THE BAKERS OF WEST BOLTON AND THEIR REMARKABLE HORSE $10 Quebec VOL 9, NO. 3 S UMMER 2015 HeritageNews Fifteen Years On QAHN Celebrates a Milestone Knowlton Banks and the Richmond Bridge Unsung Townshippers’ Writings Let’s Put on a Show Young Actors Emerge from an Old Scrapbook QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS Quebec CONTENTS eritageNews H Editor’s Desk 3 Remembering an old children Rod MacLeod EDITOR RODERICK MACLEOD Letter 6 PRODUCTION DAN PINESE; MATTHEW FARFAN To have loved and lost Daniel Parkinson Man of history: Ray Baillie 6 PUBLISHER QUEBEC ANGLOPHONE Curator’s Handbook 7 HERITAGE NETWORK Secret eaters Heather Darch 400-257 QUEEN STREET SHERBROOKE, QUEBEC History and Quebec 8 J1M 1K7 From classrooms to collaboration Kevin Armstrong PHONE 1-877-964-0409 Fairbairn news 10 (819) 564-9595 FAX Kevin Armstrong (819) 564-6872 CORRESPONDENCE Wine, cheese and heritage 11 [email protected] Matthew Farfan WEBSITES QAHN.ORG Postcards to Jacqueline 12 QUEBECHERITAGEWEB.COM Susan McGuire 100OBJECTS.QAHN.ORG 15th Annual QAHN convention 14 PRESIDENT Matthew Farfan SIMON JACOBS Walking Black Montreal 18 EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR & Notre Dame Street Ashlie Bienvenu WEBMAGAZINES EDITOR MATTHEW FARFAN John Hayes and the new bridge 19 OFFICE MANAGER Nick Fonda KATHY TEASDALE Back to Glenmere 22 Quebec Heritage News is published quarterly by QAHN with the support Exploring the story of “Canada’s war horse” Janet Allingham of the Department of Canadian Heritage and Quebec’s Ministère de la Culture et Strangely promising talent 27 des Communications. QAHN is a non-profit and non-partisan organization whose mis- The Westmount Thespians through the decades Mark Gallop sion is to help advance knowledge of the history and culture of the English- speaking communities of Quebec. The King of Courage 30 Jimmy Darou and his extended family Wes Darou Annual Subscription Rates: Individual: $30.00; Institutional: $40.00; Family: $40.00; Student: $20.00. Canada Post Publication Mail Agreement Number 405610004. Cover photo: The Effie, named for Harry Baker’s sister Effie. ISSN 17707-2670 Photo: Glen Allingham. PRINTED IN CANADA 2 SUMMER 2015 EDITOR’S DESK Remembering an old children by Rod MacLeod o, that isn’t a typo. I am well fine. have been appropriated to sell Le nou- aware that the word “chil- I’m sure there’s a story behind the veau children is telling of the way the dren” is plural and shouldn’t carefree adoption of the word “children” hospital seems to be marketing itself take a singular article. (I’m in French usage – similar to the one be- across linguistic lines. As is the use of Nalso aware that “old children” is an oxy- hind that peculiar Quebec idiom “chum” “le children,” albeit in a kind of reverse moron, but never mind that one for the (as in, “mon chum,” not at all the way psychology way. time being.) It isn’t good English. But the word works in English! CHUM, of I don’t object to any of this, mind it’s correct, at least in Quebec. course, is also the acronym of the you. Culture morphs. Even so, we all If you’ve been anywhere near the French super hospital, which at least know that the proper name for this hos- site of the new McGill University pital is “The Children’s,” in keeping Health Centre these past couple of with those other standard hospital years, you will have noticed signs nomenclatures: The General, The featuring an adorable red-headed car- Jewish, The Vic (The Royal Vic, if toon lass, often wearing a construc- you’re wearing a suit), The Chest, tion helmet and always accompanied The Neuro, The Allan, The Douglas, by a small purple hippo. The mes- The Queen E, Queen Mary’s and St. sage on the signs is: “Aidez-moi à Mary’s (I found distinguishing the bâtir un children tout neuf!” It’s puz- last two very confusing as a kid), and, zling, yes. Why would a small car- going back a bit, The Reddy. All of toon child be building children? them bizarre-sounding in their way, How could anything that one built be although none of them inaccurate, other than new? And, above all, what just abbreviations. Easier to say, but was that English word doing inside a also affectionate. The same culture French message, especially given referred to one of the city’s most that we’re in Quebec. prestigious downtown churches as The answer to that last one is, of the “A & P.” course, that we’re in Quebec. If I view the loveable antics of For me, it certainly took a while Shilvi and Popo with a degree of cyn- for the penny to drop, slow on the icism, it’s only because my flesh has uptake as I sometimes