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Expanding the narrative
This is part of a broader conversation about whose history is being told, about gender, people of colour and the economically disenfranchised, and others whose stories have been overlooked or intentionally omitted from the authorized discussion. - Food
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Intangible heritage
Intangible cultural heritage includes language, traditions, music, food, special skills, etc. - Medical heritage
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Quiet on the set
By
Christina Jennings
Economics of heritage, Buildings and architecture, Arts and creativity, Community, Adaptive reuse
Published Date:01 Oct 2019
Photo: CBC's Murdoch Mysteries
Shaftesbury is the company behind the hit television series Murdoch Mysteries and Frankie Drake Mysteries, both of which air on CBC in Canada and are seen in over 120 countries around the world.
Producing two television series that are set in Toronto 100 years ago could have proved a major challenge. Toronto is not blessed with abundant historical buildings and, in many cases, they are surrounded by modern architecture, which is difficult for our cameras to avoid.
Approximately half of each series is shot in studio in Toronto, where we build our interior sets. But these interior sets need to match historical building exteriors. And our characters must have believable period spaces that allow them to be “out and about.”
Years ago, I was fortunate to serve on the Board of Directors for the Ontario Heritage Foundation (now the Ontario Heritage Trust). I knew from my time on the Board, that many communities surrounding Toronto had done a good job preserving many heritage buildings and spaces. Both Murdoch Mysteries and Frankie Drake have filmed in many communities across Ontario – including Cambridge, Guelph, Tottenham, Rockton, Dundas, Ancaster, Shanty Bay, Milton, Hamilton, Burlington, Port Hope, Cobourg, Peterborough and St Marys. In each location, the only reason that we travel the cast and crew out of Toronto is because we need the historical buildings in those communities to make the series believable.
Murdoch Mysteries has filmed extensively over the years at the Westfield Heritage Village in Rockton – a site that includes over 30 historical buildings. According to Rondalyn Brown, manager of the Westfield Heritage Village, Murdoch Mysteries has generated extra interest among domestic and international visitors. “For us, [Murdoch] has increased our public awareness,” says Brown, “people knowing that they film here and getting to know we are here.” In addition to Westfield, both series have filmed at Halton County Radial Railway with its period railway station, trains and streetcars.
Historian Mike Filey brought the SS Keewatin, in dock in Port McNicoll, to Shaftesbury’s attention. We were excited to discover that a ship still existed here in Ontario that dated back to the time of the Titanic. So, we set a story on a period vessel and actually filmed onboard the Keewatin and at its mooring. We used visual effects and models to show the boat sailing (in our story, we also show it sinking). Eric Conroy, the ship’s captain, noticed an increase in visitors after the episode with the Keewatin aired in 2013. He estimates that 50 per cent of his ship’s annual visitors are Murdoch fans and found out about the ship from the television series. And many of these fans are from around the world. Says Conroy, “The Keewatin was virtually unknown, but using her in your season opener has introduced her to millions of viewers.” He added, “I couldn’t afford to buy the kind of advertising that [Murdoch Mysteries] has provided us.”
The Scottish Rite of Hamilton, built in 1895, has also proven to be a popular location for both Murdoch and Frankie. We have used the exterior to masquerade for a variety of places, including a 1920s police station, and the interior as a “stand-in” for the Royal Ontario Museum.
Cambridge has been a regular filming location for Murdoch since Season 1. According to Greg Durocher, President and CEO of its Commerce Department, the city has seen a number of visitors from the United States who have specifically requested information on Murdoch’s filming locations.
Murdoch Mysteries has a “standing” set as part of its studio in Scarborough, where we have built exterior streets and lanes. Frankie Drake does not have a dedicated exterior set, but we have been fortunate to use the wonderful collection of period buildings at the Cotton Factory in Hamilton, built in 1896, to create many different settings.
One of the techniques we use in recreating period spaces is to take a still of a period building and augment it with the help of computer generated images – adding buildings, vehicles, people and even streetcars.
In 2016, Shaftesbury worked with the Canadian Media Producers Association on the preparation of a Case Study on the Economic Impacts of Murdoch Mysteries. The study used Season 8 as the template to estimate the economic benefits that occurred in Ontario during the filming of the 18 episodes. Among other things, the study noted:
- $24.5 million direct production expenditure in Ontario
- $38.7 million total GDP
- 560 full-time employment
The study indicated the positive impact of Murdoch Mysteries on “film-induced tourism,” which occurs when a television program encourages viewers to visit the country or region where the show was filmed, becoming an important component of tourism marketing. In 2014, at a fan event that was held at the Murdoch studio in Scarborough, over 2,500 fans came from England, France, Spain, China and the United States to meet the cast and crew while touring the studio.
