Booklet Launch - Merchants and Memories of Main Street, Windsor

Main Street, Windsor. 1944. Photo courtesy of GFWHS.

The Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador (HFNL) and the Grand Falls-Windsor Heritage Society present a booklet launch at St. Joseph’s Parish Hall in Grand Falls-Windsor on Saturday, March 4th, from 2:00-4:00pm.

“A Little Montreal: Merchants and Memories of Main Street, Windsor” is the third booklet in the Collective Memories Series produced by the Heritage Foundation. This booklet focuses on the memories of people who grew up, lived, worked, and shopped on Main Street with a particular emphasis on the merchants and shops of Main Street, Windsor.

“It was very small but it was like a little Montréal. A lot of different cultures and sights and sounds,” described Corey Sharpe. “The business owners on Main Street came from China, Lebanon, Syria, Russia, Norway, Ireland, United States, England so it was a melting pot of cultures.”

Sharpe was one of several residents of Grand Falls-Windsor who were interviewed as part of the oral history project completed by HFNL in conjunction with the Grand Falls-Windsor Heritage Society.

“This booklet developed as a result of conversations with the Grand Falls-Windsor Heritage Society,” says Terra Barrett, a researcher with the foundation. In recent years the Heritage Foundation has assisted with the digitization of some of the Society’s archival materials but most of that material focused on the AND company, the mill, and the former town of Grand Falls,”“This project focused on Main Street in order to showcase and learn more about the Windsor part of the community.”

The Main Street booklet is part of the foundation’s Collective Memories Project. This project is an initiative of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Office of the HFNL, with funding provided by the Department of Children, Seniors, and Social Development. The Collective Memories Project invites seniors to record their stories and memories for sharing.

The booklet launch is open to the public and will include light refreshments. There will be copies of the booklet available at the launch as well as a PDF version which will be placed online. For more information please go to www.collectivememories.ca or call Terra Barrett at 1-888-739-1892 ext. 5.

Several members of the Grand Falls-Windsor Heritage Society with Heritage Foundation staff. Standing L-R: Joe Shapleigh, Jim Locke, Dale Jarvis, Brian Reid, Terra Barrett, John Blackmore. Sitting L-R: Cathy Simpson, Audrey Burke. 2016. Photo by Kelly Drover.

8mm Films of Grand Falls-Windsor Families, C.L.B, and Community

The following four films are the final batch of reels I have digitized for the Grand Falls-Windsor Heritage Society. They show various aspects of life in the area, with a mix of spliced together clips alternating colour film with black and white. The children and families shown in the reels are likely relatives of the photographer, Albert Hillier who had 4 siblings, and 19 nieces and nephews. I also wonder if his wife Enid is in the footage. Hopefully those who knew Albert will be able to identify some of these people in his life.

This first film starts by showing one of the Church Lads Brigade camps. Like one of our previous C.L.B reels, it shows some sort of silly parade with the adult C.L.B. members marching while wearing paper hats and carrying a flag made from a pair of white pants. Again, I am wonder if this was a tradition C.L.B. camps in general, or was it specific to this camp. The reel then changes to black and white (the scenes have been spliced together) and we see two women, a baby, and a young boy on a beach, and then in the back seat of a car. The next scene shows the young boy, and another older boy eating bread while sitting on the rocky beach, they are joined by a man who poses with the boy in front of the camera.

The next reel is a similar mix of colour film and black and white, what looks to be from different years. It starts showing a group of shirtless men outside drinking from a jug. Do you recognize the house in the background? We then see one of these men holding a puppy. The reel cuts to a game of football in front of the same house, likely with the same group of men. Then there is a scene showing a C.L.B event near a church. This clip is not very clear but you can see some of the buildings in the area. The reel then changes to colour, and appears to be much later footage. A young girl with brunette braids is on a boat and sticks her tongue out to the camera. Is she one of Hillier's nieces? The film cuts again to a man outside carrying a sack and a truck carries lumber in the background. A baby in a yellow beret sits in a pram looking at the camera. The last scene is black and white, very briefly showing a man standing next to a tripod setup, and what looks like a large pot over a fire.

Next is a short 30 second reel that shows men in a grassy area surrounded by trees, playing football and tackling each other. The same house that was in the background of the last film, can be seen in this one.

