Heritage designations a chance to travel to Welland’s past
What are you doing Saturday?
Here’s your chance to get in some time travel, courtesy of the city’s heritage advisory committee.
“The past is an important part of us. There is so much in Welland to be recognized,” said committee chair John Mastroianni.
The advisory committee is hosting three cultural heritage designation ceremonies Saturday: At the brick archways, Parkway and Niagara Street; at the Welland Canal Memorial Monument, Merritt Park, King Street; and at the canal construction mural, Welland Museum, 140 King St.
Nora Reid, the committee’s secretary-treasurer and researcher, said the ceremonies provide opportunities to visit roots of our past. Anyone can come along and enjoy the experience.
“It’s open to everyone,” she said.
All three landmarks are high profile in the public eye, Mastroianni says.
Probably least well known in terms of significance, however, are the brick archways. They were constructed in 1913 as part of a gated entranceway to a new subdivision, called Parkway Heights.
An entrance gate stood between the archways opening onto Parkway, at that time the only street in Welland with a treed boulevard down the centre.
According to the program for the ceremony, “This is where many of Welland’s prominent industrialists, business owners and merchants lived, including Cyrenius J. Laughlin, president of Laughlin Realty (developer of the subdivision) and the presidents and general managers of many of the new industries.”
Mastroianni sees the archways as “a significant landmark” in the city for more than 100 years.
They are being designated because, “We think people should know what their history is and what the cultural importance is to the city of Welland.”
For Mastroianni, a member of the committee since 1991, the archways are symbols of an area that has withstood the test of time.
When houses here are listed for sale, he said, they tend to sell quickly, an indication of ongoing desirability.
“There are people in Welland who have always wanted to live on Parkway. It’s something that’s been highly desired.”
The two other pieces to be given much-deserved heritage designation are complementary.
Though representative of different periods, the Welland Canal Memorial Monument and the canal construction mural pay tribute to Welland’s canal history and heritage and the people — many of them immigrants — who laboured to build the waterway.
“They commemorate the people who came to Welland to build the canal, and their labour — the blood, sweat and tears — that was put into it,” said Mastroianni. “This is to show respect and to honour all the people over all the years.”
His interpretation is amplified by commentary in the program: the mural’s theme, Construction of the Welland Canal Bypass — Machinery, “relates it to the 200-year history of the Welland Canal which was central to the inception and growth of the City of Welland.”
Added Reid — had there been no canal, there would be no Welland.
The two works of art share Bas Degroot. He was the painter of the mural and sculptor/designer of the monument.
Wainfleet resident Degroot died before the monument was unveiled Sept. 27, 2001. Whether by design or by chance, this part of the city has become an important intersection of heritage, history and culture.
The park is the site of a memorial to workers killed or injured on the job, and soon will be the location of a workers’ monument currently at the former Lakeside Steel site on Dain Avenue.
In my book, this part of King Street, with its monuments and canal construction-related murals, deserves some sort of hometown recognition of its unique identity.
As for the heritage advisory committee, there is no shortage of projects to pursue.
As one example, it has been working on cultural heritage designation for the Feeder Canal Junction Lock. Efforts came to fruition at Welland council’s Sept. 3 meeting when its recommendation received council’s support.
A designation ceremony will likely take place some time next year.
“It took about two years to get to this point,” said Mastroianni who, with 28 years involvement on the committee, said he still finds the work fulfilling.
Why do they do it?
“It’s so future generations have a link to the past and see what life was. It’s so easy for people to forget.”
Saturday’s designations start at the brick archways, corner of Parkway and Niagara, at 11 a.m., then move to the other sites.