Shaftesbury set out to make Murdoch Mysteries and Frankie Drake Mysteries because, as a company, “we love history.” Our hope was that through entertainment, we could inspire people to embrace our heritage and explore some of the amazing historical sites that Ontario has to offer, and in doing so, become advocates for the continued preservation of Ontario’s historical buildings and spaces.
Given the enormous ratings of both shows (Murdoch remains Canada’s #1 drama series), I think we just might have succeeded in doing that. [Photos courtesy of Christina Jennings]
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- Buildings and architecture
- Author: Marybeth McTeague,
Ontario’s postwar places of worship: Modernist designs evoke traditional styles
The years following the Second World War were characterized by a sense of renewal and optimism. Places of worship built in Ontario during this period...
- 10 Sep 2009
- Buildings and architecture
Adaptive reuse - Author: Jennifer Laforest,
Adapting today’s places of worship
Adaptive reuse of religious buildings can simultaneously preserve significant heritage sites and benefit communities, but in Ontario those who want to make these conversions face...
- 10 Sep 2009
- Buildings and architecture
- Author: Candace Iron and Malcolm Thurlby,
Gothic traditions in Ontario churches
The importance of worship in 19th-century Ontario can be measured by the church buildings erected in the province during that time. Invariably, Ontario denominations turned...
- 10 Sep 2009
- Buildings and architecture
Community - Author: David Cuming,
From Hamilton, a municipal perspective
Places of worship are often stunning buildings, constructed in forms and styles that have existed for thousands of years around the world, using specialized techniques...
- 10 Sep 2009
- Buildings and architecture
Arts and creativity - Author: Nicholas Holman,
The music of worship
Goethe said that “architecture is frozen music,” but why did he say this? Was it because Christian church interiors, with their columns and arches, seem...
- 10 Sep 2009
- Buildings and architecture
Arts and creativity - Author: Erin Semande,
Art in the church and the church in art: Work of the Group of Seven
Talented and renowned artists have long been commissioned to decorate the interiors of places of worship, where they often turn the walls and ceilings into...
- 10 Sep 2009
- Buildings and architecture
Community - Author: Vicki Bennett,
Form and function: The impact of liturgy, symbolism and use on design
During the 19th century, the location, physical condition and stylistic merit of churches were publicly discussed as reliable indicators of a community’s value, moral fabric...
- 10 Sep 2009
- Buildings and architecture
Community - Author: Jane Burgess and Ann Link,
Enduring stewardship preserves a treasured heritage church
Located just east of Beaverton, the Old Stone Church, built in 1840 by a predominantly Scottish congregation, is a simple but handsomely proportioned small Georgian...
- 10 Sep 2009
- Buildings and architecture
Community - Author: Laura Hatcher,
The changing face of worship
The architectural style, massing, materials and date stones of a place of worship offer clues about the congregation’s history and values. Likewise, the building’s size...
Religious freedom in the promised land
Eli Johnson toiled on plantations in Virginia, Mississippi and Kentucky before making his bid for freedom in the “promised land” – the term used by...
- 10 Sep 2009
- Buildings and architecture
Community
Cultural landscapes - Author: Wendy Shearer,
Places of worship in Ontario’s rural cultural landscape
The cultural landscapes of rural southern Ontario contain a variety of heritage resources – land patterns and uses, built forms and natural features. Within these...
- 10 Sep 2009
- Indigenous heritage
Buildings and architecture
Community - Author: Yves Frenette,
Churches of “New Ontario”
In the middle of the 19th century, northern Ontario remained much as it had been under the French regime – a region of Catholic missions...
- 10 Sep 2009
- Indigenous heritage
Buildings and architecture
Francophone heritage
Community - Author: Wayne Kelly,
Ontario’s rich religious heritage
From the First People who for thousands of years conducted religious and cultural ceremonies at places they believed held spiritual significance, to subsequent arrivals who...
- 10 Sep 2009
- Indigenous heritage
Buildings and architecture
Community
Cultural objects - Author: Kathryn McLeod,
Christ Church and the Queen Anne Silver
Located in Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory on the Bay of Quinte, Christ Church houses a silver communion service dating to 1712. This remarkable service represents an...