The final film of this collection, begins with a child in a red coat playing in the snow. In the background there is writing in the snow, most of which I cannot read but I do see the date 1945. The same child is then seen being walked in a stroller along a paved road. The reel cuts to a dark scene indoors, possibly with the same child, along with some adults. The child looks like they maybe playing with a camera. The reel then shows men outside in the winter, and various scenes of the Grand Falls-Windsor Mill and the dam.

Whether or not you have connections with the area, I hope you have enjoyed viewing these films. If you recognize any of the locations or people in these films, please email kelly@heritagefoundation.ca

Grand Falls-Windsor House Parties - 8mm Film Reels

When I started to work on digitizing the 8mm reels from the Grand Falls-Windsor Heritage Society, I expected to see formal community events and home videos with families and children. Among the mix of Church Lads Brigade reels and other footage from the Grand Falls-Windsor area, were four films that showed house parties were people were drinking alcohol, laughing, and playing pranks. These four films show a wonderful side of the personalities of these people and a relaxed party atmosphere that you usually do not see.

When I first set up the projector, the first reel that I played was black and white footage from the late 1940's showing a house full of people sitting around drinking and joking with the camera. After watching all the reels, this is still my favorite. Two men performed some sort of ritual alternating between bowing to a crate of liquor bottles and taking sips from their drinking glasses. A man in a hat and an Anglican clerical collar reads from a book. He is later seen asleep with his arms crossed and a sign reading "not dead but interred" laid on his chest. Another man wearing round glasses, a hat, and a fake beard, sticks out his stomach to portray a character. The photographer, Albert Hillier, was a member of the Northcliffe Drama Club for 52 years, and while they are not performing in the footage, you can clearly see that his group of friends had a theatrical persuasion. I am curious to know if the man dressed as an Anglican priest, was an actual priest or was he in costume.

This reel also contained scenes apart from the house party. We see young boys playing outside with a toy car and a set of wheels. There is a woman in an apron looking out a window and making gestures to the camera. Two men are outside with a car and truck with a logo on the drivers side door. Another woman joins the men and they dance before the reel ends. Do you recognize the houses in this area?

The next film is very dark, but there is a lot of laughter in there. The footage starts upside down, which may be a hint that this was filmed towards the end of a party. While it is dark and out of focus in parts, there are some good shots of peoples faces, so some may be recognizable.

In the last set of reels I shared, there was one film that showed title cards relating to the footage he shot, some of which we have. The next film has eight title cards, though some words are out of frame. One title, that we don't have the relating film, reads "Guilty: Sergt. LeMoine Sews Lieut. Lane's Coat Sleeve." Another, which may help identify one of the individuals says "A Corner Brook Photographer." These title cards are followed by a short clip showing a small gathering. The party takes place in the same house as some of the other reels, and a man pours the guests drinks from a jug.

The final reel in this set once again shows a house party with people sitting around talking and drinking, while a man is playing guitar. We then see a sleeping guest with a doll laid next to him, and another man stands over him reading from a book. I would love to hear what he is reading, maybe funeral or marriage rites? We then see three men in standing in front of the camera. The man in the center holds a funnel to his mouth while the other two pour in liquid. The guests pass around a balance toy and joke with each other. The camera returns to the sleeping man, who now has the balance toy stood up on his chest. The camera pans down to his feet and he is now wearing women's shoes. Next the camera shows a women setting down plates on a table full of food and desserts. The camera pans around the room to show the guests standing around eating, drinking, and having a good time. Although the footage is dark, in this film and the previous, there appears to be a projector set up on one of the tables, which makes me think that this may be Albert Hillier's home. 

I hope you enjoyed this look at house parties in the late 1940's. Do you recognize any of the individuals or locations in these films? Contact me by email kelly@heritagefoundation.ca

- Kelly

8mm Films of Church Lads Brigade Camps in the Grand Falls-Windsor Area

In October, I began working on digitizing Nineteen 8mm film reels from the Grand Falls-Windsor Heritage Society. Without labels or a way to view the reels, the contents of the films was a mystery to the Society so they sent them along to us to have digitized. The films are now ready to be shared and I hope with your help we will be able to identify some of the individuals or locations in the films. The films have a variety of topics, but the bulk of the collection show formal events and camps of the Church Lads Brigade. The Church Lads Brigade has had a major presence all over the province, and while these reels are of the Western Division, they are a good example of the activities of the C.L.B as a whole. The films are interesting not just for those connected with the C.L.B, but for anyone who was involved in other groups that went on similar camping trips.

