Peterborough Blogs
Part 5: Extending the Canal System Amidst the 1911 Election
Hunter Street Bridge Documentary Set to Premiere For Peterborough
/As the Hunter Street bridge celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, a documentary marking the milestone called “Building the Ashburnham Bridge” will air on YourTV on Aug. 2.
Steve Russell, project manager of the documentary was the eldest of four children in his family. Photo by David Tuan Bui.
The documentary was created by archivist Elwood Jones and former engineer Steve Russell. It tells the story of the planning and construction of the bridge — also known as the Ashburnham Bridge — between 1919 and 1921.
The project began in 2019 after a grant was given to the Trent Severn Waterway from the Trillium Foundation to take all the old pictures of Quaker Oats and the bridge construction according to Russell.
Russell’s grandfather, John E. Russell from the Russell-Townsend Company built the bridge during interesting economic and political times of Peterborough’s history.
That inspired Steve to do the documentary after learning that fact and discovered his grandfather in archived photos.
“Once I identified him (grandfather), that really accelerated my interest for the documentary,” said Steve.
Longtime retired broadcast journalist Graham Hart narrated the half-hour documentary where he met with Steve weekly to work on the project.
“Building the Ashburnham Bridge” airs at 7:00 p.m. on YourTV on Aug. 2.
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Lang Pioneer Village Museum Welcomes Visitors Back For Its 54th Season
/As Lang Pioneer Village Museum kicks off its 54th season, they will be open to the public beginning on July 2 according to a press release on Wednesday.
A guided tour of the museum that complied with the COVID-19 protocols in 2020. Photo Courtesy of Lang Pioneer Village.
The Museum will be open Wednesday through Sunday for pre-booked guided tours until Labour Day weekend. A new feature to the historical site is a full-time First Nations interpreter at the village’s Aabnaabin Camp.
Under step one of the Ontario Roadmap to Reopen plan, the guided tours are required to be outdoors only. The museum is uncertain if step two of the plan will permit visitors to enter the historic buildings however outdoor-only tours will include additional trades demonstrations like blacksmithing or tinsmithing.
Interpreter guides will open doors for a peek inside while sharing the history of the historic home or business. Once the province moves to a stage that permits the opening of the historic buildings, visitors will be permitted to tour the lower levels of the Village buildings.
Staggered tours will begin every 15 minutes and must be booked in advance by visiting the Museum’s Shopify page.
Pre-booked guided tours are $40 for a group of four. Additional group members may be added to the tour at an additional cost, up to the current group maximum as regulated by Peterborough Public Health.
The museum’s snack shop will not be open but packaged traditional treats, drinks and museum shop items can be purchased at the time of booking.
Visitors will be required to self-screen prior to coming on-site, observe physical distancing with other groups and wear masks when in buildings.
The museum is offering special events this fall. they are also launching a new digital accessibility platform that will provide guests with mobility challenges the opportunity to sign out a tablet with access to a database of photographic and video footage of the inaccessible spaces within the village.
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Local Tech Company Launches Virtual Reality Platform For Users To Explore Global, Historical & Archaeological Sites
/Peterborough-based tech company AVROD have officially launched their virtual reality (VR) platform for users to explore global, historical and archaeological sites for free on Viveport, Steam, and SideQuest platforms.
The platform is dedicated to digitizing and sharing the world's archaeological and cultural heritage sites for study and exploration, and is pivoting as a Covid-19 solution to add remote travel and tourism.
AVROD founder Jeremy Brooks using the platform
Users all over the world are now able to virtually travel to 40 real-world, photorealistic locations within the United States, France, Mexico, England, Portugal, Australia, Egypt, Spain, Canada, Scotland, Italy, Sweden, Greece, Japan, India, Belize, Mongolia and Guatemala.
Users can access different locations by using a headset and their preferred platform to experience and interact with the world around them. In addition to Steam, Viveport, and SideQuest, it will be launching soon on the Oculus Store and for Oculus Quest VR headsets.
