Conservation/Preservation:
Artefacts
- Temple: a new restoration was completed in 2011
- David Willson’s Study: workplace of the leader of the Children of Peace
- Doan Home: home of Ebenezer Doan, master builder of the Temple
- Jesse Doan log house
- Cookhouse
- Doan drive shed
- Granary
architecture
All buildings and artefacts relate to pioneer life and the Children of Peace.
- The Sharon Temple: Built between 1825 and 1832. Restoration on the building was completed in 2011.
- David Willson’s Study: Built in 1829, and was the workplace of David Willson, the leader of the Children of Peace.
- Doan Home: Built in 1819, it was the home of Ebenezer Doan, the master builder of the Temple.
- Log House: Built in the 1830s, the Log House was the home of Jesse Doan, the first leader of the Sharon Civilian Band.
- Doan Drive Shed
- Cookhouse: Used to cook the 15 major feasts throughout the year. Once a month when the temple would be used to collect donations, and on three special occasions: Christmas, the first Saturday in June (in celebration of David Willson’s birthday), and the first Saturday in September (a celebration of the harvest and illumination).
- Granary
Public Programming:
Online
175 Years of Hope: A Celebration of the Sharon Temple and The Children of Peace. http://www.archives.gov.on.ca/en/explore/online/sharon_temple/index.aspx
Music at Sharon: Sunday afternoon concerts of classical music.
Special Events
Check the website for updates. Below is a list of events in 2017:
- March 16 2017: Weaving Words Speakers Series – Stories come in all forms. A discussion of World War One and the Canadian Expeditionary Forces at the Battle of Vimy Ridge that complements our Dear Sadie Exhibit.
- April 20 2017: Weaving Words Speakers Series – Stories come in all forms. The History Hound will discuss genealogy and decorating your family tree.
- May 18 2017: Weaving Words Speakers Series – Stories come in all forms. This series will bring those stories alive in various forms to delight, inspire, and entertain audiences. This event will showcase young artists.
- June 8 2017: Heritage Celebration – This event will celebrate the purchase of the Temple by the York Pioneer Historical Society in 1917, an event which saved the Temple from destruction. Heritage Celebration will feature: delightful hors d’ouvres, historic tours, wine and craft beer, and a stunning musical performance in the one of a kind Sharon Temple.
- July 1 2017: Canada Day Community Celebration – Celebrate Canada’s history in your own backyard! Enjoy a day of music, heritage games, historic demonstrations, museum exhibits, 1937 Reenactment and Encampment, and more.
- July 23 2017: Music at the Temple – Come by to enjoy local musicians and great food in an amazing location.
- September 8 2017: The Illumination – Following the practice of the Children of Peace, the museum recreates The Illumination on the first Friday night of September every year. Candles are lit in every window of the Temple and in the twelve lanterns on the corners. The evening includes music, readings, ceremony, and light refreshments on the grounds.
- September 17 2017: Weaving Words – Weaving Words is a celebration of stories and the many ways that we will tell them, through written and spoken word, through music, film, and dance. Storytellers, writers, musicians, film-makers and other performances from a wide range of cultural and ethnic backgrounds will gather to celebrate everything that is special about who we are, where we have come from and where we are going. Through our stories we celebrate our history and our culture with all of its diversity; we celebrate the people who have made this nation great.
- September 30 2017: Culture Day at the Temple
Exhibits
- May 8 2017 – September 9 2017: Our Natural World Exhibit – There was a time when everything a person owned would be made from things you find in nature. Come examine a collection of interesting everyday objects made out of natural materials. Be inspired by your natural world; what would you make from these objects?
- May 8 2017 – September 8 2017 Richard Coates: Our Renaissance Man – Richard Coates was a man of many talents. While we know very little of his education, his life speaks to great diversity. He was the bandmaster in the Battle of Waterloo, he built 3 organs, some of the earliest surviving in Canada, and he painted beautiful banners, like “Peace” and “Plenty” that hang in the Temple today. Coates was a musician, an inventor, a painter, and an astronomer; a man of eclectic talents that we now call “Our Renaissance Man”.
- May 8 2017 –October 31 2017: Coming Home: Quaker Beginnings in York Exhibit – Everyone comes from somewhere, and each of their journeys are different. Coming Home: Quaker Beginnings in York, shares the journeys of three families: the Hughes, Starrs, and Lundys, as they immigrate to York to make a new home. In honor of Canada’s 150, the Sharon Temple invites the public to share in the experience of early Quaker settlers as they journey across unknown lands, experience many trials, and finally, form a community. This is the story of a group of settlers that made more than a house, they made a home
Tours
Call to arrange a guided tour of the site, although tours can be given to people who just drop by during our hours of operation.