- 10 Sep 2009
- Buildings and architecture
Cultural landscapes - Author: Marcus R. Létourneau,
Sacred landscapes in Ontario’s communities
While places of worship are a visible aspect of Ontario’s heritage, they are part of wider cultural landscapes that can include supporting structures, burial places...
- 10 Sep 2009
- Buildings and architecture
Community - Author: Richard Moorhouse,
Launching the Places of Worship Inventory
Survey, documentation and research – these are the first steps in the conservation process. How can decisions be made about our heritage without first acquiring...
- 10 Sep 2009
- Buildings and architecture
Arts and creativity
Cultural objects - Author: John Wilcox,
Adventures in light and colour
Light is a fundamental aspect of all architecture, especially places of worship. Light has always been considered a manifestation of the spirit, providing guidance, comfort...
- 10 Sep 2009
- Buildings and architecture
- Author: Bruce Pappin,
The challenge of change in the Catholic Diocese of Pembroke
In May 2006, the Catholic parish of Ste Bernadette in the small northern Ontario community of Bonfield celebrated the 100th anniversary of its church. A...
- 10 Sep 2009
- Buildings and architecture
- Author: Sean Fraser,
The challenges of ownership
Historic places of worship may possess cultural heritage values that engender public support for their preservation, but these values sometimes differ from the spiritual and...
- 28 May 2009
- Buildings and architecture
Community
Tools for conservation - Author: Sean Fraser,
Subsidizing demolition
In nature, there is no such thing as waste. Nature operates in an endless web of interconnected cycles of use, transformation and reuse. The concept...
- 28 May 2009
- Buildings and architecture
Natural heritage
Community - Author: Tamara Chipperfield and Kiki Aravopoulos,
Heritage in harmony: The integration of natural and cultural landscapes
Approximately 11,000 years of human culture are recorded in Ontario’s landscapes. Most existing natural landscapes in Ontario today have intrinsic cultural heritage meaning and significance...
- 28 May 2009
- Buildings and architecture
Community - Author: Erin Semande,
The sustainability of place
Located on the Lake Huron shore at the mouth of the Maitland River, Goderich is known as “Canada’s Prettiest Town.” It is situated in what...
- 28 May 2009
- Buildings and architecture
Adaptive reuse - Author: Joe Lobko and Megan Torza,
Rebirth of the Wychwood Barns
The Artscape Wychwood Barns – near St. Clair Avenue West and Bathurst Street in Toronto – were created when five historic streetcar maintenance barns were...
- 28 May 2009
- Buildings and architecture
Environment - Author: L.A. (Sandy) Smallwood,
Discarding the past
When an old building is torn down, we lose more than just the structure. We lose a bit of our past. The foundation walls and...
- 12 Feb 2009
- Buildings and architecture
Community - Author: Kathryn McLeod,
Heritage off the 401
Highway 401, stretching from Windsor to the Quebec border, is one of the busiest highways in North America. Anyone who has journeyed east of Toronto...
- 12 Feb 2009
- Buildings and architecture
Community - Author: Romas Bubelis,
Building on the past
Eastern Ontario offers an array of impressive historic houses. Some of these houses – owned and operated by the Ontario Heritage Trust – are featured...
- 12 Feb 2009
- Buildings and architecture
- Author: Michael Vidoni,
La nouvelle St. Brigid
L’église catholique St. Brigid d’Ottawa est entrée dans une nouvelle ère. Depuis presque 120 ans, elle se dresse au cœur d’un quartier divers et dynamique...
- 12 Feb 2009
- Buildings and architecture
Community
Adaptive reuse - Author: Glenda Jones,
From mill to museum
The big oak door of the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum in Almonte in eastern Ontario swings silently open as it has done for over 10...
- 12 Feb 2009
- Buildings and architecture
Community - Author: Wayne Kelly and Kathryn McLeod,
Ontario's eastern treasures
Inhabited by Aboriginal Peoples for 7,000 years, present-day eastern Ontario is rich with heritage. The area gradually transformed as French and later United Empire Loyalists...
- 12 Feb 2009
- Community
- Author: Liane Nowosielski,
Honouring Ontario’s premiers
The Ontario Heritage Trust launched the Premiers’ Gravesites Program at a memorable ceremony last November in Cornwall to commemorate the province’s first premier – The...
