This week on Ask A Historian, Matthew welcomes Jesse de Jager, Manager of Capital Projects at Credit Valley Conservation, as they discuss the future of the Jim Tovey Lakeview Conservation Area. Jesse reflects on the industrial past of the landscape and the plans and processes for reclaiming and repairing the natural landscape. Jesse de Jager…
The former Lions Park in Port Credit (located at 20 Rosewood Avenue) was officially renamed Harold E. Kennedy Memorial Park in 2011 in honour of the long-serving and beloved City Councillor Harold Kennedy, who passed away in 2009. For most of his 27 years on City Council, Harold Kennedy represented the residents of Ward 1…
A new road sign in the Lakeview area of Mississauga carries a significant link to history. Douglas McCurdy Common is a recent addition to the landscape (or is it roadscape?), and runs north off Lakeshore Road, just to the west of Cawthra Road. The road is named in honour of John Alexander Douglas (J.A.D.) McCurdy…
Heritage Mississauga’s Annual General Meeting takes place later this evening, and it marks a return, in part, to in-person gatherings after more than 2 years away. We know that our collective re-openings and re-engaging in-person can be challenging, but we do look forward, through small baby steps, to finding a new normal. Of course, the…
May 4 is International Firefighters’ Day. Established in 1999, the day recognizes every person who serves in emergency services, including hazardous materials specialists, fire prevention specialists, paid firefighters, volunteer fire fighters, heavy equipment operators, emergency service mechanics, emergency medical technicians, and more. Mississauga’s fire service grew from a scattering of volunteer departments to the professional…
As with previous articles on this theme, whenever I travel, I invariably find myself drawn to making connections back to Mississauga. We recently took a few days to get away and visit Ottawa, which is a place that our family always loves to explore. Our first “connect” to Mississauga came along the route there. Passing…
166 years ago, a steam locomotive, painted in dark green with polished brass fittings, and pulling several passenger cars full of VIPs – railway officials, financiers, and other assorted dignitaries – travelled merrily along the newly laid Great Western Railway near Clarkson. The date was December 3, 1855, and the opening of the sparkling new…
We have to stretch back a bit into the fogs of history for this one, and there remains a bit of uncertainty. Lot 7, Concession 2, SDS was granted by The Crown to James Glennon in 1810, who promptly sold the 200-acre property to Oliver Grace. Oliver Grace (the elder) was a retired British Naval…
Victor Alexander Vignale was born in Trinidad, in the British West Indies, in 1894. His father, Raphael Vignale, was a successful cocoa planter. The Vignales were a large family, with Raphael and his wife Adelaide having 10 children. Part of the family came to Canada in 1913, including parents Raphael and Adelaide, together with children…
During these days of COVID, and in observing Remembrance Day, I found myself re-reading some of our earlier submissions in this series relating to the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918-20 and what happened locally for Armistice Day gatherings back then. While the Spanish Flu arrived on Canadian shores in the spring on 1918, it was…