NEWS RELEASE
ORILLIA MUSEUM OF ART AND HISTORY
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The Orillia Museum of Art and History's (OMAH) History Speaker Series virtually hosted Cathy Walton to a full house on Zoom recently, with her talk, Vanishing Barns: Remembering the Gentle Giants Through Photographs, Stories, Diaries and Genealogy.
Cathy Walton knows a thing or two about the barns located in her community of Springwater (formerly Vespra Township). When driving home from her teaching job, Cathy passed a beautiful barn that was slowly falling down. She said to herself, someone should take a picture of that barn before it is totally gone. She decided that she might as well be that person.
Cathy was raised on a farm; the barn was her playground. She saw that barns, an integral part of her cultural heritage and rural landscape, were disappearing.
This passion for barns morphed into a labour of love. Of some 400 barns in her area, Cathy photographed over 160 and researched their history. She placed 300 self-addressed envelopes in mailboxes at the farms where the barns were located. She interviewed hundreds of barn owners to get the stories unique to their barns. Often when interviewed, the owners would recommend others for her to speak to. Through these interviews she learned rich stories about rural life in the area, obtained photos of the barns and learned valuable historic information about their construction, including tools that were used to build them, water sources, etc.
In 2019, after six years of research, Cathy assembled the information, stories and photos she collected and published a book about these iconic structures. In addition, she delivers talks regularly to groups about barns, in an effort to keep the cause of their plight and the importance of their preservation alive.
It is no secret that barns are falling into disrepair and are disappearing. During her recent talk, Cathy explained that there are many reasons for that. Most were built in the late 1800s to early 1900s. They are expensive to repair and there are few people with the skills necessary to repair them. They are the victims of new subdivisions. When there is no livestock that keep the barns somewhat warm, cracks appear in the foundation leading to damage as the barn shifts. Fire is the worst enemy of barns. When asked what was the oldest barn she researched, Cathy said that it was a barn built in 1870, 150 years old! It is still standing and in good condition.
At the conclusion of the talk, Ted Duncan, president of the OMAH board and president of the Simcoe County Historical Association (SCHA), thanked Cathy for the critical work she had done to document the history of the barns for future generations.
The Ontario Barn Preservation group, a non-profit organization, Ted explained, “advocates for the recognition of barns as historical heritage buildings and that many barns are not used and not cared for today. This group is preserving the family stories and images that relate to each of these disappearing ‘castles of Ontario.’" To learn about the group, click here.
What’s happening in Simcoe County? The SCHA has a goal to survey all of the barns in Simcoe County to produce important records as Cathy has done in Springwater Township and to preserve our “built heritage.”
The presentation was very well-received and generated many questions from the attendees. Trish Crowe Grande, OMAH History Committee chair, thanked Cathy for an informative and entertaining presentation and for the work she has done to document an important part of our local history.
If you weren’t able to attend the presentation and want to hear the full story, it is now available on the OMAH YouTube channel. Click here to view the presentation.
Cathy’s book, Vanishing Barns, is available for purchase in the OMAH Shop. To order a book, click here.
OMAH and the History Committee will be continuing the History Speakers Series on July 14 at 7 p.m. The topic is the fur trade. Let the Fur Fly! features OMAH exhibiting artist Jill Price, who will examine the fur trade from an animal perspective, and amateur historian John Savage, who will offer the viewpoint of his ancestor, Antoine Gaudaur, a fur trader and Orillia’s first non-Indigenous settler. It is sure to be a spirited discussion.
To register and receive a link for the talk, click here or call Monica at 705-326-2159 or email [email protected].
The talk is free, but donations to OMAH are appreciated.
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