- 12 Feb 2009
- Buildings and architecture
- Author: Ellen Kowalchuk,
The Rockwood story
Behind the stately façade of Kingston’s Rockwood Villa lies the history of mental health services in Ontario. Built in 1842 as a residence for local...
- 11 Sep 2008
- Buildings and architecture
Adaptive reuse - Author: Romas Bubelis,
The character of adaptive reuse
In his 1947 essay titled “The Past in the Future,” architectural historian John Summerson (1904-92) offered this description of an old building. He was speaking...
- 11 Sep 2008
- Buildings and architecture
Community
Adaptive reuse - Author: Erik R. Hanson,
Second chances for Peterborough’s priceless heritage
One of the greatest challenges to creating a healthy downtown is getting people to live there. While Peterborough’s historic centre is full of beautiful heritage...
- 11 Sep 2008
- Buildings and architecture
- Author: Sean Fraser,
The heritage of faith – Ontario’s places of worship
In 2006, the Ontario Heritage Trust began compiling an inventory of significant pre-1982 purpose-built places of worship located throughout the province. These remarkable cultural treasures...
- 11 Sep 2008
- Buildings and architecture
Community - Author: Marcus R. Létourneau,
Kingston’s heritage: Time and again
The City of Kingston sits at a strategic location, halfway between Montreal and Toronto, where Lake Ontario meets the western end of the St. Lawrence...
- 11 Sep 2008
- Buildings and architecture
- Author: Beth Anne Mendes and Erin Semande,
Alma College remembered
By mid-afternoon on Wednesday, May 28, 2008, Alma College in St. Thomas was reduced to a smouldering ruin. The loss of this significant site to...
- 11 Sep 2008
- Buildings and architecture
Adaptive reuse - Author: Sean Fraser,
Understanding adaptive reuse
In our efforts to conserve heritage properties, finding a use can be our greatest challenge and our greatest opportunity. An unused, vacant heritage building is...
- 12 Jun 2008
- Buildings and architecture
Community - Author: Thomas Wicks,
A renaissance of northern heritage
After railway development connected this once-isolated area to the rest of the province at the end of the 19th century, the abundant natural resources attracted...
- 12 Jun 2008
- Community
- Author: Nicole Guertin and Andréanne Joly,
Northern Ontario: An authentic heritage
Heritage is often associated with the distant past and, for many, a dusty museum. Northern Ontario, however, is proposing a rejuvenation of its heritage by...
- 12 Jun 2008
- Expanding the narrative
Community - Author: Beth Anne Mendes,
Routes through the wilderness: The development of a transportation network in Northern Ontario
Isolation, great distances, demanding terrain and difficult weather conditions challenged the fortitude and perseverance of the people who forged water routes, roads, railways and air...
- 12 Jun 2008
- Buildings and architecture
Community - Author: Denis Héroux,
Adventurous workers wanted for remote locations – Housing provided
The exploration, settlement and development of northern Ontario were motivated by the exploitation of the region’s natural resources – primarily fur, timber, gold and silver...
- 12 Jun 2008
- Francophone heritage
Community - Author: Karen Bachmann,
Our Francophone heritage
Fauquier. Moonbeam. Kapuskasing. Hearst. Val Gagné. Belle Vallée. Sudbury. Timmins. Sturgeon Falls. The history of northern Ontario cannot be told without looking at the contributions...
- 12 Jun 2008
- Buildings and architecture
Community - Author: Romas Bubelis,
Northern icons
The towering McIntyre Mine Headframe in Timmins. The Clergue Block House and Powder Magazine in Sault Ste Marie. St. Francis of Assisi Anglican Church in...
- 12 Jun 2008
- Buildings and architecture
Community
Cultural landscapes - Author: Sean Fraser,
The historical Cobalt Mining District – A community resource
At the turn of the 20th century, Cobalt was a small and isolated lumber camp. In August 1903, two lumbermen – James McKinley and Ernest...
- 14 Feb 2008
- Community
Tools for conservation - Author: David Tremblay,
Community conservation: Ingredients for success
For the past seven years, a group called SOS-Églises has led the fight to preserve two century-old village churches in Essex County. Located in Pointe-aux-Roches...
- 14 Feb 2008
- Buildings and architecture
Cultural objects - Author: Kathryn Dixon,
Friends of the Trust
Throughout its 40 years, the Ontario Heritage Trust has developed strong partnerships with local communities. Among these partnerships are those with the groups whose efforts...
