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Y P - Wednesday, August 12, 1998 COMMUNITY CALENDAR • LIFESTYLES • SPORTS • COMMUNITY CORRESPONDENCE • TV LISTINGS History in Your Own Backyard by Jennifer Stone Staff Writer The School Bell - The Historical Walking Tour sign at Central Public School stands near the school's old bell. Bowmanville residents don't have to travel great distances to get a piece of history - it's as easy as taking a historical historical stroll downtown. And now, it's even easier, thanks to a brochure put out by the Bowmanville Downtown Improvement Association and the Municipality of Clarington, with help from the Local Architectural Conservation Advisory Committee and the Bowmanville Museum. The group, spearheaded. by King Street Bar and Grill owner Kevin Any an, has put together a Historical Walking Tour of downtown Bowmanville. Included on the tour are businesses and homes "that are still standing and still in good repair," says Bowmanville Museum curator Charles Taws. "These are places that have a story to tell in the history of Bowmanville," says the BIA's Garth Gilpin. Many of the 30 destinations on the tour are marked with plaques, designed by Keith Swan of Swan Signs, describing the history of the building. Those not marked will be soon, says Anyan adding, in some cases, people want to wait a while to have markers put up. "Some homeowners didn't want the plaque put up this year. We want to do more work to the house before the plaque goes up," he says. Anyan first came up with the idea when visiting a small town in Quebec. He says the town was nice, but it "didn't "didn't have the wealth of history we have v here in Bowmanville " - He approached local businesses to fund the signs, and then got the Museum and LACAC involved in choosing the destinations for the tour. In general, Anyan says business owners and home owners were very receptive to the idea, especially especially when they learned the signs would be posted on the street, so no tourists would be trespassing on private private property. Funding for the signage came from about 10 businesses, with support from the BIA, as well as some of the individual homeowners. Most of the information for the signage signage came from Taws, who researched each of the destinations before writing the information for the sandblasted plaques. He says it wasn't an easy job, due to the huge amounts of conflicting information that exists. Anyan agrees. "In some cases, you know what happened in the house between, say, 1882 and 1906, but then you have these gaps," he says. Anyan says, so far, putting the tour together has cost approximately $15,000. This venture, along with the new murals in downtown Bowmanville, and several other activities activities the BIA is involved with will, in the long run, benefit the downtown, says Anyan. He hopes other businesses and homeowners will want to get involved, after seeing the success the walking tour has garnered. "We've challenged people,to rise to the occasion. This walking tour isn't just about nice houses; it's about the big trees and gorgeous flower gardens that are out there," he says. Maps of the tour, in a brochure produced produced by the Municipality of Clarington, are available at participating participating merchants, the Museum, Town Hall, and the Tourist ■ Information Centre on Liberty Street. Anyan says while all the stops on the tour are interesting in their own ways, there are a few especially interesting interesting destinations. For example, "there's a home where Sir John A. MacDonald slept. That's something people don't know." And, another home in Bowmanville once housed people who fled Austria to escape Nazi rule. "A lot of people will be surprised they can find all this history in their own backyard," says Taws. .j ' t ,\ .. * -vy. . .;y. ■ *"'■=** ' d: -, i,; i, -■ 4 ::W . .. . :, 'y 1 t yfiyg; ■ ... yy p . Vi.T-' •• J y." 4. A - i" -, - '• *t.:y . . I ' .' i • . y. V ; '■ " V v f •••'/ ' ;' v ; ' ' ' y : ■ ' " ' ■' : , ■ • ■'r ■ „ ■ * lot • w : 'jrtiiy. 7^.VV' ih /.« r. > > ' r.t JMJ, A,,, t.i", <• • - A'V *'. lay f *> y L 1 *, i * » y " ■' 7 .. ' 7 1 * ', fi* 1 '»* V'.f , ,71 4, /, ■ 1 I, * # t yk Oil* yy-Vg/A-: '--.A ,,-V W. f <'<f ■' . " W -,r>. *. v-' v v *v. / tsv* f'i K< 1 ,/ ■r-j.iy A tour of Bowmnnvillc's historic past - The Bowmanville Museum is one of many stops on the Historic Walking Tour of Bowmanville. Maps are available at Town Hall, the Tourism Office on Liberty Street, the Museum, and from participating merchants, Historical Walking Tour Site - People enjoying Bowmanvillc's Historical Walking Tour will find themselves at Bowmanville Central Public School, one of the stops on the tour.