Tag Archives: environment

Markham Museum

Conservation / Preservation:

Architecture

  • Restored homes of three early settlers.
  • A nineteenth century church, blacksmith shop, cider mill, general store, and sawmill.
  • A 1930s-era train station.

Archives

  • Files on nearly 900 families who have lived in the Markham area, published and unpublished genealogies and family trees, birth, marriage, and death records from Markham and surrounding areas dating back to the early nineteenth century, local census records, and other genealogical materials.
  • Index of land deeds, assessment roles, and voter’s lists.
  • Miscellaneous documents including deeds, ledgers, diaries, journals, and photographs.

Public Programming:

Exhibitions

Changing exhibits that included photographs and various artefacts from the Museum’s collection in addition to those loaned to the museum by local individuals and families.

Education

Day and half day programs for students from kindergarten to high school focusing primarily on early life, including work, transportation, home life, and leisure, in the area. In the Museum’s research facility, high school students learn how to work with primary research materials.

Evergreen Brick Works

Conservation/Preservation:

Sixteen of the original factory buildings have been preserved, notably the three long tunnel kilns and six single-track drying tunnels. Efforts are also underway to encourage the re-growth of heritage plants.

Public Programming:

Exhibitions

Brick Kilns: Evergreen Brick Works uses art and interactive exhibits to tell visitors the story of the brick making process, the workers’ experience, and the history of the site.
The Kilns building is also home to the CRH Gallery. Unique, large-scale art installations are displayed throughout this space.

Koerner Gardens: A showcase for sustainable urban greening, this is a 20,000-square-foot native plant demonstration space. These large native plant and food gardens inspire visitors with tips, techniques and designs for creating gardens in urban settings. School groups, community groups, home gardeners and families participate in the planting, care and maintenance of the garden mounds.

Weston Family Quarry Garden and Don Valley Brick Works Park: This natural heritage site offers nature trails through the former quarry of the brick works.

The extensive work of graffiti artists on the site, which dates from the years when the site was abandoned, has also been protected.

Tours

Guided Walking Tours, Saturdays, 2:00 – 3:00 p.m. ($5 suggested donation).
Tours are general in nature and focus on a variety of themes including: the natural, geologic, and historic significance of the site, art, adaptive reuse and green design, as well as how Evergreen’s mission is reflected in the spaces and programs.

Other

The Pavilions: The Pavilions is a centrally located, covered, outdoor space for community gatherings and festivals. Since 2007 it has been home to Saturday and Sunday programs including a Farmers’ Market.

Centre for Green Cities: Since September 2010, Evergreen and a community of like-minded organizations have made their home in this intellectual and educational nexus of the Evergreen Brick Works campus. The Centre aims to bring together innovators, educators, and leaders in social and environmental thought.

Royal Ontario Museum

Conservation / Preservation:

Artefacts:

This museum houses more than 6 million artefacts and other objects documenting natural and human history from prehistoric times to the present.

Public Programming:

Exhibitions

The ROM offers a variety of changing and permanent exhibits. Explore an array of themed galleries throughout the museum, spanning the themes of world cultures, medieval history, Aboriginal history, natural history, Canadian history, science and technology, archaeology, and military history.

Tours

This museum offers many tours catering to a variety of age groups and educational level.

Digital

Online Virtual Exhibits including The Burgess Shale and Tuugaaq – Ivory.

Education

Lectures, courses, Trips/walks, traveling educational kits, online activities, family programming, school visits.

Dufferin County Museum and Archives (DCMA)

Conservation/Preservation:

