Historic Factories

The part of the Tidbits project I learned the most from was the content on old factories, because this was all new to me.  I'm well aware that Meaford was once a manufacturing hub, although this has died away in recent decades.  For a brief period it was also a minor port for shipping grain, though that ended when the grain elevator burned down in 1913.

But as we head down Nelson toward the harbour we first come to the old Fire Hall, right behind Meaford Hall.  It's currently under renovation and I'm told will be finished 'soon'.  All those boardings have been taken away, cedars planted around the patio, and it's starting to look finished, at least on the outside.  I dropped over to see it today and found it appeared totally wheelchair accessible, so I'm looking forward to it!  It's supposed to open as a restaurant.

At the bottom of Nelson Street is this vacant parcel of land that I've always wondered about. obviously the site of an old building, given all the cement.  And there's the little Tidbits sign.

This is the site of the old planing mill.  The manufacturing in Meaford was heavily based on the lumber industry with furniture, wheelbarrows and hardwood flooring the main products.

Over a block is another Tidbits sign for a different old factory, the foundry.

And this is the site of the condos we locals know as the 'blue box'  We have a friend who lives here, over-looking the harbour..

And one leftover from the old foundry is the Meaford cannon.  This sits three blocks away to the north, overlooking the outer harbour (ready to fend off any pirates)!

Across the inner harbour, which was regularly dredged in those years to keep it deep enough, was the grain elevator.  Though only built in 1901, it burned down in 1913 and was never replaced.

And this is the old train station, built after the railway was re-routed down around the harbour.  It would have been in what its now a gravel parking lot where there is no trace of it today.

Historic Hotels

This was the sign that rekindled my interest in local history and led to these posts.  It was located outside the library, and gave you a QR code to look up the website.  I realized my age immediately because I had never been able to figure out how to read a QR code!  Luckily it gave me a website too (in fine print at the bottom), so I could look it up.

Paul's hotel stood where the library is located now, and if you look up the Tidbits website you can find much more detailed information on the old hotel.  Built it 1860, it burned down in 1960 and was replaced by a grocery store, now remodeled into a library.  Totally wheelchair accessible I should note!

The idea seems to be to present pictures of each of the historic buildings in front of the current building, so here is the current library, wit h the tiny sign in front of the window .  I just love going in here!

The other sign I quickly ran into was the old Royal Hotel, just a block away.  I pass this sign going in to McGinty's for coffee every week.  This hotel was demolished in 1921, to make way for an early Bank of Toronto.

And it's been replaced today with a branch of the TD Bank, and a financial office next door.

Across the street from that site is Meaford Hall, a remarkable building for a small town like Meaford.  Built in 1908 after fire destroyed the earlier town hall, the Mayor at the time was quoted as saying "it would be a monument to prosperity and progress", capturing the spirit of those years.  More recently it has been renovated to create a remarkable community space with a busy concert hall on the top floor where the original opera house was - and it's totally wheelchair accessible.

Outside the front entrance to Meaford Hall, rarely used in my experience, the balcony has been draped with bunting and a 'Happy 150th' banner put up.

And beside that entrance to Meaford Hall is parked the original wagon of the Meaford City Bakery.  Pulled by horses of course, it delivered bread around town.  Recently it has been restored by its current owner.

Credit:  I want to give credit right up front to Professor Viz Saraby of the George Brown College School of Architectural Studies, who is responsible for the student project that created Meaford Tidbits.  It certainly inspired me when I found the first Tidbits sign above.  As a former professor myself I know exactly how much work is required to supervise groups projects, so I congratulate her.  I'm only showing you a few examples of the work; the website (accessible by that QR code) has MUCH more information.  And in the meantime I have learned to use QR codes!

Meaford's Sesquicentennial

Finally, I'm going to take a few posts to celebrate Meaford's 150 years as a town.  It's hard to capture the rapture and enthusiasm that led to the town being incorporated in 1874, but in those days 'progress' was a matter of faith in the future.  And nothing symbolized that 'progress' more than the railway!  When it arrived, Meaford's continued growth was assured.

It was the Northern Railway that first arrived in Meaford, when they extended the line west from Collingwood, arriving in Meaford in 1872.  The station was on what we know today as Station Hill, at a spot along Paul St., above the little park as you go down the hill on Sykes St.

Meaford's growth did boom in the late 19th century, with the establishment of several industries and the building of a grain elevator down in the harbour.  Intensive lobbying resulted in the rail line being extended down into the harbour and around the shoreline to the east.  This would serve both the grain elevator and the factories that had been built.  As this was the end of the line, there was also a railway turntable, and the passenger station was moved as well, to a spot about where the Rotary Pavilion stands today.

Meanwhile, downtown business was booming, and the late 19th century saw a flurry of building on the main street.  As in many towns in southern Ontario, business owners put up 2 and 3 story edifices to house their stores, though most of those 2nd and 3rd stories were never used except for storage and apartments.  I actually remember a 3 story store in my hometown of Woodstock where all 3 stories were used.

