Huron Expositor, 2016-07-06, Page 22 Huron Expositor • Wednesday, July 6, 2016
The Box family
instrumental to
Victoria Park
Shaun Gregory
Huron Expositor
Victoria Park in Seaforth is
where the half opened hexagon
band shell is located. The perfor-
mance stage meant for musical
concerts has an extensive history
in the community, notably
because of the Box family.
Built in the early 1930s by Ernie
Box, the father of Richard Box,
who subsequently married Mary
Box and had a daughter they
named Barb. In the early years,
long before the swing sets and
parking lots surrounding the her-
itage destination were installed,
political rallies and the rhythm of
good old folk -style music could be
seen and heard.
It's believed that Ernie traveled
all the way to Toronto in the 1920s
to investigate the band shell
located at the Canadian National
Exhibition. It was a much larger
structure, but after a thorough
examination of Canada's biggest
city's rustic concert venue, the
Seaforth native started the con-
struction a few years later.
Since this is such an excep-
tional piece of history to the Box's,
when Ernie's son Richard passed,
in 1981 a plaque was mounted in
the family's memory. More than
three decades later a new com-
memorative inscription has been
added with funds for additional
refurbishing in Barb's memory;
she passed away in September of
2013. In her will she requested
$5,000 be given for such expenses
to spruce up the park.
Knowing how significant the
family and the structure meant to
Seaforth, Maureen Agar propelled
the project and put together a
special event where the commu-
nity could celebrate with a ribbon
THE BLUFFS AT HURON
A Parkbridge Community
cutting and unveiling of the new
plaque. A task she chose even
with limited amounts of funds.
"We knew there wasn't enough
money and we know the munici-
pality has such a wide area to do
sometimes. So I went to the Huron
East/Seaforth Community Devel-
opment Trust and said look it, we
need some extra money to fix up
the park," stated Agar who is
the secretary of the HE/SCDT. She
also added the trust donated
$20,000 towards the renovation of
the building as well as groundwork
and a new deck built by Pete Mayer.
'It's just something for the
community to be proud of, if the
citizens can get together, we can
keep it looking fantastic. That's
what a Victoria Park is all about:'
If anybody is interested, every
Tuesday from 1 pm. to 4 p.m. Vic-
toria Park Summer Tunes is going
on until the end of August.
Lakeside community living at its best.
MOVE IN SUMMER 2016
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Shaun Gregory
From the left, Huron East Deputy Mayor Joe Steffler, chair of the Huron East/Seaforth
Community Development Trust, Neil Tam, chair of Huron East/Seaforth Community
Development Trust, Travis Postill and Maureen Agar, secretary for the Huron East/
Seaforth Community Development Trust cut the ribbon for the dedication of the Box
family.
Travis Postill's wife Barb Box passed
'n 2013, he attended an event at
Victoria Park in her memory. He told the
Expositor, she would be proud with all
recent renovations.
Maureen Agar spearheaded an event July
1 to embrace the Box family and their
almost century heritage linking to the
band shell at Victoria Park in Seaforth.
Maureen Agar stands next to Travis Postill former husband of Barb Postill-Box as he
unveils the new plaque in Victoria Park July 1.