that time, the Community History Project under Jane Beecroft had an office at Yonge and Bloor Streets for archival material. Bill was invited to the Board and became vice president until he took the president’s role in 2011 when Jane departed the Project. He considers one of his greatest contributions his ability to help navigate the CHP through a difficult time with the change from Jane Beecroft, who had been the strong founder and leader of the organization.
"Approachable," "respectful," a person with a refined palate and a love of travel, we hope that Bill has more time now to enjoy a good scotch and a satisfying game of sukoku (maybe not at the same time!) . Please enjoy the Cottage as a visitor instead of a worker, Bill! Thank you for your incalculable contribution to local history and heritage!
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TOLLKEEPER'S COTTAGE AND DOCENT MARILYN SPEARIN
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If you subscribe to the Globe and Mail, you may have noticed in their most recent Report on Business magazine, an article about Wychwood Park that gives us a little publicity, mentioning our Cottage and our walking tours: How tech billionaires are alienating neighbours in Toronto’s idyllic Wychwood Park.
Author Sarah Treleaven needed more information for a piece about Wychwood Park's newer residents and their views about this lovely enclave. Who else to ask for a brisk guided walk along its shady roads and stately houses but our own Marilyn Spearin? This "no-nonsense retired high school physics teacher" has probably taken some of you readers on one of her historic walks, too! Marilyn usually starts at the nearby Tollkeeper’s Cottage, "a community museum located in an 1835 structure that used to house the keeper who collected tolls on the then private road...." Sarah describes the experience of hiking from the Cottage with Marilyn, "a force of nature in a crocheted blue cap and wire-rim glasses, powering along the ...sidewalks of Davenport".
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Enjoy articles by one of our former speakers, Adam Bunch, as he illuminates strange stories about our fair city from dead elephants to William Kurelek, to gunfights at the CIBC and baseball in the 1800s.
The Toronto Time Traveller <torontohistory@substack.com>
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CONNECT, PRESERVE AND CELEBRATE WITH US
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AGM SPEAKER HENRY KNIGHT, has been studying, researching, restoring and creating and discussing stained glass in Toronto for some time. His recent quest was to identify some of the people who were responsible for these beautiful windows, such as the one you see above. At the AGM find out what he has discovered about the men who created them.
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MARCH TALK: DEATH AMONG THE VICTORIANS
Did you know that during Victorian times one out of every ten women died because of childbirth? And that parents were warned "not to get too attached" to their children when they were young, as 25-30% of them died before the age of five? Retired librarian and ROM Walk leader Virginia Van Vliet enlightened the audience with these and many other facts about the long and interesting age known as the Victorian era.
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SPRING GARDEN
When will we see the scilla around the property of the tollkeeper's Cottage? Don't forget to watch for it, and the trilliums and many other Spring plants on this lovely corner. We are truly blessed that we have such abundant self propagating plants and such eager and hard working volunteer gardeners. Interested in helping? Contact Catherine Watts at tollkeeperscottage@gmail.com.
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