Conservation / Preservation:
Architecture
The village is comprised of many structures dating as far back as the 1820s, including log (round and squared timber), vertical plank, stacked plank, post-and-beam, and balloon construction styles. Most recently acquired building was a mail-order house from Aladdin House Company, Toronto. Architecture primarily Ontario vernacular.
Artefacts
Artefact holdings total over 10,000 artefacts, many in storage and not on exhibit in buildings. Contextual artefact exhibits in heritage buildings illustrate daily life in set time periods throughout Pickering’s development from early settlement to 1910.
Public Programming:
Educational Programming
For a fee, this institution offers full day and half day education tours and outreach programs for classrooms/meeting groups for grades preschool to high school that concentrate on daily life in Pickering from the early-nineteenth century to the present.
- Full day tours include visits to the site’s restored buildings dating from 1810, where students grind grain, haul water, work in the blacksmith shop, make soap, bake bread, and experience lessons in a nineteenth century schoolhouse.
- Multi-day tours (two – five school days) offer extended visits to each building where students participate in the full day activities and benefit from additional heritage programming.
- Tailored particularly to home schooled children, a nine week Pioneer Immersion program offers children the opportunity to fully immerse themselves in nineteenth century life.
- Heritage to Go! program sends an instructor in nineteenth century dress to teach curriculum-based programs on a wide range of themes.
Exhibitions
Exhibits are held in a temporary gallery sapce in the administrative building twice per year.
Workshops and other public programming
Summer Day Camp
- Full day camp on heritage inspired themes for campers ages 5 – 12 years.
Public Workshops on a wide range of themes and topics including:
- Themed tea workshops
- Cooking workshops
- Victorian Dance workshops
- Guest Speaker Presentations (off or on-site presentations on themes such as the Temperance Movement, Heritage Gardening, Tea, Victorian Funeral Traditions
Special Events
- Mother’s Day Tea
- Summer Solstice Suppers
- Teddy Bear Picnic
- Museum Minecraft
- A Spirit Walk: Call to Rebellion (theatrical performance about the 1837 Rebellion)
- Christmas in the Village, Winter in the Woods
Conservation / Preservation:
Architecture
Eight restored nineteenth and early twentieth century buildings, including the Gould-Carmody House (1860), Fifth Line Methodist Church (1870), and Quaker Hill Public School (1924). These structures relate to the area’s business, agricultural, and Quaker history.
Artefacts
The museum houses more than 6,000 artefacts, mainly relating to Uxbridge’s early history. Housed primarily in the museum’s historic buildings, prominent artefacts include carved furniture and musical instruments, a restored printing press and other machinery used by the Uxbridge Printing Company, three prisoners’ boxes carved by men imprisoned in Toronto for their role in the Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837, as well as agricultural tools such as an ox cart, plow, and stump puller.
Archives
The archives contains local business, school, and church records, photographs, newspapers, and municipal records and papers.
Public Programming:
Exhibitions
The museum offers several exhibits, including
- Four displays dedicated to the life and work of individuals with historical connections to the area, novelist Lucy Maud Montgomery, pianist Glenn Gould, artist David Milne, and millionaire and Toronto Mayor, Thomas Foster.
- A display of Uxbridge’s Quaker history with emphasis on the Uxbridge Quaker pioneer settlement.
- The main gallery also houses temporary exhibits. The current exhibit is A History of Play: An Exhibition of Vintage Towns and Collectibles, featuring 100 dolls, games, and cast iron and tin toys.
Educational Programming
The Historical Centre offers tours and workshops to school children of all ages and tailors programming to the Ontario Curriculum. Workshop topics include daily life in nineteenth century Uxbridge, communications and newspaper history, and agricultural history. Museum staff and volunteers also visit schools.
Conservation/Preservation:
A resource centre and office have been set up in Canadian Macedonian Place, where textbooks, photographs, national folk costumes and textiles, art, video, and computerized records and documentation are accessible to students and the public for study and research.
Public Programming:
Online
• History of Macedonians in Canada (video)
• Macedonian Immigration to Canada (text and photos)
• Images Preservation Project (photographs and stories).
Lectures
On Macedonian history and culture, including keynote speakers including artists and academics.
Other
Online order service for books about Macedonia and Macedonian Canadians.
Conservation/Preservation:
Architecture
Built in 1862, Hillary House is recognized by the National Historic Sites and Monuments Board as one of Canada’s best examples of Gothic Revival architecture. It is also a fine example of the architectural links between household and medical office. It retains its original layout, which provided for a medical examining room and dispensary at the front, with family living quarters behind. Rather than being incidental to the design, as in other examples of houses built for medical practitioners, the spaces used for the practice of medicine here were very carefully planned to provide convenience and privacy for both patients and family members. See the website for details.