- 14 Feb 2008
- Community
Tools for conservation - Author: Ontario Heritage Trust,
Resources: Engaging citizens in community conservation
What's on the shelf Old Canadian Cemeteries: Places of Memory, by Jane Irwin with photographs by John de Visser (2007) Firefly Books. Canada abounds in...
- 14 Feb 2008
- Buildings and architecture
Arts and creativity
Adaptive reuse - Author: Gordon Pim,
Raising the curtain: How the Winter Garden Theatre was rediscovered
In December 1913, Loew’s Yonge Street Theatre – the Canadian flagship of the mighty Loew’s empire – opened in Toronto. Two months later, the opulent...
- 14 Feb 2008
- Buildings and architecture
- Author: Sean Fraser,
The past empowered
The buildings, structures and landscapes that comprise our cultural heritage are products of the intricate interplay between people and place over time. What is preserved...
- 14 Feb 2008
- Buildings and architecture
- Author: Sean Fraser,
Have you seen this building?
In November 2007, the Sir Aemilius Irving House in Hamilton was demolished by its owner to make way for a new building. Unfortunately, local heritage...
- 14 Feb 2008
- Buildings and architecture
- Author: Beth Hanna,
Enoch Turner Schoolhouse – a citizen’s legacy
When the province of Ontario introduced the 1847 Common Schools Act, municipalities were given the power to introduce taxes to fund public education. Toronto city...
- 14 Feb 2008
- Buildings and architecture
- Author: Laura Hatcher,
Counting our blessings
Built in Glengarry in 1821, St. Raphael’s Church was one of Ontario’s earliest Roman Catholic churches. Constructed under the supervision of Alexander Macdonell – Upper...
- 15 Nov 2007
- Buildings and architecture
Environment - Author: Romas Bubelis,
Building assets
Which is more sustainable – an artificial or live Christmas tree? This is an environmentalist’s conundrum, and it illustrates the paradox of “sustainable” building materials...
- 15 Nov 2007
- Buildings and architecture
Environment
Adaptive reuse - Author: Sean Fraser,
The guiding principles of sustainable architecture
In the late 1990s, the Ontario Ministry of Culture introduced Eight Guiding Principles in the Conservation of Built Heritage Properties, which are in common use...
- 15 Nov 2007
- Buildings and architecture
Environment - Author: Sean Fraser and Karen Abel,
Inside Sheppard’s Bush
Charles Sheppard (1876-1967) moved to the Town of Aurora in 1921, after making his fortune in the Simcoe County lumber industry. Brooklands, his modest estate...
- 15 Nov 2007
- Buildings and architecture
Community - Author: Beth Anne Mendes,
Discovering the City Beautiful
On July 25, 2007, the Ontario Heritage Trust and the Town of Kapuskasing unveiled a provincial plaque to commemorate the town plan that helped shape...
- 15 Nov 2007
- Buildings and architecture
Environment - Author: Sean Fraser,
Fact or fiction: Demystifying the myths around going green – Moving toward a more sustainable architecture
Sustainable: able to be maintained at a certain rate or level . . . conserving an ecological balance by avoiding a depletion of natural resources...
- 15 Nov 2007
- Buildings and architecture
Environment
Adaptive reuse - Author: Alex Speigel,
Sustainability for old buildings: A developer’s perspective
Adaptive reuse provides a sound and sustainable approach to the renewal of our urban fabric, as illustrated by the conversion of three Toronto buildings to...
- 15 Nov 2007
- Buildings and architecture
- Author: Romas Bubelis,
In praise of older windows
Façade: a word of double-edged meaning. Architecturally, it refers to the face of a building. In literature, more often than not, it connotes a front...
- 10 May 2007
- Buildings and architecture
- Author: Sean Fraser,
Building on our successes
The Ontario Heritage Trust’s heritage conservation easements conserve some of Ontario’s most significant heritage sites. Good stewardship of easement properties includes regular maintenance and periodic...
- 10 May 2007
- Buildings and architecture
Adaptive reuse - Author: Kathryn Dixon,
The story of Barnum House
Barnum House, on the north side of Highway 2 (Danforth Road), west of Grafton is historically significant for its association with the Barnum family. It...
- 10 May 2007
- Buildings and architecture
Community
Tools for conservation - Author: Beth Hanna,
The R’s of conservation
An earlier generation spoke of the three R’s as “Reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic.” They were the fundamentals of education in the 19th century and considered...
