So this is what I’ve been up to on the Queensborough front recently – that is, aside from day-to-day projects at the Manse. I worked with two talented Queensborough people, Elaine Kapusta and Dave deLang, to put together a brochure that takes people on a walk through Queensborough and gives them some historical information about several buildings and sites along the way. The project was sponsored by the Queensborough Community Centre, and money from sales of the brochure ($3 each) goes to support all the fine work and projects that the community centre does. Elaine was the driving force behind the project, got everything organized and looked after the publishing details; Dave took the great photos; and yours truly wrote the text, relying in very large part (and crediting) the wonderful research that the late Jean Holmes and her team did in putting together the history Time to Remember in Elzevir Township (published 1984).
And we are very proud of the result! The brochures were printed just in time for last weekend’s Tweed and Area Studio Tour, on which one of the stops was the Queensborough Community Centre, where four artists were showing their work. And a whole bunch of our brochures were sold! And not only that: people were spotted on the weekend walking through our little hamlet and stopping to look at the buildings featured in the brochure. So it’s actually being used!
Which does my heart good. Because, as it says on the cover of our little publication, we are proud of our pretty and historic hamlet – and we want others to discover and appreciate it too.
And hey! Are you interested in having a copy of your own of our little Queensborough brochure? Here’s what you do: call Elaine at (613) 473-1458 or me at (613) 473-2110, or email elainekapusta@hotmail.com. We’ll be very happy (on behalf of the Queensborough Community Centre) to accept your $3 (plus maybe a bit more for shipping and handling if you’re in Russia or something – hey, don’t laugh! You wouldn’t believe how many countries this blog gets views from) and send you this beautifully illustrated (thanks, Dave!) introduction to Queensborough.
People, you will be hard-pressed to find a better use for that $3. Only saying.
Meanwhile, at the Manse 
From the moment we first crossed the bridge two years ago, and entered historic Queensborough, we have believed that the hamlet deserved no less. Congratulations and thanks to all of you! We look forward to our next walking tour, brochure in hand.
Lindi, I think I speak for Elaine and Dave (and our respective spouses) when I say that we would be pleased to be your tour guides, and to discuss Queensborough and Hastings County with you as you walked through our little hamlet. You have done so much to preserve and share our whole area’s history, and I am honoured to think you are keen on our little Queensborough!
It’s a date! To be determined. I would so much chat with to meet the folk who are the heart and soul of this village revival. And to revisit two of them at the Manse. So looking forward to meeting Elaine one day.
Excellent!
Katherine, have you thought of making these available at Hazzards Church during the summer and winter services? Since the church is sort of “gateway to Queensborough,” visitors to the services might be interested!
That’s a great idea, Sarah, and we will assuredly act on it. It would be a good fit since there are already copies of Pilgrimage of Faith and notecards featuring Vera Burnside’s drawing of Hazzard’s Church for sale at those events. We must speak to the Hazzard’s people and see if they’d be agreeable. Know anyone we might approach? (Just kidding!) But also: I just LOVE that phrase: “Hazzard’s: The Gateway to Queensborough”!
You might check to see if the Tweed Public Library or the Tweed News would be willing to sell these for you.
Pauline Weber
613-478-9948
Thanks, Pauline! We had wondered about the Tweed News and were planning to check into that, but the library (and the Madoc library too) is an excellent suggestion!
Hi Katherine! I’ve just sent a message off to Elaine to order the Queensborough brochure. What a great idea. We’d do one for Ormsby but I fear it would be a rather short tour when you can see everything standing in one spot!
We’ve been so very busy at the store and I’ve started my regular trips in and out of Toronto… we opened both Boheme and Peter Grimes this week… but I want you to know that I always look forward to your comments on life in Hastings County. And I’m looking forward even more to your little book. When we take our guided walking tour of Queensborough, we’ll make sure you will be there to include a tour of the Manse as well! Thanks for this.
Hello Gary! So nice to hear from you, and thank you for ordering copies of our Queensborough walking-tour brochure for the Old Hastings Mercantile in Ormsby. Raymond and I would be absolutely delighted to do the walk with you and Lillian, and to give you the tour of the Manse as well! Now, on the opera front: so the Canadian Opera Company has more than one production at a time? My goodness, how big-time! The Opéra de Montréal just manages to get four productions in (one at a time, of course; we just saw Lakme) over the course of nine months or so. Perhaps Raymond and I will have to look into the COC…
We’ll look forward to the Deluxe Queensborough Tour!
The COC does 2 operas in the fall, alternating each night, 2 in Jan/Feb and 3 alternating in Apr/May. When the Four Seasons Centre was built in 2006 the idea was to have enough storage space backstage to be able to pull off the 3 different productions. Lots of work for the stage hands!
We did an opera a few years back that required the pit to be filled with water (held in by a sort-of pool liner system) with the musicians not required to swim, but rather play from on-stage. Some of the singers and several acrobatic types were in that water though. Anyway, after every show the pit had to be drained of the 67,000 litres of water so that we could play Madame Butterfly the next night. I have no idea how you create your links, but you can read about that great production here…
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/music/2009/10/06/seaborne_opera_a_major_logistics_challenge.html
Ah yes, the Robert Lepage extravaganza with the pit turned into a pool – I remember hearing and reading about that one at the time! Our M. Lepage is nothing if not … inventive. Clearly the COC is way, way, way more adventurous than the ODM, which really plays it safe most of the time. I am not a big fan of Toronto, but I think Raymond and I might have to start venturing to the Four Seasons Centre to take in some productions – and of course to hear the musical work of our friend the Ormsby store proprietor! We look forward to giving you and Lillian the tour, Gary.
Hi Katherine and associates,
1. Congratulations to those who put the booklet together. It’s first class.
2. Thanks to Elaine for bringing the copies to Belleville.
3. I’ve given a copy to the Hastings County Historical Society and Donna Fano will be mentioning it in the November issue of ‘Outlook’, the society’s newsletter.
4. How can I get an image of one of the pictures to include in the forthcoming book ‘Historic Hastings: Volume Two.’
Regards and best wishes.
Gerry Boyce
Gerry, thank you so much for your kind words about our local-history project! It’s high praise indeed for us, coming as it does from the esteemed author of Historic Hastings (both editions)! We are thrilled about the upcoming mention in the Hastings County Historical Society‘s newsletter (which Raymond and I always read cover to cover; the latest issue just arrived in the mail today). I will email you directly with the address of Dave deLang, who took the wonderful photos. Cheers!
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