A look back on 1967: Canada's Centennial Year in L&A
Canada’s Centennial year, 1967, is fondly remembered by boomers for its Centennial Spectaculars, Expo ’67 in Montreal, the Voyageur Canoe Pageant, the Centennial train and the Centennial caravan. As well, young people had opportunities to travel across the country and experience first-hand, the geographic magnitude of this country.
The 1953 Traveller’s Canadian version of “This Land is Your Land” became popular again during Centennial celebrations. Taught to school children and sung a community events, the folk song forever etched Canada’s vast spaces, open prairie skies, great mountain ranges and lonely pine-fringed frontiers, in young minds. The Centennial Commission and Provincial Department of Tourism and Information galvanized a country to look backward to its history and forward to its opportunities.
At the invitation of the Centennial Planning Branch of the Ontario Department of Tourism and Information, Judge Gerald Smith, President of the Lennox and Addington Historical Society, J.E. Morrison of the Napanee Beaver, M.C. Graham, Town Clerk-Treasurer, and Mrs. Knuth, Lennox and Addington’s representative on the Provincial Women’s Activities Committee, attended a meeting at the Tops Motel in Belleville. They returned with a plethora of ideas from beautification of surroundings, downtown revitalization and restorations to nation wide opportunities, including caravans, youth travel, visual and performing arts and special events. The Napanee delegates were already well honed in organizing community celebrations, having celebrated their own County and Town centennial just three years before.
The 1967 Lennox and Addington Centennial Committee was chaired by Ronald Macpherson and his co-chairs, Grant Clark and Bernice Asselstine. Harold Creighton and Allan Hawley were County chairman, assisted by Marie Knuth for the ladies’ events. Both County and Town contributed $1000 to kick-start revenues.
With the arrival of 1967, rockets and blockbuster pyrotechnics joined with church bells to ring out the old year and welcome Centennial in Napanee, Bath, Tamworth and Newburgh. The Centennial lights and decorations on the Napanee Public Utilities building were turned on. At one minute after midnight, about 50 people gathered at the Town Hall to hear Mayor Lorne Smart proclaim that 1967 would be a year of widespread jubilation. An aerial salute to the neighbouring communities was arranged by Ron Macpherson. Throughout the region, people celebrated at dances and private parties.
In Ottawa, Centennial year was launched with dedication of the Centennial Train before its departure to Victoria where it started its 1967 trans-Canada tour on January 9. Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson lit the Centennial Flame to be carried by torch bearers across the country.
William T. Briscoe, Deputy-Reeve of Ernestown, elected the County Centennial Warden, was the first deputy-reeve to become Warden since 1876. In June, the Court House and cenotaph were lit from the outside for Centennial year by Napanee Branch 137. This created a dramatic effect from Roblin’s Hill. The Legion held a drumhead ceremony at the Fair Grounds, then placed wreaths at the Cenotaph and dedicated the lights.
From January to December, the County celebrated with events that were Centennial Committee Events, some free and some subscription. Other events were organized by Township Centennial Committees and still more, by community clubs under the Centennial banner. Each event was planned to pay its own expenses and make a profit which the Centennial Committee used for marketing.
It was time to be social. There were lots of events to choose from including costumed banquets and balls, a curling bonspiel, winter carnival, horse races, fashion show, Legion sports day, pioneer day and chuck wagon dinner, a golf tournament and antique show. Many events drew in the hundreds, while an inter-faith service arranged by the Ernestown Centennial Committee held in Odessa drew 600. People throughout the county regaled themselves in Centennial dress and arrived in style. Ladies attending the Centennial Golf Match at the Napanee Golf Club, were driven in a vintage 1918 Chevrolet owned by Bruce Alkenbrack.
Elsewhere in the County, Denbigh hosted a fish derby and old home week. Old home week was declared officially open by Reeve Gordon Plotz. The ceremonies were attended by the County Warden, William Briscoe, Centennial Chairman, Ron Macpherson and Douglas Alkenbrack, M.P., who had spent his boyhood at Flinton. New council chambers were dedicated. It was a gala affair with meat cooked in 50 gallon potash kettles and evening rockets and fireworks, courtesy of the County Centennial Committee, providing a grand finale.
Camden Township celebrated with a Centennial ball and the Camden Township History Committee, began to assemble a history of the Township. Bath crowned Mrs. Jack Clayton as a Centennial Queen, welcomed the 729th Mayor of Bath, England and hosted a bath tub derby in which Reeve J.A. Hawley rode in a bath tub. Ernestown Township Council dedicated two centennial parks in Odessa and Amhersview, and entertained with a cocktail smorgasbord at the Township Hall in Odessa. Richmond Township dedicated a new council chamber and celebrated with a parade, sports events and a dance in the evening.
