Saturday Snapshot–Celebration of Community

 

Waterloo Region Museum, a celebration of community and the many people who make up Waterloo Region

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Conestoga Wagon, pulled by horses, brought many people to our community from the USA, Mennonites, and more

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Arrival at Pier 21 in Halifax, and then across country to Ontario and other provinces

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Grand Trunk Railway Line. The intersection in the middle of the hallway, but of course the train does not run through that line anymore.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Travelling trunks from many countries around the world

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let’s not forget the Home Children, who were sent here—not by their own choice—but who also make up a  section of our community.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

People settled here and worked together to build a community with those who were already here.

 

The Storytelling Series at the Museum, this winter and spring, feature stories of immigrants coming to any part of Canada

 

This meme hosted by At Home With Books. To participate in the Saturday Snapshot meme post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken, then go to the site and connect with the page by our host, Alyce. Happy Saturday, travelling from one blog to another.

Temple of Sharon

Continuing on from last post, after our stop in Port Perry for lunch and looking around, we headed on our way home, but then decided to take a slight detour so that my husband could see the Temple of Sharon, in East Gwillimbury.

My friend, Lorraine, and I had a tour of the place in July, and though I didn’t post pictues then, I was curious to see the building surrounded by the trees in autumn.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sign by the gate, telling us about the origins of the building

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Sharon Temple, associated with the Children of Peace, and founded by David Willson, a US citizen. The temple was built in 1825 after acquiring  enough land. The group was a breakaway from the Society of Friends or Quakers, as they are also known.

Was Willson a bit of a rebel with ideas of his own?

The group flourished until after his death and then went into rapid decline.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

See the golden ball suspended between the four directional spires at the very top?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jacob’s Ladder, just inside door to temple and going up to higher storey

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My friend, Lorraine, by the ark (from our summer visit) that has a very large  Bible inside

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posing for the camera and perhaps wishing to really play this very old organ

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There shall be no falling asleep during sermon or concert in these chairs

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
A familiar name engraved on the chair

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other outbuildings where the members of this organization lived and worked. The temple was, surprisingly, not used for their worship though it is used for concerts and rented out for weddings now.

Read more about the organization here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The temple surrounded by the colours of autumn.

 

Maud in Leaskdale–Part I: Our tour of the manse

When Ewan Macdonald,  a newly ordained Presbyterian minister, came to Ontario in 1911 from Prince Edward Island, it would have been quite a change in place for both Ewan and his wife Maud, L.M. Montgomery, the up and coming author. Away from the island where they had both grown up. Away from the sea that Maud loved to walk along. Away from people they had known all their lives.

The parishes at Leaskdale and Zephyr were probably very excited to have a famous author in their community and in their church, for the first edition of  Anne of Green Gables had been published several years earlier in 1908.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Front of  the manse with many flower plantings.

The manse dates  to 1896, became an Ontario Historical Site in 1965 and  a National Historic Site in 1997.

The manse, lived in by other ministers’ families before and after the Macdonald’s, has a strong physical structure and was restored to the period style, aided by the many detailed descriptions Maud wrote in her journals. The furniture, purchased at auctions or donated, matches the same historical period as well. According to the brochure about the site, “the landscape has not changed greatly either. This is where she (L.M. Montgomery) stood. … This is what inspired her.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The settee in the parlour where they would receive guests who came to visit.

Maud loved to sit in a chair by the front window to write so she could be aware of people coming to the house. This room is where she sat, writing longhand, for all of the books that she wrote there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
A portrait of Ewan (above)  in the rich gold frame sitting on the organ in the parlour (below).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Would Maud have played an organ? I have yet to read journal entries to learn the answer to my question. It’s  a question I didn’t think to ask of our tour guide.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A bookcase  in the study across the hall with Maud’s published books.

Was it such a book case that inspired Montgomery to write about lonely Anne’s friend inside the bookcase?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Across the hall was the minister’s study, where Ewan wrote his sermons and where Maud typed her manuscripts for the publisher. If I remember correctly, the typewriter sitting on the desk was a vintage Underwood.

Nothing remains of Ewan’s sermons or notes, which the Historical society noted, but plenty remains of Montgomery’s journals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our tour guide, Lindsay, telling us about the manse and restoration that she was involved with.

Our guide said that people restoring the manse looked to LM Montgomery’s detailed journals for descriptions of patterns on wallpaper, then went to places that recreated historical patterns to obtain wallpaper that matched her descriptions as closely as possible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The richly carpeted stairs going to the second floor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was Maud and Ewan’s bedroom with a special quilt,  created by people of the L. M.Montgomery Society and friends.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Replicas of Gog and Magog, Maud’s ceramic dogs as shown in one of her Anne books.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A painting hanging in the front entrance, created by artist Arnold Hodgkins, who was born in 1911 in Silverdale, Ontario.  Encouraged from a young age to draw and paint, Arnold continued to explore his talents. This painting represents Maud’s early life. Go here to learn more about the painting.

Go to Leaskdale, Ontario, and see the site for yourself. You’ll learn more about the famous Canadian author, L. M. Montgomery.

“I cannot remember the time when I was not writing, or when I did not mean to be an author.” L. M. Montgomery

Part II coming later this week about our tour of the St. Paul’s Church, one of Ewan’s first parish churches.

Photos on this blog copyright of C. Wilker 2012.