In Mississauga, we are all making history – and it’s time to start sharing what you know.
From the early morning commutes to the weekend pursuits, the lives we live, document, record and save in memory boxes and memory sticks are valuable records to the people who collect and curate Mississauga’s evolving story.
Stephanie Meeuwse, Nick Moreau and Matthew Wilkinson are Mississauga’s storykeepers, who help collect and share the City’s history with the public.
Without them, I couldn’t have written these stories or shared so many fabulous photos – and now they want to hear from you.
Stephanie Meeuwse, Museums of Mississauga Collections Supervisor carefully handles a wedding dress donated to the Museum. (photo credit: Museums of Mississauga)
Meeuwse is the collections supervisor for the City-run Museums of Mississauga. Based at Benares, the former Harris-Estate-turned-City-Museum on Clarkson Road, she is responsible for collecting, cataloguing and preserving physical artifacts.
She loves it when someone drops off an artifact from the 20th century, particularly post-Second World War, such as a woman who recently donated her dress, photos and video from her 1973 wedding.
“She was an immigrant from Italy, and her backyard was connected to her future husband’s yard. They met during the GO Train strike,” says Meeuwse. “I get excited about saving and being able to preserve these stories along with the artifacts.”
Heritage Mississauga executive director Matthew Wilkinson in his office at The Grange, the former home of Dr. Beaumont Dixie in Erindale. (photo credit: Heritage Mississauga)
For Matthew Wilkinson, executive director of non-profit Heritage Mississauga, it’s about telling the stories hiding in plain sight, such as the stone pineapples that dot Mississauga Road south of Dundas.
They mark the former stone wall of the Oneida Country Club, symbols of the wealth and hospitality members would find beyond its gates. While the club is long gone, much of it absorbed into the Credit Valley Golf Club, the stone pineapples remain.
“It’s an evocative storytelling opportunity for people to engage in places where they live,” says Wilkinson, who works out of The Grange, the former home of Dr. Beaumont Dixie, across the street from the historic St. Peter’s Church in Erindale. “I like to talk about property, people and place – things people have driven by without thinking about what it means.”
Wilkinson loves collaborating with Meeuwse and Nick Morneau, a Region of Peel Archives archivist, to tell these stories.
Archivist Nick Moreau scans images that will become part of the permanent collection at the Region of Peel Archives. (photo credit: Region of Peel Archives)
Morneau and Wilkinson have a shared fascination with Mississauga benchmarks – the metal plates that Toronto Township surveyors attached to buildings to base all their measurements on, like the small pencil marks we make on walls so decorations and bookshelves hang straight.
For Morneau, what’s most interesting about the benchmarks is something the surveyors couldn’t have imagined: the Benchmark Book provides photos of sites that no longer exist or have been drastically altered.
Photos such as the Brewer’s Retail Store on Lakeshore Road, a house on Third Line East, the National Glass and Mirror Company on Dundas Street, a water pumping station on Burnhamthorpe, and an old one-room schoolhouse on Base Line, west of Hurontario.
“The photo in the benchmark book is the only photo I am aware of for that school,” says Morneau. “It’s something that touched hundreds if not thousands of lives, recorded in this seemingly random act of surveying.”
Meeuwse, Wilkinson and Morneau agree that most people presume that history is something in the distant past, but that isn’t true.
All three are eager to hear and talk with people with photos, videos, items and stories about the 20th century, particularly the period from 1950 to the present day.
Contact the Museums of Mississauga, Heritage Mississauga and the Regional Archives of Peel to find out how to add your family, business or organizational stories to our city’s history and archival collections.
Be a part of history by sharing your stories of how you helped to build this city.
You can hear more stories about the people and events that helped shape Mississauga via our podcast, We Built This City: Tales of Mississauga, available on your favourite podcast platform or from our website.