The County Centennial Committee ensured Napanee was on the national touring circuit. Beginning in April, a Centennial Art Show at Prince Charles School, showcased a travelling display of contemporary paintings by the Art Institute of Ontario. Chaired by Mrs. A.E. Mounce, the exhibit showcased contemporary artists under the theme “The Medium is the Message” inspired by Marshall McLuhan contemporary exposé on mass media and communication. Dr. Allan Walters also displayed his collection of Fowler paintings and Manly Macdonald several of his paintings. 50 cents gained one admission and Consommé and cheese were served.
Dr. Walters, senior physician at Toronto General and associated professor of medicine and psychiatry at the University of Toronto, had recently presented nine paintings by Orval Madden to the Lennox and Addington Historical Society at the Society’s Diamond Jubilee and Centennial Dinner. Attended by the artist, Orval Madden, the paintings captured a portrait of the County in 1907, the year the Society was founded. The paintings were commissioned by Dr. Walters as his personal centennial project, in memory of his father Charles Walters who managed the Napanee Public Utilities Commission for over 60 years.
A selection of these paintings from the Museum and Archives collection now hang in the County Courthouse.
Just before Dominion Day, the Centennial Caravan, with a police escort, rolled into Napanee, playing “O Canada”. A parade with County Officials, bands and costumed children welcomed its arrival. The caravan arrived in Napanee, a full month and a half ahead of when it would visit Kingston. The eight colourful trailers, each 73 feet long, were set up in the former Gibbard baseball field on the Napanee Secondary School grounds. The trailers were set up in a quadrangle with entrance gangways and bridges between trailers and an entertainment stage near the entrance. The displays were opened for viewing June 29-30, following a short official ceremony at 10 a.m.. Heavy rain June 29 forced the cancellation of the tridactic sound, light and photo show, but despite this 8,000 visitors, many of them school children bused to the site on the last day of school for the summer, explored the Canadian history vignettes created by Canada’s top artists and sculptors.
Life sized mannequins that moved and intricate miniature settings created by Canada’s top artists and sculptors, sound and moving pictures, told tales of people from all walks of life who lived and worked, laughed and wept in Canada from its beginnings. For the hundred of school children, it was a sight and sound adventure, beginning with the Centennial symbol carved in a granite-like wall, surrounded by the sounds of seagulls wheeling and crying, and the land emerging from the sea. From the creaking of masts on an explorer’s ship to Canada’s ionosphere satellite to be launched in 1967, it was time travel that most had never experienced.
Miniature figures of Confederation in a royal blue Confederation chamber, the squeak of railway tracks, the clickety-clack of locomotive wheels, the puffing of steam locomotives, a life size figure panning for gold, the explosion of WWI trench shells, the whine of WWII bombs, and Banting and Best peering from a corner, told a national story that would be forever etched in young minds. One of eight caravans built to criss-cross the country, this Caravan would tour for 164 days, stop in 74 communities and cover 3,291 miles before completing its marathon in Hayleybury on November 8. Altogether, the eight caravans would travel 35,655 with 300 staff, with a major impact on the local economy of towns and cities across the nation.
Then, in July, the Canadian Tire Centennial Tour of 100 of the top pre-1942 Classic and Antique cars arrived in town on route to Expo and the Maritimes. Along the way, antique cars joined the trip and others dropped out. Presenting a pageant of moving history with drivers in historical costume, half of the tour visited Napanee, crossing over the recently constructed Quine Skyway bridge at Deseronto. 70 cars, including a 1909 Silver Ghost Rolls Royce, a 1908 Cadillac Roadster, a 1907 Comet Touring and a 1910 Crossley Roadster, were welcomed to town by Earl Morrison, President of the Napanee Chamber of Commerce, and hosted by John Olsson of Canadian Tire, then located downtown. They were entertained for coffee at a downtown restaurant by Mayor Lorne Smart, before rejoining the tour at Kingston and heading to Montreal for a three day stay at Expo where the Centennial Tour trophy would be awarded.
For Centennial spectaculars that did not come to town, chartered buses took local people to them. Trips were chartered to the Military Tattoo in Kingston and Tyrone Guthrie’s Historical Pageant on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. The Pageant boasted a cast of hundreds and was one of the biggest spectacles of the Centennial year, while the Kingston Military Tattoos was one of twelve performances of 300-500 men presented in Ontario communities.