Artefacts
Hillary House contains a significant collection of medical instruments, books, papers, household furnishings, and equipment dating from the early nineteenth to the late twentieth century and is open to the public as Hillary House, the Koffler Museum of Medicine.
Library
Charles Godfrey Library, an outstanding collection of books, journals, and manuscript material relating to the history of medicine and the social and cultural history of early Ontario. This collection is housed temporarily at the Aurora Public Library.
Public Programming:
Exhibitions
The presentation of artefacts in Hillary House, as well as special exhibitions.
Publications
Booklets on the history of Hillary House.
Tours
Hillary House offers guided tours, led by knowledgeable interpreters, of its historic home and grounds throughout the year. Special accommodations can be made for large groups.
Education
School tours and programs for Brownies and Scouting earning Heritage Badges.
Special Events
Lectures, cultural events, children’s activities.
An online archive displays advertising material from the 1940s to the 1990s.
Conservation/Preservation:
Archives
A large archive is being accumulated documenting Canada’s motorsport history, featuring racing programs, articles, photographs, and videos. Contact: archives@cmhf.ca
Artefacts
A collection of important race cars, motorcycles and a record-setting Grand Prix boat.
Public Programming:
Exhibitions
- Motorsports vehicles, trophies, photographs, and memorabilia are on display.
- The Canadian Motorsports Hall of Fame now has 150 inducted honourable members, who have been recognized for their accomplishments and contributions to Canadian motorsports. These men, women, and companies have earned the privilege to be a part of the Hall. Categories for induction include: Competitors, Motorsport Builders, Team Members and Significant Contributors. An International category was recently added.
Public Programming:
Publications
- Photographic Canadiana: Published four times a year, this journal provides information and insights on all aspects of photographic history with a Canadian emphasis. Many writers have personal experience in the photographic industry. Articles have been published on cameras, photographers, manufacturers, old processes, stereo, images, restoration techniques and books.
- Monthly online newsletter.
Special Events
Photographica-Fair each spring at the Soccer Centre, 7601 Martin Grove Road, Northwest of Downtown Toronto (Woodbridge). Members and the general public come to buy, sell, and swap old photographic equipment, images, and books.
public Lectures
Monthly meetings at 7:00 pm every third Wednesday (except July and August) in the North York Central Library, Memorial Hall (Gold Room), 5120 Yonge at Park Home, North York, Ontario. The eclectic program of guest speakers covers topics of interest to photo historians as well as camera and image collectors.
Other
Awards program to encourage research into the history of photography and publication of the findings:
- Annual Research Award is an annual award of $500 for the best essay or monograph by a student on any aspect of Canadian photographic history. The runner-up award is $250.
- Research Grant is a $500 grant to be awarded annually to a current member of the PHSC for original research into Canada’s photographic history.
- Publication Grant is a grant of up to $1,000 to a member of the PHSC to aid in the publication of original research into Canada’s photographic history in book or monograph form.
Public Programming:
Among the portraits on the walls are union pioneers from many times and places across the country, including, among others, William Jenoves, Baxter Fudge, J.W. Bruce, Charles Millard, Eileen Tallman Suffrin, William (Bill) Milner, Evelyn Armstrong, Claude Jodoin, Daniel O’Donoghue, Helena Gutteridge, J.B. McLachlan, Gerry Gallagher, Grace Hartman, R.B. Russell, Madeleine Parent, Harry Simon, A.A. Heaps, Viljo Rosval and John Voutilainen. A sculpture of a sturdy worker with a jackhammer graces the approach to the building.
Conservation/Preservation:
Archives
Film footage and radio programs covering a span of more than 60 years, electronic records, prints and drawings, films and videos, photographs, sound recordings.
Artefacts
More than 4,000 artefacts.
Public Programming:
Exhibitions
- Growing Up with the CBC, contains artefacts from CBC television shows such as, Mister Rogers, Mr. Dress-up and the Friendly Giant. Items include puppets, logos and stage props. Televisions displaying footage from some of these shows is also built into wall displays.
- The Development of the CBC,composed of artefacts used for CBC programming such as cameras and microphones. The exhibit also has a large collection of sound props including,
- Shoes, phones, pots, bottles, plates, typewriters, buzzers, hinges, light switches, door knocker, horns, bells
- Jail door, wind machine, car door, drum, glass crasher, chain wheel, laugh machine, vinyl machine
- Graham Spry Theatre, a small 40-seat venue with a large screen. It displays a loop of selected classic CBC television shows. Shows rotate on a monthly basis. Past selections have included episodes from such series as Peppiatt & Aylesworth, The Tommy Hunter Show, The Frantics, 4 on the Floor, and The Kids in the Hall. The theatre also plays current CBC programming, such as CBC news.
Educational Programming
Activity sheets for teachers and their students are available.
