Today started off with a trip to Castleton ON. There we went into Castleton Town Hall. This site has been reinvented from county jail/ police station and town hall to a community center, performance arts center and library. One jail cell remains and it is use as the public washroom. We then went next door to the Oriental Hotel. We were privilege to have the owner of the site be our tour guide. This Italianate style building housed a birch-top bar that was used back in the 1890's. The cash drawer had a mechanism in which the bartender had to key in a specific sequence or bells would start ringing- even then they had loss prevention measures! The owner and his late wife spent many years restoring this boarding place. We were shown an old hotel registry which showed how room was $1/ night. On the top of the registry is stated that if a guest had no luggage than payment for the room was made up front- again another loss prevention measure. It was good to see how all the efforts of this family made it all come together. Our next stop also showed the beautiful success of two people's hard work. Dennis and Tom are the owners and creators of the Schoolhouse Gardens located in Warkworth ON. The school was original built in 1847. It closed its door in the 1960's then became a residence. In 1987, Tom and Dennis bought the school and it property (10 acres). The two then set off to work on having their own “park-like” gardens. Today their property is a plethora of irises, peonies, and many other plant and flowers. I was most intrigued by the way they would re-invent uses for items (such as bottles, push mowers, etc.). All the work done on the property is manual. The Schoolhouse garden is a must see. From Warkwoth, we headed over to Brighton ON. Our first stop was to Proctor House Museum. The house was built by Isaac Chamberlain Proctor around 1853 and finished after his death by his son John E by 1869. This Italianate styled dwelling laid in badly deteriorating state after Stella (John Proctor's daughter) died in 1960. In 1972, the remaining heirs decided to give the house and property to the community. The house is a wonderful depiction of that era. The belvedere located at the top of the house gives the visitor the opportunity to view the surrounding area. Hannah (our upstairs guide) enlightened us with tales of ghosts that are said to still reside there. Some of these stories were from her first hand accounts. From residential to the Holy Ghost, we made our way down to the Trinity- St Andrew's United Church. What a warm welcome we received. Katherine was the person who gave us the tour. This church has one of the most beautiful arrays of stained glass windows we have ever seen. Our tour took us downstairs. It was juxtaposition to the classical church upstairs. This newly renovated area housed a state of the art kitchen that is used not only for the congregation by for community organization. The many windows located here allowed for much natural light. The people at Trinity-St Andrew's United Church embraced all walks of life. They stretch out a welcoming hand for anyone wanting to join.
Comments
Post a Comment