 Archives/Library

  • The archival collection encompasses a range of materials relating to all aspects of Dufferin’s history. The collection includes more than 3000 archival documents, more than 500 local history books, and approximately 3000 photographs, as well as a wide range of reference books pertaining to Canadian antiques and artifacts, Canadian history, local authors, education, area churches, and community organizations.
  • The archives also offers an extensive collection of municipal government information, such as by-laws, council minutes, and financial records, the earliest of which dates from 1851; information on such social organizations as the Loyal Orange Lodge, Masonic Lodge, and Women’s Institutes .
  • Local History: A collection of over 500 works, including information on Dufferin and area towns, villages, churches, schools as well as many personal anecdotes of life in this region of Ontario.
  • Museum Reference: The collection is accessible to researchers who are interested in finding and verifying information on Canadian, American and British antiques, Canadian glassware, antique furniture, costume jewellery and textiles.
  • Canadian History: A selection of over 200 works, including texts of general interest in Canadian social, economic, and political history.
  • Home & Health Advice: Includes some 200 works pertaining to Canadian agriculture, genealogy, cooking, maps, bibles, music and school textbooks.
  • Family History: Two self-serve filing cabinets offer a number of family histories and research files.
  • Cemetery Master Index and Transcriptions: Consult this master list available in the Archives.
  • Microfilm: Census Records of Dufferin County records 1852 to 1901 are available
  • Civil Registration Index from 1869 onward, various newspapers dating from 1861 including Orangeville Sun, Banner, Grand Valley Star & Vidette, Shelburne Economist, Free Press.
  • Dufferin County Land Records to 1966, Municipal Records and many County Directories and Atlases are available.

Artefacts

  • The first floor’s Large Artefact Storage Room is accessible to visitors. This area, which stores such items as wagons, sleighs, and furniture, allows visitors to view artefacts which are not currently on display in the DCMA’s exhibit galleries.
  • The collections include archival documents and artefacts such as Canadian glass and ceramics (notably, Corn Flower cut glassware), furniture, wagons, machinery, agricultural implements, clothing, quilts, archival documents, and photographs.
  • The museum’s hillside site features heritage gardens with a rich variety of plants, trees, and flowers, all of which were native to this region around 1900. The property also showcases samples of crop varieties traditionally harvested in DufferinCounty, as well as an apple orchard and an herb garden.

Public Programming:

Exhibitions

  • Three heritage buildings are situated inside the DCMA’s main gallery; the Rich Hill Orange Lodge Building 1861, a pioneer log home 1850, and Crombie’s Station, a Toronto, Grey and Bruce train flagging station, 1882.
  • Rich Hill Orange Lodge, constructed of tamarack logs in 1861, was originally located in AmaranthTownship.
  • The McCutcheon Replica House at the DCMA is a one and one-half storey log home, constructed with logs dating from 1851. The interior of the house is appointed and furnished with artefacts from the DCMA Collection to reflect the period of the County of Dufferin’s incorporation in 1881.
  • Also located on this site is the Historic Corbetton Methodist Church Building.
  • The Reading Room also showcases changing displays in beautiful antique cases, formerly of Morrow’s Jewellery Store in Orangeville, ca. 1880.

Tours

Group visits must be booked in advance and admission is $20.00/person.

Spadina Museum

Public Programming:

Exhibitions

  • Originally built in 1866 on the foundation of an early Baldwin family house, the estate was enlarged and remodeled by Albert Austin between 1898 and 1913, reflecting the changing times and tastes of the Austin family over three generations.
  • The historic house illustrates the evolution of styles from mid-Victorian to 1930s Colonial Revival and includes items from both the Arts and Crafts and Aesthetic Movements, as well as items in the Art Nouveau and Art Deco styles.
  • The rooms contain furniture purchased by the family, much of it made in Toronto. The influence of new technologies such as gas lighting, central heating, electricity and the telephone can be seen here.
  • The life of the domestic staff is represented in the working kitchen and pantries and third floor accommodations. The most visible reminders of the former Baldwin house are the previous front door, sidelights and fanlight, which now form the back entrance.

Tours

  • Meet the Austins: A Toronto Family Between the Wars

Education

Spadina Museum offers a range of elementary, secondary and post-secondary education programs.

Children’s programs include March Break and Summer camps, and birthday parties.

Adult hands-on workshops on a variety of topics are scheduled throughout the year.

Events

The museum offers a range of special events throughout the year including Mother’s Day, Doors Open (last weekend of May), Gatsby Garden Party in June, City Cider in September, and seasonal programming in November/December including the Ongoing Adventures of Flashman, a live radio play.

Other

The 6 acre Spadina Museum site includes lawns, orchards, restored garden beds and many large heritage trees.  The grounds are open free of charge to the public when staff are on site.

Rouge Park

Conservation/Preservation:

Artefacts / Archeology

Bead Hill, an archaeological site with the remains of a 17th century Seneca Village on the Lower Rouge River, is a National Historic Site designated by the Historical Sites and Monuments Board of Canada in 1991. The site is a sensitive archaeological area and is not open to the public at this time.