Tuesday, August 16, 2016

People, Places, and Traditions Tea

Dale and I are out on the West Coast this week doing some interviews, workshops, and meetings in Corner Brook, Pasadena, Reidville, and Deer Lake.  We are hosting a couple of People, Places and Traditions Workshops and invite everyone in the area to come out and talk about your community.

Tonight we will be in Pasadena from 6:30-9:30pm at Pasadena Hall and tomorrow afternoon we will be in Reidville in the Community Hall from 1:30-4:30pm. Drop by, have a cup of tea, and share some memories of your community!

~Terra Barrett

Please share and help solve this Newfoundland family photo mystery!




Last week, we were emailed three vintage photos, and the following intriguing note:
I am trying to research some aspects of my wife's family history. Her name is Jeanette Wareham and she was born in St. John's in 1968. Her birth father's name was Berkley Wareham and he was born in Salmon Cove about 1934 (he passed away in Toronto in 1989). We know that he was a teacher and that he taught in several places around Newfoundland including Twillingate. The attached pictures would have been taken in the mid to late 1950's and we think they may have been taken during his time in Twillingate, but we are not sure. He is the gentleman in the light sports jacket. Can I ask you if you recognize the school building that he is standing in front of in these pictures, or can give us any more information. The building appears to say "Prince Arthur" above the door.

The community of Charlottetown in Bonavista Bay has a Prince Arthur Orange Lodge, and we are curious if this is the same building.

If you  know anything about these photos, the people in them, or the buildings, send us a note at ich@heritagefoundation.ca



Thursday, August 11, 2016

Living Heritage Podcast Ep048 Bell Island Museum and Memories


Teresita E. McCarthy is a retired educator. She taught for thirty-three years in the classrooms in her native community of Bell Island, NL. Teresita also taught three programs for older workers under a WISE sponsored program on Bell Island. She is currently manager of the Bell Island Community Museum and #2 Mine Tour. She is a founding member of the Bell Island Heritage Society Inc. and Tourism Bell Island Inc. and has also served as Vice President of the Museum Association of NL, President and is currently immediate past President and Treasurer of this association. We discuss the history of Bell Island and importance of the mine, effects of World War Two on Bell Island, the closure of the mine, Bell Island Community Museum and #2 mine tour, diving tours in the mine and partnership with Ocean Quest, and the museum expansion.

Listen on the Digital Archive:

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

The Livyer's Log - Issue One


The Livyer's Log
The Livyer’s Log is a newly developed bi-annual electronic newsletter for owners of Heritage Structures. It is intended to provide useful information to the owners of designated Registered Heritage Structures in Newfoundland and Labrador. The goal is to build a “community of heritage property owners” that will collectively create a forum of shared experiences and information about their heritage properties.

In this edition of The Livyer’s Log, there are articles on practical things such as: how to approach the hiring of a contractor for heritage preservation work; building tips; and how to make heritage properties more energy efficient. As well, we examine the importance of heritage designation and how to navigate grants that are available to heritage properties.

This first edition was created and edited by Celeste Billung-Meyer a summer intern with the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador. Although Celeste is finishing her position shortly she worked tirelessly to bring this newsletter to fruition!

Click here to check out a pdf version of the newsletter or register below to receive our newsletter.
If you would like more information about Heritage Designation please contact our Built Heritage Officer Micahel Philpott at michael@heritagefoundation.ca or 1-888-739-1892 ext. 3.

Contributors:
Jerry Dick, Andrea O’Brien, Michael Philpott, Celeste Billung-Meyer, Dale Jarvis.


Subscribe to our mailing list* indicates required

Tuesday, August 9, 2016

Pasadena Heritage Society Oral History Collection now online! #nlheritage



We are very pleased to announce that a new collection of oral history interviews is up online!

As part of our Collective Memories project, the Heritage Foundation NL, in partnership with the Pasadena Heritage Society - NL, has just placed a collection of oral history interviews (audio and pdf transcripts) online with Memorial University's Digital Archives Initiative.

The collection contains interviews with locals on their childhood memories, local businesses, the fire hall, entertainment, social clubs, railway stories and more. Thanks to Carole Spicer for her work in getting things organized, and to Michelle Tapp for organizing the collection and doing up all the metadata!

The oral histories from Pasadena will eventually be part of a larger collection of oral history material from the Humber Valley region.  You can browse the collection here.

