Village Squire, 1979-07, Page 14along Highway 21. The normal architecture of the area. cottage
residential and sometimes shoddy highway commercial, is
suddenly interrupted by a large white masonary building sitting
back in a park -like setting in a clearing among full-grown trees.
There's a large parking lot and places for picnics.
The building is of functional design. Entrance is to a central
hall with one gallery to the right and one the left. The two
galleries have vastly different personalities. The gallery to the
"right contains specific collections of various items. There's a
room full of p collection of wood stoves, another with a
comprehensive'display of pressed glass bottles, dishes etc., and
one with all kinds of crockery including glazed earthenware
bottles from faraway places like Belfast, Glasgow and London
and more familiar names like Seaforth (from John Dodds and
Frank Arnold), Exeter (Farmers Bros. Groceries) and Goderich
(Phillips and Co., English Ginger Beer).
There's a lifelike display of the beachwear from an earlier era
that might have been worn on the Grand Bend beach. There's a
brief history of Grand Bend telling how it was settled early
mainly because of the large stands of pine. The population
during the timber boom in 1884 was 150 but it dropped back to
only 50 in 1896 when the timber was mostly removed from the
land. Fishing has always been important to Grand Bend but it is
tourism that has been the major industry. Even before the
popularity of the automobile the people had been coming, taking
a train to the end of the line in Thedford, then a stage coach the
rest of the way. But the ease of car travel brought the real boom.
Today the winter population of the village swells several times
over when the summer visitors arrive. Few, however, would be
seen on the beach wearing the clothing worn in this display.
There's another fascinating bit of history just around the
corner from the Grand Bend exhibit. In a little corner is a display
of some of the artifacts saved from the Balmoral Hotel at St.
Joseph. The Balmoral was the one tangible evidence of Narcisse
Cantin's dream of building a major centre at St. Joseph. He had
a grand scheme that included a town with factories and tourism,
all centred around a canal that would connect St. Joseph on Lake
Huron with Port Stanley, on Lake Erie. The only thing that was
ever built was the hotel. It was an impressive start. The pictures
show a huge building. three stories high and estimated to have
cost $250.000 at a time when large houses were being built for
$2500. The hotel was constructed between 1897 and 1907 but
despite its huge investment it never opened. It was torn down
about 1930.
Dominating a large portion of this gallery is Mr. Walden's
comprehensive collection of old lithographs, the kind that used to
decorate many a rural home. They were the first art for the
masses and were produced by such companies as Currier and
Ives. The collection ranges from pictures of the British Royalty to
the Fathers of Confederation and Sir John A. MacDonald to the
presidents of the United States and many forms of decorative art.
It's a huge collection. perhaps a bit too big for all but those who
really go for that kind of artifact.
The theme of the second gallery of the museum is to take you
back right into history. Here you not only get a chance to see
things old but to see how they fit into peoples' lives. There's
a display of the tools used by a veterinarian in the early years
and an explanation of the importance of the Vet in a local
community before the days of the kind of preventative medicine
now available for the use Of farmers.
Next door is a life -like setting for a blacksmith shop with all the
tools laid out as they would have been in a blacksmith's shop.
There's a large forge and bellows and all the smaller tools used
by the blacksmith. All that's missing is the blacksmith, and of
course a horse.
There's a kind of horse just next door at the harness maker's
shop. It's a wooden model about the right dimensions for a horse(
that allowed the harness maker to work on his product with a
quiet, life-size model.
There's a display of early entertainment and communication
Ifl�PP2 pa
Fashion Boutique
Cool
19 only part
of to c_aarm
"Where fashion and service
come together"
12 Village Squire, July 1979
Open 7 days a week 10-6
Thursday and Friday until 9
11/4 miles south of Grand Bend on Hwy. 21
238-2818