Jeremy Brooks started AVROD with the help of the Innovation Cluster and its Virtual and Augmented Reality Zone while an archaeology student at Trent University, and his timing couldn’t be more right for a platform like this.
According to Globe Newswire, the augmented and virtual reality market is expected to see an overwhelming growth of over $2 billion dollars by 2027. The current pandemic supports this growth, as industries start to turn virtual. Museums and other tourist attractions now offer virtual tours, and companies continue to look for ways to give customers an out-of-home experience.
Brooks and AVROD’s Lead Developer, Manan Patel, have been working hard to bring AVROD to life.
“Our team of students and young professionals, many of whom are from the Peterborough and Kawarthas area, have achieved incredible milestones to launch Canadian-built AVROD globally—including completely developing and launching AVROD remotely during the lockdown,” says Brooks.
“We are expecting a global demand for our platform as people look to travel, explore, learn, and collaborate remotely and safely,” he adds. “As the company grows, we will be looking to create new jobs, starting here in Peterborough.”
“The launch for AVROD is perfectly positioned as we deal with the global pandemic and a significant worldwide reduction in travel,” says Michael Skinner, CEO of the Innovation Cluster.
“While people are asked to stay indoors, AVROD can provide an alternative experience for people who want to continue to experience the world with this at-home immersive experience. As virtual reality becomes more and more accessible, AVROD is very well aligned to benefit from the endless possibilities of this industry.”
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Where Was Peterborough Located Millions Of Years Ago?
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We know Peterborough was incorporated as a city in 1905 (she’s looking pretty good at 115), and we think that if we asked most Ontarians to point to where Peterborough would be on a map, they could tentatively point somewhere between Ottawa and Toronto.
If we were to ask you where the physical location of Peterborough 400 million years ago (hint… it was under water) or even 750 million years ago, you might not know where to look.
Check out the cool site The Dinosaur Database that has a slick animated map to help you find out how the very spot that we are standing on changes over time. Our planet has sure changed through history!
—by Evan Holt
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Canoe & Paddle's New Patio Is Built On AstroTurf The Toronto Blue Jays Won World Series On
/It’s not often—or ever—that you get the chance to eat delicious pub food on a patio in the Kawarthas that sits on AstroTurf that the Toronto Blue Jays won the 1993 World Series on. But that opportunity is now on deck at Lakefield’s Canoe & Paddle, whose new patio sits atop some of the old turf that is such a huge piece of Canadian sports history.
Indeed, the Canoe & Paddle were lucky enough to secure some of the old AstroTurf that the Toronto Blue Jays won the World Series on at SkyDome (now Roger’s Centre) on Joe Carter’s dramatic walk-off home run in Game 6 in ‘93, giving the Jays back-to-back World Series titles.
Photo courtesy Canoe & Paddle
Jake Exton from Canoe & Paddle is at bat, and tells PTBOCanada the backstory behind it:
“It was a chance conversation about three years ago with Ian Knott from Indian Rubber Tire Shop in Buckhorn. He built an indoor baseball and lacrosse training centre at his business. He was a pitcher in the U.S., and had contacts within the business. He bought four rolls of AstroTurf when the SkyDome switched the surface in 1994. I remembered him talking about it about three years ago, and on the announcement that we would be able to expand our patios, I made a call and found he still had two rolls—which he was happy to sell to us!”
Photo courtesy Canoe & Paddle
They built the patio within a day, not quite as long as it took to build SkyDome, and the response has been fantastic to eating on the turf—a field of dreams, if you will.
”People love the history behind it and love telling us their stories of watching the game on TV or being there live to watch it happen,” Exton tells PTBOCanada.
Yep, to say they knocked this one out of the park would be an understatement.
And for those that forget…
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Neat Retro Pictures Of The Electric City To Make You All Nostalgic
/Many of these gems come via the awesome Old Ontario Series Facebook page that people have been sharing in the “I grew up in Peterborough Ontario 50s and 60s” Facebook group.…
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Once Upon A Time Peterborough Downtown Was Movie Theatre Row
/Those new to the city or born later might not realize that once upon a time, Peterborough’s downtown was “Movie Theatre Row” where it was a big social activity to go downtown, pick a movie, and choose a theatre.
