In October 2018, Heritage NL staff rushed down Water Street to rescue an old shop sign from the business of Lewis and Grunia Ferman, Jewish merchants and WWII resistance fighters. That event unlocked a flood of stories and memories about the Ferman family, and about other merchants who had business in St. John's and beyond.
In this episode, we look at the legacy of immigrant merchants in Newfoundland, with clips from interviews about both the Ferman shop, and the multicultural shopkeepers of Windsor who are featured in a new Virtual Museums of Canada exhibit.
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The Living Heritage Podcast is about people who are engaged in the heritage and culture sector, from museum professionals and archivists, to tradition bearers and craftspeople - all those who keep history alive at the community level. The show is a partnership between HFNL and CHMR Radio. Past episodes are hosted on Libsyn, and you can subscribe via iTunes, or Stitcher. Theme music is Rythme Gitan by Latché Swing.
Showing posts with label windsor merchants. Show all posts
Showing posts with label windsor merchants. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 12, 2019
Thursday, August 10, 2017
Living Heritage Podcast Ep084 Untold Stories: Merchants and Memories of Main Street Windsor
Download the MP3
Monday, March 27, 2017
#CollectiveMemories Monday - John Connors and Brown Derby
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The Brown Derby Restaurant, Main Street, Windsor. Photo courtesy of the Grand Falls-Windsor Heritage Society. |
In this interview John discusses his grandfather’s work as the first Railway Station Master, his father’s start in business, and the growth and development of Brown Derby from a restaurant on Main Street to the major wholesale business it is today.
Roy Oldford also of Grand Falls-Windsor described the restaurant:
The Brown Derby was a little café you went in and sat down. There were seats. They had a jukebox and roller seats around the counter and that was a pretty popular place for people to go and have a meal or whatnot especially if you came in on the train. We spent a lot of time at the Brown Derby and it was a typical teen and other place at that point in time.
Click here to listen to the interview with John and learn more about the Brown Derby.
~Terra Barrett
Wednesday, March 8, 2017
Merchants and Memories of Main Street, Windsor - Booklet Launch
Some of the people interviewed for the booklet, members of the Grand Falls-Windsor Heritage Society, and Heritage Foundation staff. |
Interviewer Terra Barrett with longtime GFW resident Yvonne Courtney who was interviewed for the booklet. |
Reviewing photographs from the GFWHS. |
The crowd listening to a reading from the booklet. |
Debating who is in the wedding photograph displayed on the banner. |
Former staff of a Main Street shop. I believe this photo is of the Stewart's staff - let us know if the comments if you know for sure! |
Discussing stories of Windsor. |
Anne Warr posing with the Windsor quilt and the Cozy Chat banner which displays the photograph of her parent's wedding in the Cozy Chat. |
Wednesday, February 22, 2017
Booklet Launch - Merchants and Memories of Main Street, Windsor
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Main Street, Windsor. 1944. Photo courtesy of GFWHS. |
“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.
Friday, December 2, 2016
#CollectiveMemories Roadtrip - Grand Falls-Windsor
Terra Barrett, Dale Jarvis, and Kelly Drover in the Old Mill in Glovertown. |
Members of the Grand Falls-Windsor Heritage Society and Dale Jarvis and Terra Barrett of the Heritage Foundation. Photo by Kelly Drover. |
Razor, stropper, brick, bottle, and tobacco from Stewart's Grocery. |
~Terra Barrett
Tuesday, November 29, 2016
#FolklorePhoto: Windsor Taxis and Buses
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
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