Some school children had an opportunity to visit Expo ’67, the world’s fair in Montreal. Across the Country, Dominion Stores sent 400 to Expo, and locally Greg Walsh was one of the winners. Alex McKay of the Expo Speakers Bureau spoke to students at the Slash Road Public School. Other students raised money to take a two day trip. Dale Clark, Principal at H.H. Langford, and five adults accompanied the Grade 7 and 8 students from Langford and Golf Course schools. In an interview with the Napanee Beaver, Clarke described the trip as unforgettable for not only himself, but for the children – “Their young minds will never forget it”.
Under the Youth Travel Exchange, Lee Perry, a grade 11 student at NDSS had an opportunity to travel to Leduc, Alberta, and David Reid, a Grade 11 student at NDSS won the Napanee Beaver’s Centennial essay contest judged by Richard J. Needham, columnist for the Globe and Mail. Impressed by the originality of David’s ideas, Needham came to Napanee to meet him.
Community Improvement and Rural Beautification was encouraged by the Province as the most truly national of all Centennial projects. Ontario initiated massive cleanups and paint-up programs. Lakeshores and riverfronts were being cleaned up. Centennial parks were dedicated in many communities.
The County’s Centennial project was the restoration and opening of the Macpherson House and parkland along the river. This project had begun a few years before with the Lennox and Addington Historical Society acquisition of the Macpherson House property and volunteer cleanup of the riverfront.
Restoration architect, Peter Stokes who had advised on the restoration of Upper Canada Village, directed the Macpherson House restoration.
In May 1967, Centennial maple trees, planted two years ago in a nursery bed at the Allan Macpherson House, were transplanted to prepared spots on the grounds by students of the NDSS Forestry Club, supervised by their teacher Ken Klinck. Town and County officials kicked off the tree planting ceremony.
The Centennial maples had been obtained by Edward Esdon from the Ontario Department of Lands and Forests. Part of a Centennial tree and shrub planting program started in 1965 for elementary and secondary school students, the trees had been tended by Brownies, Guides, Explorers and Scouts, and some had grown to 6 feet. Sponsors could buy a tree for $5. The named trees were planted in a row on the west side of the property and in a grove on the slope to the east of the House. As well, volunteers planted flowers, clumps of shrubs and other trees. Centennial maples still shade the House on the north side and daffodils still break into a profusion of bloom along the riverbank each spring.
On Saturday August 5, 1967 visitors were welcomed at the House and charmed by the completed entrance hall, the three furnished rooms and the hearth fire in the ballroom fireplace. Centennial Year presented a unique opportunity for all communities to benefit from an influx of tourists and local communities were encouraged to have their historic sites well marked. Over 300 visitors came from within the county, Ontario, other Canadian Provinces, the British Isles and New York State. The local papers reported all the places people came from to visit Macpherson House. The official opening of Macpherson House would take place a year later.
A Big Weekend October 6-7 marked the end of formal Centennial activities. The Napanee Chamber of Commerce hosted a three day old fashion shopping spree, followed by a street dance and presentation of prizes for costume. On Friday evening, downtown business sponsored a free community barbeque on market square.
The same evening, The County Warden’s dinner was held at Morven. Warden William Briscoe, County Centennial Warden and Deputy-Reeve of Ernestown, welcomed 300 guests. The toast to Canada was proposed by Judge Gerald Smith with Reverend John Neal, Rector at St. Thomas, Morven and St. John’s, Bath, replying in the absence of Douglas Alkenbrack, M.P. The toast to Ontario was proposed by Nelson Kennedy, Deputy-Reeve of Camden, with Norris Whitney, M.L.A., Prince Edward-Lennox, and Hon. J.R. Simonett, M.L.A Frontenac-Addington replying. The toast to Lennox and Addington was proposed by Erwell Huff, Reeve of Ernestown, with Mr. Justice W. Henderson replying.
On Saturday a large parade, organized by John Olsson of Canadian Tire, a director for the local Centennial Committee, ribboned its way from The Prince Charles School, along West, Bridge, Robinson and Dundas Streets back to The Prince Charles. H. J. McFarland’s antique cars, Ronald Dension’s reaper, Ivan McFarland’s sawing machine, George Lockwood’s antique tractors, Richmond Ditching’s antique and new ditching machines, old and new snow plows from The Township of Richmond and Larry Pringle’s convertible brought together town and country, past and present. The outstanding float was entered by Strathcona Paper. At the ceremony following, awards won during the year were presented. Mayor Lorne Smart hosted a luncheon at the Napanee Golf Club for distinguished guests and a public luncheon was held at Selby.
The Big Weekend marked the end of formal Centennial activities but local events continued throughout the County. Denbigh finished out the year with Halloween masquerade dance, a Hunter’s Ball and a Festival of Lights in December.
Centennial year had been one of fun, festivity and hospitality for everyone.