Winter 2007 Newsletter
Remembrance Day
Please join us at the Trafalgar War Memorial on Oak Park Blvd. for a small ceremony at 11:00am to remember the men and women who served Trafalgar Twp. Afterwards we have been invited to join the residents at Post Inn Village for refeshments at 203 Georgian Drive. (Just down the street from the Cenotaph)
Milton Historical Society's new publication:
"Milton Streets -The stories behind the Villages, Hamlets, Neighbourhoods and Roads" will be introduced with signings by the co-authors John Challinor and Jim Dills and our local photographers.
Sat. Nov 10th 10am to 4pm
Waldie Blacksmith Shop, 16 James St. Milton
Cost $40.00
More than 600 village, hamlet, neighborhood, & street histories are included
Christmas Party
You are invited to attend a Christmas gathering on Sunday December 9th from 2-4pm at the home of our Vice Chairperson Stuart McCulloch at 1307 Saddler Circle, Oakville. Please join us for coffee, tea and treats and to catch up on what the Trafalgar Twp Historical Society has been up to!
Palermo Schoolhouse Lease
We have completed negotiations with the Town of Oakville on the lease for the schoolhouse and signed the 5 year lease this week. The lease will take effect February 1st, 2008. We have delayed the start date of the lease to save us a bit of money in insurance and heating costs.
Hamilton Educational Archives
A few of us visited the Hamilton Educational Archives this week and were taken on a tour of their main facility by John Aikman and then to their one room schoolhouse. The archives has generously offered to provide us with 8 student desks, school books, a globe, maps, chairs, a strap, and possibly some other bits and pieces.
They maintain the archives for the Hamilton school board including all student records and they also keep historical artifacts that relate to education including cornerstones and architectural details from old schoolhouses. The document archives fills 4 large classrooms, full of shelves, boxes and filing cabinets.
Funding & Restoration
We have just sent off a very thorough & thick proposal to the Trillium Foundation! We have asked for renovation costs to bring the building up to fire and building code. This will include a wheelchair accessible bathroom, finished basement and an archive storage room. We have asked Trillium for $125,000. We have also written a proposal to The Oakville Arts Council asking for folding tables and chairs. The Town of Oakville has completed painting the outside of the building, fixing the evestrough and two holes in the roof, removing the wasps nest, and repairing some of the windows and the chimney. Mattamy Homes has agreed to put in a kitchenette for us and Bot Construction will be paving the parking lot in the Spring. We will hear about whether or not the Trillium proposal was successful around mid January and we will let you know.
If you have any leads on companies that may be willing to donate products or money to help with the restoration please let us know. We will recognize them on our website and in our newsletter.
We will be submitting a proposal to the Oakville Arts Council next week that requests funds to cover folding tables and chairs.
Research
A group of us will be heading out to the Halton Regional Museum this Friday November 9th at 10am to continue going through their documents and photocopying anything that relates to Trafalgar history. We would welcome newcomers to the group. We meet monthly at the museum.
In the new year we will be meeting for one day at the Hamilton Educational Archives to go through their book collection and try to come up with 25 early readers that would be suitable for our grade three classes that we hope to have visiting the schoolhouse next year.
Work Crew
We are looking for volunteers willing to help refinish the wainscoting. Please call or email us so we can set up a time that would be the most suitable for everyone. We will stick with 2 hour time slots. We need to give those desks from the archives a good cleaning as well but I think it is best to do that in the Spring when we can do it outside.
Christmas Party
You are invited to attend a Christmas gathering on Sunday December 9th from 2-4pm at the home of our Vice Chairperson Stuart McCulloch at 1307 Saddler Circle, Oakville. Please join us for coffee, tea and treats and to catch up on what the Trafalgar Twp Historical Society has been up to!
Scanning
We have had a few requests for another scanning day. We will hold one this Winter but we are in need of volunteers who can help out- especially volunteers who know how to scan or are willing to learn!
Heritage Buildings
Our presentation on October 9 to council on 3015 Dundas St West, the Hagar Inn went very well. So many people chipped in to make for a very thorough & professional report. This will now go forward with the process to designate the building which will mean more meetings! We will let you know when they are coming up. The other two buildings that the Town Heritage committee recommended proceed to designation (3017 Bronte Rd. the Palermo Parsonage & 3369 Sixth Line) have not yet gone to council and are not scheduled at present.
Trafalgar Cemeteries & Development
We are quite concerned about a development proposal that is to come very close to the Palermo cemetery and we have heard that it may affect the graves on the east side of the cemetery. We have not yet had a response from Town of Oakville staff regarding this issue. The Munn’s cemetery also will have development surrounding it shortly but at the moment it appears to be well protected in that proposal. We will be asking planning staff at the Heritage committee meeting next week to notify all Historical societies on development applications. Presently only groups that are considered residents associations are notified of development proposals.
TTHS Annual General Meeting
Join us on Tuesday February 5 at the Palermo School House for our Annual General meeting from 7-9PM to hear about our upcoming plans and elect our board of directors. Our guest speaker will be Julika Winkler who recently published “Seven Sundays”. Julika will speak on Seven Sundays along the Dundas and will have her book available for purchase. Julika’s new book is a great resource for people looking for information on Trafalgar Twp.
