Previous Issues
Getting the heritage act together
?What a difference a few kilometres makes. In Leaskdale are two buildings, almost across the street from one another, which although not particularly unique or significant architecturally, were for 15 years the two places most frequented by Uxbridge’s most celebrated long-term resident, author Lucy Maud Montgomery.
Maud left in 1926, after her minister husband got transferred to another town. About nine years later, a bit further south along the same road, another former resident of Leaskdale starting building a beautiful monument to his departed wife and daughter. Unlike Maud, Thomas Foster (although a one-time mayor of Toronto) is not well known beyond our borders. Neither is the mausoleum he built, although it is probably unique on this continent, and of striking beauty, particularly its interior.
If you’ve been reading some of the letters in the Cosmos lately (inbcluding several in this issue), you may have noticed that Mr. Foster, despite being dead several decades, is still attracting his share of controversy. And the effect of all this discussion has been, unfortunately, to divide the prime movers and shakers of our heritage community into two camps: Maud’s Army and Thomas’ Army. One current member of Township Council, Bev Northeast, has been for several years the foremost advocate for the creative use and careful restoration of the Foster Memorial. A former member of Council, Kathy Wasylenky, is the current chair of the Lucy Maud Montgomery Society of Ontario, the prime fundraising body for the national historic site in Leaskdale.
Ms. Northeast and Ms. Wasylenky never got along well when they were on Council, and this antipathy seems to have spilled over into their efforts on behalf of their respective heritage sites. Each is well aware of the historic, and economic, value of the site down the road. Ms. Northeast was for many years quite involved with the Manse; Ms. Wasylenky makes it plain in her letter on page 14 that she’s a fan of the Foster, if not of the way it’s being managed.
Each army has plenty of reason to be jealous of the other. The”Mauders”, as one writer calls them on this page, have just come through an incredibly busy year recognizing the centennial of Maud’s greatest book, which brought national attention to the site, which already had the considerable advantage of being designated a National Historic Site.
The Foster Memorial, on the other hand, is a dazzling building in a dazzling setting, and is now the site of performances for more than half the year, which is bound to slowly but surely spread is reputation both artistically and architecturally.
Jealousy within Uxbridge’s heritage community, however, is going to get us nowhere in the long run. It is a colossal waster of creative energy, and extremely wearing on the volunteers who are responsible for doing the lion’s share of the programming and fundraising which keep the two sites afloat and vibrant.
The two people with the most power to bring the armies together are Mayor Shepherd, a major fan of culture and a man very sensitive to heritage values, and Councillor Pat Mikuse, the chair of Council’s Culture and Tourism Committee and its representative on the Culture and Tourism Advisory Board, which oversees all the Township’s heritage buildings, including the Foster and the Leaskdale Manse.
Because she played such a large and valuable role in the “Anne” celebrations, and because she and Ms. Northeast are not the best of buddies on Council, Ms. Mikuse is probably wrongly perceived as being anti-Foster. But if the squabbling between the Committees and their allies are not to do permanent damage to Uxbridge’s tourism potential, Ms. Mikuse and the Mayor need to work harder to find a way to get everyone in our heritage community pointing in the same direction, and working together. We owe it to Thomas and Maud, and to their legacy.
