You may have driven or walked past them at 250 Hume St. many times, but not taken notice of four white pillars – two in front of the curling club, and two more at the entrance to the Central Park parking lot.
However, Collingwood’s heritage committee has taken notice, and is leading a push to have the town have the pillars restored as a significant part of Collingwood’s history.
At council’s regular meeting on Feb. 10, heritage committee chair Jennifer Knight and vice chair Cathy de Ruiter came before councillors to talk about all the strides the committee has made over the past year in honour of Ontario Heritage Week.
Looking ahead, the committee would like to see the town take a leading role in refurbishing the posts.
“The curling club building... is a designated heritage property, however everyone’s been focused on the building and forgot about these pillars. They look kind of sad. I thought maybe we could do something about it,” said de Ruiter in an interview.
The Great Northern Exhibition moved to Collingwood to land at 250 Hume St. from Duntroon in 1883. In 1983, the fair was moved again and has taken place on Fairgrounds Road in Clearview Township since 1984.
The two larger posts at the entrance to the Central Park parking lot used to be four with light fixtures that marked the entrance to the Great Northern Exhibition. They were connected to a gate house where attendees would purchase tickets, which has since been demolished.
The two, smaller posts in front of the curling club – built in 1930 and originally lamp posts – used to be six that lit the way into the entrance.
“These will brighten the main entrance and add to the attractiveness of the surroundings,” notes a Sept. 18, 1930 newspaper article from the Collingwood Bulletin on all the changes undertaken on the fairgrounds that year.
The curling club had originally been built as an agricultural building by the Town of Collingwood in 1909, only being converted into the club in 1949. The Town of Collingwood still retains ownership of the curling club building and the land surrounding it, including the pillars.
In presenting the proposal to the town, de Ruiter and the heritage committee hope the town will agree to put the restoration in future town budgets, and perhaps do the restoration in phases.
Sandy Dance got in touch with the heritage committee as an owner of one of the original light brackets, and has offered it up so the town could have replicas made when restoring the pillars.
“We’d like to give these pillars and the light standards some love and attention,” said de Ruiter.
The committee does not yet have a cost estimate for the work, noting that there would also be a cost to bringing electricity to the posts.
“The town owns the property. It’s under their auspices. We just wanted to bring it to their attention,” she said. “As with all our landmarks...you have to maintain and upkeep them. It doesn’t make a good example if the town’s own property isn’t looking great.”
De Ruiter said it’s not common for the heritage committee to come to the town asking them to undertake a heritage project.
“Now, we want to work out some estimates (for the work) because the town can’t approve it through budget if they don’t know what it’s going to cost,” she explained. “We’ll advocate for it.”