This first film was previously posted, but I was able to record a clearer copy so I decided to share it again. The reel shows a C.L.B. Parade with band that march towards an Anglican church. At the church there is an inside service as well as an outdoor event with many people in attendance. This is one of the few C.L.B. reels which showed a formal event.

Next we see what looks to be an open air church service conducted by the cadets of the C.L.B camp. Their families look on, visiting the camp for the day. This reel also shows some other camp activities, as well as title cards. There are fourteen titles, created by the filmmaker Albert Hillier, that may relate to this reel or others in the collection. They identify that at least some of the camps had taken place in South Brook, and one was identified as filmed in 1947.

Another reel that was previously posted shows various C.L.B scenes. I was able to reattach a broken section adding 4 minutes on to the film, as well as improving the quality. The reel showed various camp activities including swimming and sports as well as local events at the Grand Falls War Memorial and the railway station.

Unfortunately none of these films have sound, and in the following film the sound would be an important part of the event. The footage is dark, filmed at dusk while a music group with a female lead is playing for the camp. The campers can be seen dancing between the tents, having fun with a night of music.

The next film identifies the camping group as the Church Lads Brigade Western Division, and at least this particular camping trip took place in South Brook in 1947. It shows a formal event and some footage of the camp grounds including a C.L.B crest with the division, location, and year laid out in white stones. I hope this information will help to identify some of the people in the films.

While the image of the C.L.B is often thought of as uniforms and parades, this film shows some foolish behavior by the adults at the camp, starting with some sort of silly march where they all pull up one pant leg and march around the campsite. I am curious to know if this was a unique event or some tradition at the camps. Next is a meal scene, with all adults and a priest sitting at the head of the table. The mood is jovial, with members making faces at each other and the camera, and one man wearing a fake nose. We then see an informal wrestling match, and the boys line up to go swimming. The last scene in this reel shows the adults joking around and hitting each other with a strap.

The adults at camp can also be seen in the following film playing baseball and getting ready for a swim. They pose in front of a sign that reads "Our Summer Resort" and lists rules for the camp site. I believe this is also located in South Brook. We also see a female camp visitor laughing and joking with the men. This visitor seems to be in some connection with a inspection and parade that takes place at the camp and ends the reel.

The next film is a good example of everyday camp life. It shows the serious side with a camp inspection, there are various clips involving food and eating, We see how the campers bathed, and some recreation activities like baseball and boxing.

The campers also had to deal with the elements, in this case rain and the flooded camp. We can see that the tents have been raised off the ground and both the men and boys are working in a line to bail out puddles of water. It is not just necessary work, but they can be seen having fun as well, throwing a bucket of water towards the camera and tossing the bucket in the air back to the beginning of the line. 

The final film in this set is a short clip showing the more serious side of the Church Lads Brigade, with all members in uniform and lined up for an inspection

I hope you enjoyed viewing these films, I look forward to posting the remaining nine soon. If you recognize any locations or people in these films, please contact kelly@heritagefoundation.ca. 

#Makersmonday Do you recognize these logging themed copper relief panels?

At our last meeting with the Grand Falls-Windsor Heritage Society, they brought out three prints they want to identify. The photographs show what looks to be copper (or similar) relief art panels. They show three different aspects of logging work. While they look very familiar to me, we have not been able to place the. Do you know where these pieces are or were displayed? Comment or email kelly@heritagefoundation.ca 

#CollectiveMemories Roadtrip - Grand Falls-Windsor

Terra Barrett, Dale Jarvis, and Kelly Drover in the Old Mill in Glovertown. 