And look at the brick patterns!  Some businesses made their stores stand out by using decorative brick patterns for the storefront.  Look at both the brickwork and the domed upper windows, a cost that wouldn't be considered today.  Compare this to modern suburban stores!

And here's another one.  Look at that fancy brick cornice at the roofline and the curved brickwork over the windows.  Most of the downtown main streets in southern Ontario owe their architecture to the booming years of the late 19th century.

For those interested in names - St. Vincent Township was named after the Earl of St. Vincent, a noted battle commander and First Lord of the Admiralty and Meaford was named after Meaford Hall in Staffordshire, his home.  St. Vincent Township, Sydenham Township and Meaford, the town, were all amalgamated to form the new municipality of Meaford in 2001.

Around the Neighborhood

 I've shown you things of interest around the neighbourhood before, so I've tried to be selective this time and not repeat things here (for the most part).  Still, there always seem to be new plants here and there.

A house around a few blocks converted their ditch to a pollinator garden.  At first I wondered how it would work but it appears to have been very successful.

I think they had so many questions that they put up this sign.

Here it is.  You can't pick out the yellow very easily in this photo, but the whole length of this is currently a riot of colour.

There are very few places where I can find summer wildflowers anymore; the urge to 'clean-up' the ditches is just too strong.  The Goldenrod above is along a driveway, 50 feet away, and the Sow Thistle (lower photo) I in a short stretch of ditch that was mowed awhile back.

I was surprised to find this Cup Plant in front of a house down the street.  It's the prairie plant that gathers moisture in the hollow of its leaves.  It isn't often planted outside a house.

The same house has this interesting vine cascading down from a tall pot.  I find it just fascinating.

Summerfest

On Saturday it was Summerfest here in Meaford, so I decided to ride downtown and see what it was all about.  It was mainly all sorts of little vendor booths set up in the sun, on two blocks they has closed off.  I didn't find much of interest, but it was fun.

At the first place I stopped I found this friendly gent in his very colourful pants and scarf.  He was glad to pose for me.

I picked up some maple sugar here.  Meaford Maples is a relative newcomer to the maple syrup business in Meaford.

I passed the renovated firehall, and noted the lines of cedars planted yesterday around the outdoor patio.  (I was here Thursday and they weren't planted then).  I'm still wondering how accessible this whole place will be.

I took one look down the sidewalks of the main street, and said no, that would be impossible - lots of people and canopies set up on the sidewalk.  So I went in the back entrance to McGinty's.

But I stopped along the edge of the gravel parking area out back and got this shot of Queen Anne's Lace.  It's become harder and harder for me to get pictures of summer wildflowers in town.

As well I got this shot of Chicory.  I always think it makes a great photo.

Then on my way home I saw these Hollyhocks.  They always remind me of my early childhood, for they grew alongside the driveway at my grandparents.

Partway home I found this Rose of Sharon in full bloom.  And that was my visit to Summerfest this year.

Missing Trees!

 I came home home from lunch yesterday and found some trees were missing!  The golf course owner and his crew had started cutting the big old dying ash in the line of trees behind our homes.  That included our own two big ash trees, and two smaller ones, as well as the neighbour's very large one.

You probably don't recognize the big gap between the trees here, but there used to be several more trees, admittedly dying.  We knew they had to come down and we were all a little worried about how much this would all cost.

Before I scarcely got into the house and out on the deck to watch, the first of our large two ash was down and being carted away.  I should make clear that these trees were all on the golf course side of the property line.

The sawyer certainly knew what he was doing.  Here he's cutting a large notch on the north side of the tree, the direction in which he wants it to fall.

And here he's making the cut on the south side of the tree which will fell it.

And down it goes, with a great big whooommpf!  The whole operation was a far cry from the arborists we had visit two years ago.  They roped individual big branches down carefully.

Then it was flat on the ground.  These were trees we didn't actually see very much, as the view was blocked by our Sugar Maple.  We just saw the bottom 10 feet of the tree trunks.

They lopped it into 16 foot sections - he even had a tape measure.

And then they carried it away making a pile behind the big spruce tree where I couldn't see it.

And then they continued down the line.  This is the huge stump of our neighbour's very large double-trunked tree.  We were worried about this one because it was leaning our direction, but he dropped it into a 6 foot gap between our shed and the spruce.  I was really impressed.  Now I'll try to gather some before and after pictures together.

More Flowers!

Lots of flowers yet to share with you.  We have several different coloujrs of the Echinacea hybrids, as well as the original pink ones which are spreading everywhere.  Then there are a number of other flowers in bright red, orange and blue.

The original Echinacea generate lots of seeds, so we now have some scattered through the garden.

The yellow and orange ones, being hybrids, don't produce seed, so don't spread at all.

The bright red Crocosmia are in bloom just now, and they do spread a little,, but they also need sun. The bright red is notoriously difficult to photograph.

We have one Bear's Breeches, which is a very unusual flower, very spiky, almost like a thistle.

These are pale purple Monarda.

And these are Bachelor's Buttons.