Ancestral Roofs

"In Praise of Older Buildings"

Thursday, May 12, 2016

Clouds over Brighton...or, there'll be no toMorrow

Morrow's Storage ramp and freight shed at MJM
Apologies to Annie, but I have been intrigued by the Morrow story since my first visit to Memory Junction museum.

 A bit of Brighton history which might be easily overlooked, as a visitor crosses the threshold of the Interpretation Centre and gets overwhelmed by the amazing collection of area history, is the Morrow's Storage sign, impressed into the cement of the ramp leading to the car doors. This steel-clad building was once the freight shed for the J.H.Morrow Ford automobile distributorship.

In 1910, James Morrow travelled to Detroit (as Ralph Bangay of Memory Junction Museum recounts it) to obtain distribution rights for the new-fangled Ford motor car. He managed the deal, and became distributor for the autos from Oshawa to Gananoque.





The Fords arrived by train (an irony that can only be appreciated with the end of passenger rail service there in 1965) and were off-loaded into the building along the dedicated siding. Somewhere I have seen photos of crowds throngs of people meeting the train, climbing up on the freight cars, streaming around a horse and carriage caught up in the crowd.


Across the road stood a massive cold storage warehouse and grain elevator; it too had rails leading to the loading dock. Lots happened by rail then.







I have been fond of this steel-clad building with the blue boom-town front since I first visited Brighton. Just recently, I saw an historic photo showing it when it housed Morrow's Ford dealership.




 Ralph Bangay recounts climbing out onto the front to replace one of the cylindrical finial adornments.










The Home Theatre/Crown Theatre @ 21 Prince Edward Street, Brighton
thanks to Brighton Digital Archives

Next door to it, in 1922, the Bank of Commerce opened in their new quarters, which had become the Home Theatre by the time the above photo was taken (from the Susan Brose collection at the Brighton Digital Archives.) As you can see, the Morrow building had changed hands as well, becoming home to the Canada Rex Spray Company. We farm kids likely remember Fly-Tox, one of their products.
Unfortunately, both buildings with all their history are under threat, as a new gas station convenience store is planned for the property.

Soon there will be no Morrow building.

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Something about a vineyard

Yesterday I spent some time in Hillier township, tracking down the origins of  a unique road name. I took a road never travelled, heading south from Melville toward Wellington along dusty Chase Road.









 I had just entered the wide expanse of vineyards belonging to a winery named for the roads that intersect nearby (Closson and Chase roads) when this beautiful little church came into view. What an outstanding display of the roofer's art, emulating the multicoloured slate roofs of its big city brethren.


 I suspect that the former church (I didn't find any signage as to its denomination) may now be providing refuge for seasonal workers. I did notice a number of smallish cottages round about which in my lifetime on farms used to be called 'tenant houses.'



Now my scripture knowledge is a bit rusty, but it seems to me there is a nice resonance between gentle fields of newly greening grapevines and an historic little church whose parishioners did their best to create something splendid. I'll leave that for you to contemplate.
Brockville - big city polychrome slate
PS Mystery solved. I've remembered a book in my history library, a 1971 Christmas gift to our grandparents from our mom and dad. History of the Churches of Prince Edward County. It has interesting origins. Compiled by the Picton Branch of the PEC Women's Institutes, it is one of those fine local histories titled Tweedsmuir books. I'll leave you to look up their origin. This compilation was revised and edited by Patricia Taylor and published by the Picton Gazette Publishing Company.

The little church is (was) Christ Church, Hillier, an Anglican church. Seems to me that Anglican churches can always be counted on to be, well,  churchier. More picturesque. Even this humble example in the countryside. Christ Church was begun in 1846, destroyed by lightning in 1944, and rebuilt by 1947. Things found, things missing. The photo in the book shows the stones of the churchyard to the southeast of the entrance. But the fuzzy photo doesn't reveal those inspiring patterned shingles.