This week as part of the Collective Memories Project Dale, Kelly, and I travelled to Grand Falls-Windsor to meet with their heritage society. On the drive out we made a quick stop to the Old Mill in Glovertown. After learning a bit more about the site and the urban legend it has encouraged we wanted to take a look at the building itself. The mill is situated on a side road relatively close to the main road through town but if you didn’t know the mill was there you could bypass it completely. The abandoned mill is covered in graffiti from different decades with some graffiti referencing the red eyes urban legend. It was an interesting but eerie spot to visit and learn more about.

Members of the Grand Falls-Windsor Heritage Society and Dale Jarvis and Terra Barrett of the Heritage Foundation. Photo by Kelly Drover.

After our short detour we met up with the GFW Heritage Society in their office on High Street. This meeting was a follow up on the work I did in Grand Falls-Windsor in September on the memories and merchants of Main Street in Windsor. The photographs and interviews are being edited into a booklet for the community however the ICH Office also wanted to do something a little bit different so we met with the society to discuss the booklet launch and the possibility of doing a pop-up exhibition in the New Year. We tentatively decided on the last weekend in February for the launch and exhibit and are looking forward to the event!

Razor, stropper, brick, bottle, and tobacco from Stewart's Grocery.

While in the community we also completed an oral history interview with Brian Reid and photographed some of the artefacts housed by the society. We also returned digital copies of the Merchants of Main Street interviews which can be found online here. If your community has material you would like help digitized or would like to start an oral history project of your own feel free to contact terra@heritagefoundation.ca or call toll free 1-888-739-1892 ex. 5.

~Terra Barrett

#FolklorePhoto: Windsor Taxis and Buses

97-243 GFWHS.
Goodyear Taxi Service, circa 1909, located at the Grand Falls Station (Windsor), was operated by Josiah Goodyear.
It boasted of 8-10 horse drawn “Victorias”, with upholstered seats for passengers.

This weeks Folklore Photo comes from the Grand Falls-Windsor Heritage Society and is circa 1909.  The photo is of Goodyear Taxi Service located at the Grand Falls Station (Windsor).  This Taxi Service was operated by Josiah Goodyear and boasted 8-10 horse drawn “Victorias” with upholstered seats for passengers.  Roy Oldford of Grand Falls-Windsor remembered similar horse and carts being used by Stewart's to deliver groceries to the community in the 1950s.

This photo is one of the images from the Heritage Society which will be featured in an upcoming booklet on the merchants of Main Street based on oral history interviews completed in Windsor in September.  Tomorrow afternoon we are meeting with the Heritage Society to discuss a pop up exhibit to go along with launch of the booklet in the coming new year.

The booklet will focus on the merchants from the bigger well known stores such as Cohen's, Riff's, and Stewart's to the buses (or taxis) which lined Main Street and provided transportation between the towns of Windsor and Grand Falls. Several people described the buses which would run between Main Street in Windsor and High Street in Grand Falls and even delivered lunches to the mill workers.

Included below is a short audio clip from Roy Oldford who grew up in Windsor. In this clip Roy talks about the popularity of the buses and also tells a humorous story about using his friend's father's bus to earn a bit of pocket change when they were teenagers.


~Terra Barrett

Windsor Bonfire Night Memories

In celebration of bonfire night I am sharing two clips from the Merchants of Main Street Project. This project was a part of the Collective Memories Project and focused on Main Street in Windsor, NL.  Although the interviews focused on the memories surrounding Main Street during the interviews we also discussed how holidays were celebrated in the community.

The following clip comes from Elizabeth Munch Power whose father was a cobbler on Main Street in the 1950s and 1960s. In this clip Elizabeth explains what their family would do with the slips from all the shoes her father would repair.

Frank Beson grew up in Windsor and we discussed his memories of Main Street but also what it was like to grow up in Windsor, NL. He shared his memory of torch night which was celebrated on November the sixth the night after bonfire night.

If you would like learn more about bonfire night check out the collection on Memorial University's Digital Archives which has audio, video, and photographs.

~Terra Barrett

Heritage Update for October/November 2016

In this month's edition of the Heritage Update, we explore the value and meaning of heritage places, look at photogrammetry as a tool for recording buildings, document the legacy of the merchants of Windsor in Central Newfoundland, take a peek at the Methodist Central School in Bonavista, announce the 12th Annual Heritage Places Poster Contest, and share the story of the Melita Hynes’ House in Harbour Breton. We also want your input on rethinking Heritage Foundation NL’s programs and services.