- 10 May 2007
- Military heritage
Buildings and architecture - Author: Susan Ramsay and Marnie Maslin,
Battlefield House Museum and Park – A pioneer in the history of preservation
Nestled under the Niagara Escarpment and situated in a park connected to the Bruce Trail, Battlefield House Museum National Historic Site in Stoney Creek is...
- 10 May 2007
- Buildings and architecture
Community
Tools for conservation - Author: Sean Fraser,
Leading the way in municipal heritage planning
What’s happening in your community? With significant amendments to the Ontario Heritage Act in April 2005 and a strengthening of the Provincial Policy Statement (PPS)...
- 15 Feb 2007
- Community
- Author: The Honourable James K. Bartleman,
In the beginning . . . the first provincial plaque
Fifty years ago – on a fine fall afternoon, September 26, 1956 – I witnessed the unveiling of Ontario’s first provincial plaque in my hometown...
- 15 Feb 2007
- Buildings and architecture
Community - Author: Kiki Aravopoulos,
Exploring Country Heritage Park
In March 2006, the Ontario Heritage Trust acquired a cultural conservation easement on Country Heritage Park. Located in Milton, this designed heritage attraction was created...
- 15 Feb 2007
- Economics of heritage
Tools for conservation
Communication - Author: Richard Moorhouse,
The future of heritage: The next 40 years
With this anniversary, the Ontario Heritage Trust is celebrating its accomplishments while also looking to the future. Preserving our heritage is an ongoing endeavour; the...
- 15 Feb 2007
- Buildings and architecture
Cultural objects
Tools for conservation - Author: Romas Bubelis and Nick Holman,
Heritage conservation at our front door
The term “porte-cochère” has continental flair, though humble origins. In French, it means “carriage door” and originally referred to a covered entryway into a courtyard...
- 15 Feb 2007
- Black heritage
Buildings and architecture
Natural heritage - Author: Gordon Pim,
Heritage by numbers
Ontario’s heritage is an immense and complex jigsaw puzzle. Every individual element of heritage creates a whole . . . a sort of heritage by...
- 07 Sep 2006
- Buildings and architecture
Community - Author: Louise Burchell,
Saving the Spencerville Mill – Preserving community heritage
The Spencerville Mill, a fine cut-stone flour and grist mill, is located on the bank of the South Nation River in the small rural village...
- 07 Sep 2006
- Community
Cultural landscapes - Author: Romas Bubelis,
Rush and remembrance
On a windswept summer day in 2005, a small congregation gathered beside a cloverleaf off-ramp at the western fringe of Toronto. In Richview-Willow Grove Cemetery...
- 07 Sep 2006
- Women's heritage
Arts and creativity
Natural heritage - Author: Gordon Pim,
Literary giants
Catharine Parr Traill is one of Canada’s literary luminaries. Her life story spans most of the 19th century, crossing oceans, battling cholera and journeying through...
- 07 Sep 2006
- Buildings and architecture
Community
Cultural objects - Author: Erin Semande,
The biography of a house: If these walls could speak
Researching family history is a popular pastime for many who want to uncover their family’s unique past and discover how they contributed to Ontario’s growth...
- 16 Feb 2006
- Buildings and architecture
Community
Tools for conservation - Author: Gordon Pim,
Winning the battle
There are countless examples across the province of successful restorations of Ontario’s treasured heritage sites. Although the challenges are great – funding being the primary...
- 16 Feb 2006
- Buildings and architecture
Community
Adaptive reuse - Author: Sean Fraser,
Our cultural heritage places: how heritage buildings adapt
Although heritage remains a year-round activity for many of us, Heritage Day is celebrated annually on the third Monday in February. This year’s theme speaks...
- 16 Feb 2006
- Buildings and architecture
- Author: Gordon Pim,
Snapshots of the past
A flash of phosphorus. A whiff of smoke. And an image is captured. Photographs have chronicled our lives for over 150 years, remaining one of...
- 16 Feb 2006
- Archaeology
Buildings and architecture
Cultural objects
Tools for conservation - Author: Romas Bubelis,
Historic wallpaper: Finding what’s beneath
Wallpapers first appeared in Canada as early as the mid-17th century. These oldest papers were block-printed, hand-painted or stenciled. Pattern and colour was applied to...