am: “Un chil- a tendency to crawl at sentimentaliz- dren” refers to the Montreal Chil- ing sick children. That’s my problem, dren’s Hospital, which in French is “Le makes that institution sound welcoming, of course. Shilvi does good work, as do Children.” Officially, of course, this au- unlike the English MUHC.) There must the legions of clowns, singers, athletes gust Anglo institution’s other name is also be a story behind the adoption of and other celebrities who visit kids in “L’hôpital de Montréal pour enfants,” Shilvi as the mascot of Le nouveau chil- hospital to distract them and their fami- but in common usage, infected by that dren. The creation of singer-songwriter lies from what they are going through. frisky redhead’s propaganda, proper Sylvie Dumontier, “Shilvi” has released Efforts to raise money for the Founda- French is tossed to the wind, along with several CDs, performed on stage, and tion are noble. (I have done my bit, proper English, for the sake of catchy authored a number of children’s books – and have the chilblains from carolling Franglais. The usage has crept into Eng- in short, gained considerable fame long in -30° temperatures to prove it.) The lish, in that the hospital’s website is before her career as a hospital propagan- cause is vital. At the end of the day, www.thechildren.com – although to be dist. She and her purple sidekick Popo however, a hospital for children is a fair, I don’t think the Internet likes apos- are in some ways the Francophone coun- place of tremendous anxiety and sad- trophes much more than Quebec does. terpart to ROC’s Loonette and Molly ness, arguably more so than other hospi- Similarly, the English website of the from the Big Comfy Couch, which my tals. Sure, it can be a place of comfort, Montreal Children’s Hospital Founda- children grew up on. (The show, I mean, and even joy, when things go well and tion is childrenfoundation.com, and the although it did seem at times they were health is restored. But it is also a place French version is fondationduchil- growing up on the couch). That Shilvi, a where kids go to die. dren.com. “Du children.” The vocabu- cultural icon relatively unknown to the We go back a long way, you see, the lary may be screwy, but the grammar is hospital’s traditional clientele, should Children’s and I. Montreal Children’s Hospital, Tupper Street façade, April 2015. 3 Photo: Rod MacLeod. QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS A few weeks ago I found myself at Atwater with a spare half-hour, and strolled down to the old place, conscious that it would soon be empty. (By the time you read this, Le nouveau children will have opened and everything will have moved there.) I went around Cabot Square, now closed tight for landscap- ing, its usual down-and-out residents displaced (another story). I inspected the Emergency entrance at the building’s eastern end, a couple of ambulances idling ready to fetch kids in distress. I walked the length of the building facing Tupper Street, glancing up at the win- dows and trying to remember from which one I’d had that winter’s night view of harsh neon shop fronts and Xmas shopping sludge (St. Catherine Street, I assume) that was etched in my annex on Cabot Square. (The Western ly with their clientele and the hospital. brain nearly half a century ago. I went Hospital, founded in the 1870s, had been Then…surprise! A two-income profes- round to the René-Lévesque side and taken over by the General at the begin- sional couple with plans to see the world noted the rather modest brick structure ning of the century.) After much soul- (and there was such a lot of world to see, with white columns that is the oldest searching, the Children’s acquired the as Johnny Mercer reminded them in the part of the hospital, dating to 1912. It Western site, demolished the original year I was born) suddenly became par- has some heritage cred, though the rest 1870s structure and built new multi-sto- ents at 39 (she) and 43 (he). They also of the complex is essentially 1950s func- ry facilities around the 1912 annex fac- became frequent users of the Children’s, tional, plus later additions. No great aes- ing what was then Dorchester Street. when their baby developed mysterious thetic boon to the neighbourhood, I de- Being close to a residential population breathing problems, an affliction eventu- cided, acknowledging as I did so that seemed to make sense for a children’s ally resolved through tracheotomy. heritage is about a great deal more than hospital. The building committee even Or so it seemed. Over the rest of the aesthetics.