Indeed, in a photo shared to their Facebook page (see below) from 1961 taken on George Street, Trent Valley Archives writes that “you can see the imposing signs of the Capitol, Odeon, and Paramount theaters, which made up movie theater row.”
Photo courtesy Trent Valley Archives
Trent Valley Archives adds that going back further in the 1950s, “Peterborough residents would have been able to choose between these three theaters (and the Centre theater, which closed in 1956) when they wanted to see a movie.”
Here is another view of movie theatre row back in the day looking down George Street...
Another view of movie theatre row
To entice patrons, each theater would advertise the films they were showing on their marquee board and in the Peterborough Examiner, according to TVA.
Share your memories of going to these theatres on our Facebook page.
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Check Out The Little Lake Cemetery Web Mapping Application and Story Map
/An interactive web mapping genealogical tool and a new Little Lake Cemetery Story Map which tells the story of the cemetery and some of the early residents of Peterborough is now available.
Residents can explore the updated Little Lake Cemetery Guide and discover something new about their community by using the interactive historical timeline. The mapping application and Story Map can be found here and here.
The interactive map allows users to explore more than 5,500 marked grave sites and provides information on the oldest name and date identified on the monument, a visual location, and a photograph of the marker.
Screengrab of applications
With the help of student interns supported by Young Canada Works, the map has been expanded and enhanced to include the location and information on more than 10,000 unmarked graves within the cemetery.
With the updates, users now have the ability to submit additional information about interments. City of Peterborough geomatics/mapping staff, heritage preservation staff and Little Lake Cemetery collaborated on the mapping projects.
The Story Map application is an interactive webpage that allows users to explore themes relating to the City’s first burial ground, the growth of garden cemeteries, the development of Little Lake Cemetery, and stories of some historical figures from Peterborough’s past.
With nearly 30,000 burials in Little Lake Cemetery, the current map is not a complete record of interments at the cemetery. The City of Peterborough and Little Lake Cemetery foresee future projects will expand the numbers of graves recorded and the narratives presented on the story map.
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Check Out The Bicycle Museum Pop-Up Documenting City's Storied Cycling History
/The public is invited to see a collection of a dozen historical photos from the late 1800s and early 1900s alongside a replica Penny Farthing bicycle at the Peterborough Public Library starting on December 3rd at noon. The free exhibit showcases Peterborough’s rich cycling history and will run until the New Year.
Photo courtesy Peterborough Museum and Archives
Peterborough was at the centre of the cycling craze in the 1890s and held the first ever Canadian Wheelmen’s Association provincial meet on July 1, 1898, where big wheel—or Penny Farthing—bikes raced around the track at Morrow Park to the delight of almost 7,000 onlookers.
Photo courtesy of Peggy Brownscombe
“Peterborough has a long tradition of cycling excellence and that tradition needs to be acknowledged—and it needs to continue,” says Tammy Thorne, the creator of TheBicycleMuseum.ca and the pop-up exhibits here in Peterborough, which first launched last month.
“There’s so much heritage that needs to be preserved in Peterborough, and it’s not just buildings. There are many great stories from this city’s illustrious industrial past that need to be told, and cycling is just one part of that,” adds Thorne.
Photo courtesy Peterborough Museum and Archives
The images in this must-see collection are largely from the Peterborough Museum and Archives but part of the collection comes from Peggy Brownscombe, the daughter of the former owner of one of the city’s earliest bike shops, White’s Cycle and Sporting Goods.
“Many of the images have stories behind them that are yet to be discovered,” says Thorne. “For example, we have this lovely photo of Alex Gibson with his high wheel bike and medals. He was a member of the Peterborough Cycling Club, even the treasurer for a time, and his father was likely a watchmaker.”
Photo courtesy Peterborough Museum & Archives