Download the newsletter here as a pdf

photo: Melita Hynes’ House in Harbour Breton, courtesy Doug Wells.

8mm Film Reels from the Grand Falls-Windsor Heritage Society

For the past week I have been working on digitizing 18 reels of 8mm film from the Grand Falls-Windsor Heritage Society. Working with 8mm has been a learning experience for me, but it is wonderful to see the content of the reels that were previously unknown to the society. The films were created by Albert Hillier (1916-2004) in the late 1940's and early 1950's. Hillier was a commercial artist, photographer, and was a cartoonist who worked for the Grand Falls Advertiser for 40 years, producing the editorial page strip Our Town.

The footage involves public community events as well as home videos from Hillier's personal life. In the reels I have viewed so far, the activities of the Church Lads Brigade(C.L.B)  have been prominent, including parades and camp activities.

This first film shows a C.L.B parade, as well as activities at a church.

The second reel features various scenes of the C.L.B including swimming, camping, target shooting, sports, and other camp activities. You can also see footage of the boat Miss Newfoundland.

The third film begins by showing a road banner "Welcome To Their Excellencies." This reel was faintly labeled "Visit by Lt. Gov." Can you identify these visitors?

Do you recognize any locations or individuals in these films? Please contact Kelly at 1-888-739-1892 or email kelly@heritagefoundation.ca

~ Kelly

#CollectiveMemories - Main Street Memories

Stewart's. Photo courtesy of Carmel Barry.

Yesterday morning started with a chat with Carmel Barry about Stewart’s store on Main Street in Windsor. Carmel worked with George Stewart for 47 years. She spent one year working part time and another full time on the floor packing shelves and doing whatever needed to be done but most of the time she spent in the office doing the bookwork. Carmel vividly remembered the money system that was in place in the store which allowed money to traverse the store from the office to the cash. She also remembered the wood stove that heated the store and how George would head in to the store before the staff and have the fire burning so it would be nice and toasty when they arrived. Carmel clearly loved the store, the work, and the staff and she exclaimed that she would still be working there today if she could. Unfortunately George Stewart died in 20008 and the old store was torn down a couple of years ago.

In the afternoon we had two interviews. One was with Boyd Cohen whose family moved from the Ukraine and Poland. His grandfather moved from what is now the Ukraine to London, England in the 1890s to work for a clothing company. Between the years 1904 and 1906 Simon Cohen, Boyd’s grandfather, moved to Newfoundland to work for a Newfoundland Clothing Company which was being established by a firm out of England. Following the First World War the family moved to Grand Falls-Windsor and opened a general store. This store sold “anything from hardware and nails to ladies hats”. Boyd also discussed the move from Main Street in Windsor to High Street in Grand Falls and how he got into the furniture business and into real estate.

Cohen's bus.  Photo courtesy of Boyd Cohen.

One memory Boyd shared was of the bus his father ran between High Street, Grand Falls and Main Street, Windsor between 1928 and the mid 1930s. Listen to the clip below.
Our next interview was with Mary Kelly. She discussed growing up in Grand Falls-Windsor and spending time on Main Street, Windsor. Mary had many fond memories of Riff’s where her aunt Helen Kelly worked for years and years. She described going to the store and the magic of Main Street in Windsor. Mary fondly remembered the generosity of the Riff family and how they sent Christmas cards to the family long after her aunt had passed away. She described how after one of Riff’s buying trips to Montreal her family would eat bagels for weeks which were brought back from Montreal from Mr. Riff.

Riff's Christmas party. Helen Kelly and Marie Penney. Photo courtesy of Mary Kelly.

Listen to Mary’s memories of Main Street in Windsor.

Here Mary describes going into Riff’s on Main Street.
Let us know your memories of Main Street, Windsor! Email terra@heritagefoundation.ca or call 1-888-739-1892.

~Terra Barrett

Collective Memories Grand Falls-Windsor - Sealing Sweep

Harry Pinsent

I’m spending this week in Grand Falls-Windsor talking to folks about their memories of Main Street in Windsor and merchants such as Becker’s, Chow’s, Cohen’s, Hiscock’s, Munch’s, Riff’s, Stewart’s, and many more who started shops and businesses in the area. The Heritage Foundation is working with the Grand Falls-Windsor Heritage Society to gather and learn more information on Windsor as the society has a large number of interviews focused on Grand Falls, the company and the mill.