- 16 Feb 2006
- Buildings and architecture
Community - Author: Tim Mallon,
Small-town museums key to small-town success
For 18 years, my wife and I raised our two sons in the Town of Richmond Hill just north of Toronto. When we moved to...
- 16 Feb 2006
- Archaeology
Buildings and architecture - Author: Ontario Heritage Trust,
Breaking news: Saving our First Parliament
It was announced on December 21, 2005 that the site of Ontario’s first parliament buildings in Toronto has been saved. The Ontario Government, in partnership...
- 08 Sep 2005
- Archaeology
Buildings and architecture - Author: Dena Doroszenko,
Unearthing the past: Discoveries at Macdonell-Williamson House
Built in 1817, Macdonell-Williamson House in eastern Ontario reflects the ambitions and aspirations of retired fur trader, John Macdonell. His life was fraught with financial...
- 08 Sep 2005
- Buildings and architecture
Community - Author: David Cuming,
Moving forward with heritage conservation
Thirty years ago, when the Ontario Heritage Act was new, I was a young planner with about a year’s experience working in London, England and...
- 08 Sep 2005
- Buildings and architecture
Tools for conservation - Author: Ontario Heritage Trust,
The healthy roof: Staying on top of heritage preservation
The following excerpt appears in Well-Preserved: The Ontario Heritage Foundationʼs Manual of Principles and Practice for Architectural Conservation (Third Revised Edition), by Mark Fram (Boston...
- 08 Sep 2005
- Buildings and architecture
Tools for conservation - Author: Barbara Heidenreich and Jeremy Collins,
New natural heritage easement properties
John Edward (Ted) Greenwood Sanctuary On March 30, 2005, the Ontario Heritage Foundation received – from Mary Greenwood of Nakara, Australia – a 100-acre (40-...
- 08 Sep 2005
- Buildings and architecture
Natural heritage
Community
Cultural landscapes - Author: Richard Moorhouse and Beth Hanna,
The new Ontario Heritage Act: The evolution of heritage conservation
An important shift has occurred in Ontario’s legislative framework for heritage conservation. On April 28, 2005, the Ontario Heritage Amendment Act (Bill 60) received royal...
- 19 May 2005
- Buildings and architecture
- Author: Larry Wayne Richards,
Trent University under the modernist microscope
Throughout the developed world, attention is being given to the built heritage of the modern era. Organizations such as UNESCO's World Heritage Center, the International...
- 19 May 2005
- Buildings and architecture
Tools for conservation - Author: Ontario Heritage Trust,
Working with superstructures: The framework for Ontario's heritage buildings
Last issue, we discussed the importance of a solid foundation when preserving heritage structures. In this issue, we see how a buildingʼs skeleton holds everything...
- 19 May 2005
- Buildings and architecture
- Author: Ontario Heritage Trust,
Leidra Lodge – A new conservation easement
June Ardiel has been a patron and leader in Ontario's arts community all her life. She has authored a book on the public art of...
- 19 May 2005
- Buildings and architecture
- Author: Moiz Behar,
The changing face of heritage: The International Style – Toronto’s Toronto-Dominion Centre
In the second quarter of the 20th century following the First World War, Europe saw the emergence of a significant movement in architecture. This “modern”...
- 19 May 2005
- Buildings and architecture
Cultural objects - Author: Ontario Heritage Trust,
The Homewood collection
As you drive east along Highway 2 between Brockville and Prescott, you will find the robust Georgian Homewood Museum deeply set back from the road...
- 12 Feb 2005
- Black heritage
Buildings and architecture - Author: Wayne Kelly,
Inside Uncle Tom's Cabin
At a bend in the Sydenham River near the town of Dresden stands Uncle Tom’s Cabin Historic Site. The museum – built on the site...
- 12 Feb 2005
- Buildings and architecture
- Author: Sean Fraser,
The Sharon Temple and the heritage of faith
While most of Canada celebrates Heritage Day on the third Monday in February, Ontario celebrates Heritage Week. The theme developed for Ontario Heritage Week 200...
- 12 Feb 2005
- Natural heritage
Community - Author: Ontario Heritage Trust,
Hurricane Hazel 50 years later
There was little warning about Hurricane Hazel – one of the worst storms in Canada’s history. At the time, few Canadians paid attention to tropical...
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- Accessibility
- Privacy statement
- Terms of use
- © King's Printer for Ontario, 2023
- Photos © Ontario Heritage Trust, unless otherwise indicated.