Photo courtesy Pasadena Heritage

Heritage Update for August 2016



In the August edition of the Heritage Update, learn about how Dale Jarvis ended up as "folklorist-in-residence" as part of The Friendly Invasion 2016 in Stephenville; our Chinese folklore intern Xingpei Li talks about built heritage conservation in China; Terra Barrett talks about an ongoing project to document historic Chinese graves in the Old General Protestant cemetery in St. John's; and our Conservation Corp summer student Sarah Hannon brings us news from our Collective Memories project with the Mews Centre volunteers and her interview with Ruby Hann.

Download the PDF

Contributors: Dale Jarvis, Xingpei Li, Terra Barrett, Sarah Hannon

Photo: Ruby Hann holding a plaque that says “Alice Noseworthy Volunteer of the Year Award, the city of St. John’s Dept. of Recreation, Presented to Ruby Hann for her outstanding contribution to the Seniors Outreach Program, April 24th, 2013.”

Thursday, August 4, 2016

Living Heritage Podcast Ep047 Baking as Biography


Diane Tye is a Professor in the Department of Folklore, Memorial University. Most of her research over the last twenty-five years has explored intersections of folklore and gender and with Pauline Greenhill she is co-editor of Undisciplined Women and Unsettling Assumptions. For the last decade her work has included examinations of foodways in Atlantic Canada. She is author of the book, Baking as Biography. A Life Story in Recipes, that tells the story of her mother’s life through her recipe collection, as well as articles that explore a range of foodways topics from the food we eat on storm days, to the significance of making family recipes, and the cultural meanings of regionally iconic foods. We discuss Diane’s academic interest in food, her book Baking as Biography, food and nostalgia, gender and food, and where her work has taken her.

Listen on the Digital Archive:
http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/singleitem/collection/ich_oral/id/683/rec/1

Friday, July 29, 2016

Welcome to Harmon Air Force Base - Your 1950s guide to dress codes, bars, and $1 lobster.


Another gem from HFNL Board Member Lloyd Kane! Lloyd shared with me a booklet from the 1950s that gives new residents some hints on what services Harmon Air Force Base and the town of Stephenville had to offer. The base commander of the day wrote in the introduction:

"For those of you who are about to be assigned here, I hope this booklet will help answer the many questions you must have.  Our facilities are improving all the time and their location, hours of operation, and so forth are pointed out in the booklet. I hope you will make good use of them, as they were put here for you."

The booklet includes useful information on dining hall times and dress codes, bar locations, base chapel services, the base exchange, tips on hunting and fishing in the area, schools and banks, and shopping. It also notes, "for seafood fanciers, items such as lobster is plentiful and inexpensive in season. A lobster dinner for example, costs about $1.00."

The booklet also has some photos of amenities, such a those shown below, the NCO Open Mess, interior of the base exchange, and the teen club.





You can download a copy of the booklet as a pdf here.

#CollectiveMemories: Champney's West and the Hazel Pearl

Pei measuring the spar in front of the Heritage House, Champney's West.
Today I wanted to share two short video clips about the sinking of the Hazel Pearl in Champney’s West on the Bonavista Peninsula in Trinity Bay, NL.  The boat was previously known as the Coronet and was wrecked at least once before in Bonavista Bay in the 1930s.  The Coronet was salvaged from the initial wreck in the thirties, resold and renamed the Hazel Pearl.  It was used as a freighter before finally meeting its end on March 1st, 1945.

While the boat was lost in a winter storm local fishermen managed to salvage several barrels of cod oil from the vessel and were able to sell the oil again.  Although the boat was wrecked in the ocean the tops of the spars (also known as masts) of the ship which were painted white were visible in the sea water for years and years following the wreck.  In the recent years one of the spars from the Hazel Pearl was dragged up by two local fishermen who were cleaning a seine net.  The spar became tangled in the net and the two brought the spar ashore.  It currently sits outside the Heritage House in Champney’s West and is the source of many local stories and memories about shipwrecks in the area. 

During our work trip to the Bonavista Peninsula we measured the spar and did a couple of interviews with people who remembered the sinking of the Hazel Pearl.  The following videos showcase two locals’ memories of the sinking of the Hazel Pearl near Champney’s West in the 1940s.  Both Sarah Hiscock and Albert Hiscock grew up in Champney’s West and have personal memories of the sinking of the Hazel Pearl

The short videos below showcase some of their memories and can also be accessed on our YouTube channel.  I would highly recommend headphones when listening to the clips in order to hear the stories better!

If you know anything about the Hazel Pearl please feel free to contact the ICH office at 739-1892 ex. 2 (Dale Jarvis) or 5 (Terra Barrett) or email ich@heritagefoundation.ca


~Terra Barrett