Yesterday afternoon Audrey Burke and I had the pleasure of talking with 93 year old Harry Pinsent about his life and his memories of growing up in Grand Falls-Windsor. Harry had vivid memories of growing up in the community and has certainly seen the town change over the years. Harry grew up in a family of six including his only surviving sibling Gordon Pinsent. Harry described going to school in Grand Falls-Windsor and the joy of being able to wear jeans in the summer instead of the shorts required for the school uniforms!

Harry's equipment for his work as an electrician.

Once Harry finished school he worked for the mill briefly before signing up and flying overseas with the RAF during the Second World War. When he returned to Grand Falls-Windsor Harry worked as an electrician with the mill until he retired at the age of 65. Harry married and together with his wife raised a family of fifteen. Harry described some of the shops on Main Street in Windsor and High Street in Grand Falls. He also had memories of leisure activities such as dances, picnics, and going to the movies.

Harry's mother Flossie is in the centre of this picnic.

One story which stood out during the interview was Harry’s description of the Sealing Sweep. Harry remembered the Methodist Church on the West End of Gilbert Street where movies were shown while the new town hall in Grand Falls-Windsor was being built. He saw the first “talkies” or talking pictures at the church. Harry explained that bingo was also played in this church however you couldn’t play for money. In the sound clip below Harry explains the only gambling allowed in the town – the Sealing Sweep.
Do you remember the Sealing Sweep? Or do your recall memories of shopping or working on Main Street? Let us know in the comments or email terra@heritagefoundation.ca or call 1-888-739-1892.

~Terra Barrett

Boxes Under the Bed? Digitization and Oral History

Grand Falls-Windsor Oral History Collection

Have an oral history collection you don’t know what to do with?  Need help digitizing these collections?
The Heritage Foundation is looking to help you out!

Maybe they’re in your storage room, or in your bottom desk drawer – those shoeboxes of cassettes, CDs or reel to reel tapes that were collected by a summer project, seniors’ group or JCP worker. These were the recordings that were going to preserve the voices of the past – but here they sit with no voice at all! You don’t know what’s on the recordings, you don’t know much about who made them – maybe you don’t even have the equipment to play them!

As part of the Collective Memories project the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador is looking to help community organizations, municipalities, and church groups digitize their oral history collections to make them accessible for future generations. Collected stories will be made available through Memorial University’s Digital Archives Initiative, which is a free, public website where the HFNL stores the photos, videos, and interviews it collects.

The Collective Memories project is part of HFNL’s ongoing Intangible Cultural Heritage program. The program works to safeguard the living heritage of the province for present and future generations everywhere, as a vital part of the identities of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, and as a valuable collection of unique knowledge and customs.

The Heritage Foundation has worked with several groups around the province to help digitize their collections. This includes the School of Nursing, and Grand Falls-Windsor’s Hiram Silk Collection. Keep your eye on Memorial University’s DAI for the Cape Race and Grand Falls-Windsor collections which are coming soon!

How can you access to those voices from the past? How can you preserve and use them? Contact the Heritage Foundation! If you would like more information on how your group can get involved please contact Terra Barrett toll free at 1-888-739-1892 ext. 6 or terra@heritagefoundation.ca.

~Terra Barrett

This is what a trunkful of oral histories looks like.

I'm on the road today, heading to Deer Lake, where the Grand Lake Centre of Economic Development (GLCED) will be hosting its Annual General Meeting. I'm going to be talking to them about heritage projects, intangible cultural heritage, and ways in which the Heritage Foundation of NL can help communities safeguard what matters to them.

Along the way, I'm dropping off this pile of oral history material back in Grand Falls-Windsor: three crates of reel-to-reel tapes from the Hiram Silk collection, three boxes full of oral history transcripts, and another banker's box of audio recordings. We've been toiling to digitize all of this material, and the work with the physical records is now complete.

You can listen the interview I did on the Hiram Silk material here or check out all those interviews here.

