Let’s Make History!

In 2009, the Port Hope Archives launched an innovative project called Let’s Make History that will create a living registry of homes, shops, public buildings and farm structures in the Municipality of Port Hope.

 

The idea is to enlist the aid of residents, young and old, in compiling a 2009-2010 ‘snapshot’ of life as it’s lived in the Municipality of Port Hope, for the enjoyment of future generations.

 

Participants will be asked to fill out a simple questionnaire and supply a photo or two of their residence or business for storage in print and online versions that will be readily accessible to the public.

 

All buildings, new and old, will be included in the remarkable collection that will amount to a friendly letter from residents of Port Hope to people who haven’t been born yet.  Newer structures are especially important to the registry.

 

History, after all, isn’t merely a dusty record of life in days long past.  We make a little of it every day as we build new homes or businesses, or as houses change hands and undergo sometimes dramatic renovations or expansions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A century from now, today’s treeless subdivisions will become leafy heritage districts, with architectural styles that reflect today’s tastes gradually changing from unremarkable or controversial to much cherished and appreciated.

 

Stately homes or office buildings from the 1800s may eventually decay and succumb to the wrecker’s ball, despite valiant efforts to save them.  So it’s important to preserve images of what they looked like as they entered their decisive senior years.

 

And how about homes, barns, farmhouses and other structures built in the 1920s and ‘30s?  In many cases, we know very little about their origins.  Yet before you know it, they too will be a century old—objects of increased historical interest.

 

A century from now, people may well ask what life in Port Hope and environs was like in 2009-2010.  This is a chance to answer a few of their questions, with pictures and maybe a few stories about a ghost in the attic or a famous resident of a particular house.

 

But Let’s Make History is about more than record-gathering and storage, even though those things are at the core of what the Archives does, explains PHA Board Chair Charles Taws: “In particular, we want to reach out to school children, and give them a hands-on experience, at an early age, assembling a historical record and learning how the Archives works.”

 

 

For more information, contact us at archives@porthope.ca

 

For a PDF registration form, click here.

 

To download a DOC registration form, click here.

 

 

 

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Let your home make history!

What will OUR landscape look like for the future?