The other Grand Falls-Windsor oral history interviews were featured in an article by Terra Barrett in our last newsletter. She'll be finishing up the metadata work on that shortly, and we'll post when all of it is online.

And I'm off! See you soon, Deer Lake!

Do you have a community oral history collection you want help digitizing?

Email me at ich@heritagefoundation.ca.

Fisheries Heritage, Oral History, Salvation Army Citadel in Elliston, and more

For this month's update, we are showcasing more of our built heritage work, with updates on work related to our fisheries heritage program, and an expansion of our documentation work on our registered heritage structures, including the newly designated Salvation Army Citadel in Elliston. Also, we have more information on our ongoing project to digitize oral history collections in Grand Falls-Windsor, and notes on the recent Canadian Declaration on Intangible Cultural Heritage in support of Canada ratifying the 2003 UNESCO convention on ICH.

Contributors: Dale Jarvis, Terra Barrett, Andrea O'Brien, Michael Philpott, and Celeste Billung-Meyer.

Download the pdf here

photo credit: The Rooms Provincial Archives Division, 

Grand Falls Academy Series , Item 1.26.01.279, 1944.

In Memoriam: Heritage Advocate Beve Butler, Grand Falls-Windsor

I was saddened today to learn of the passing of Beve Butler, Past President of the Grand Falls-Windsor Heritage Society, and a friend of us here at the Intangible Cultural Heritage office. Beve was a great champion of local heritage and oral history, and the key motivator behind the Heritage Foundation of NL's work to digitize the oral history collections of Mr. Hiram Silk.

Catherine Simpson of the Grand Falls-Windsor Heritage Society wrote today on Facebook:

Beve was a force of nature, and not only in heritage circles---a person with a huge heart and boundless enthusiasm who inspired all of us with her dedication and passion. She was a tireless champion of heritage to the end. 

I will miss Beve and her enthusiasm for local heritage. I am thankful, however, that I had a chance to sit down with Beve at her home last year, and record some of her stories of her early life. We chatted about everything from her childhood years in Grand Falls and Lethbridge, to her Christmas memories, children's games, and her life in education. You can listen to that interview on Memorial University's Digital Archive Initiative.

A reception will be held at the Royal Canadian Legion on Queen Street in Grand Falls-Windsor on Wednesday, 17th February, 2016, from 6:30 to 8:30 pm, for anyone who would like to come together to share memories of Beve and to express their sympathies to the family.

Notes from the road - St. Matthew's Presbyterian Church, Grand Falls-Windsor

I'm in Grand Falls today, helping sort out some oral history collections with the Grand Falls-Windsor Historical Society (more on that in a future post).

Before I left St. John's, Margaret Scott with St. Matthew's Presbyterian Church heard that I was going to be visiting Grand Falls, and tracked me down. They have a collection of historical documents they want to do something with, so I met with them today, and had a brief chat about their materials and the possibility of doing some digitization work, and potentially some oral history recording around the life and history of the church and congregation.

Today, there are about twenty active members of the congregation, which holds a service once a month. The church is one of the oldest buildings in Grand Falls, and was the first municipally designated heritage building for the town, officially recognized as such on October 11, 2005. It is the only Presbyterian church in Newfoundland outside of St. John's.

St. Matthew's Presbyterian Church is listed on the Canadian Register of Historic Places, which notes that the building was constructed in 1910, and is the last remaining original church structure in Grand Falls. It is a fine example of a small, country-style church in an urban setting. It has some Gothic Revival style elements, such as multi-paned, Gothic arched windows, as used in similar small churches in Newfoundland and Labrador. It is currently undergoing some repair work.

The building has undergone a number of changes over the years.  The interior of the church was redone in the 1950s, and has been largely untouched since.

The church has a number of interesting archival items documenting the construction and changes to the church over the years, including a copy of the original construction blueprints and photos of the building at various stages, including the one below showing the church before renovations.

Other photos in the collection document church suppers, youth events, women's groups, and special events such as the dinner below, held between 1-2 April 1951.

I am looking forward to seeing more of the St. Matthew's archival material, and wish them success with their preservation efforts!

- Dale Jarvis

 

Tuesday's Folklore Photo: Carrying Water

I recently visited the Logger's Life Provincial Museum in Grand Falls-Windsor to work with their staff to develop public programming around pillow tops. While there I spotted this piece of folk art on display in the bunkhouse. This little, wooden, hand carved figure depicts a logger using a square shaped hoop to carry two pails of water. The hoop was used to balance the pails of water and keep them from hitting your legs and spilling. The hoops were made of wood, sometimes alder branches, and were either square or round. They were an invaluable tool for those who had to walk great distances for water.

This water carrier ties in well with another project being worked on here at the ICH Office, which is a study of traditional water supplies in St. John's and surrounding areas.  For the next few months, archaeologist Sarah Ingram will be talking to people about wells and springs to learn where the traditional water supplies where in the area and how they were used and maintained. Sarah will also be collecting stories about why particular water sources were valued over others. Finally, all these materials will be made available on Memorial University of Newfoundland's Digital Archive Initiative. Stay tuned for updates on that project and many others!

-Nicole

Take a peek inside a Newfoundland mill worker's lunch basket.

"You would never go into another man's lunch basket."

It was a refrain we've heard more than a few times over the past few weeks from current and retired mill workers from Corner Brook to Grand Falls-Windsor. Lunch baskets were not something you would poke around inside, certainly not without the owner's permission. Doing so wasn't just considered rude; it could lead to blows if you were not careful.

This afternoon we hosted the second of our Tea 'n' Baskets events, with today's workshop taking place at the Mount Peyton Hotel in Grand Falls-Windsor. It was a great success, with lots of baskets, and lots of public sharing of memories and stories.

On this occasion, we were allowed to take a look inside the baskets, and indeed, people were delighted to let us do so. A couple folks went to the trouble of packing a lunch, wrapped up in what were known as "samples" - the ends of paper that men would take home from the mill.  I was even lucky enough to be given a bottle of moose by Mr Dave Peddle.

So have a peek below at what's inside a mill worker's lunch basket. Some are full, some are empty, but they each tell a story. Keep your hands off the moose, though, unless you are looking for a scrap. That's mine.

Meeting Mr. Menchenton, Norris Arm basket maker

One of the interesting parts of the research we've been doing on baskets and basket makers is getting to know more about the real men and women behind the baskets.  Here in Grand Falls-Windsor, we've learned about basket makers like Angus Gunn and Everett Janes, and this week, we met the daughter of Mr. Alfred Menchenton.

Alfred Menchenton was a name we'd come across before, and we even have one of his baskets already documented on Memorial University's Digital Archive Initiative (DAI). He was a jack-of-all trades: a woodsman, a carpenter, a builder of logging camps, model-maker, and a prolific crafter of lunch baskets for workers at the mill in Grand Falls.

In the September/October edition of "The Rounder" for 1981, reporter Glen Fiztpatrick wrote, "Over the past couple of years, Mr. Menchenton has become an expert. He made 250 baskets last year and sold them all and could have sold more if the time was available to make them."

The same reporter had found Mr. Menchenton's baskets in the Grand Falls tourist chalet, and had gone looking for the creator. He tracked him down at his shed in Norris Arm North.

"He was in the process of preparing the long narrow strips of birch and pine which were hung along the walls, in readiness to be made into baskets later this winter," wrote Fitzpatrick. "His equipment included an electric table saw and an electric planer, necessities, he said, to produce the smooth strips used to construct the sides. He assembled the saw himself, building the table in which it was placed, and bought the planer second hand."

Over thirty years later, Mr Menchenton is no longer with us. But his daughter and her husband drove us out to that same shed, and there, untouched, was the scene as the reporter had described it. All his tools were still in place, and pieces cut out, ready to make a new basket. Strips of wood were fixed into a form to provide the curve needed for basket ends and handles.  The table saw he built was still sitting inside the door, and the walls were festooned with tools, jigs, pieces of wood, and the snowshoes he had also apparently been adept at creating. One expected Mr. Menchenton himself to walk in, and pick up his work where he had left off.

Mr. Menchenton won't be about our Tea 'n' Baskets event tomorrow at the Mount Peyton Hotel in Grand Falls-Windsor, where we are inviting owners of baskets to come, show, and tell about their histories. Even though he won't be there, we are hoping some of his baskets will be.