As I crash around this new webpage publishing medium I feel incredibly clumsy and deeply thankful that someone automated the hardwork. This is the space I’ll be posting about my plaque-hunting adventures with more indepth context on specific items of historical significance that will be under the soon-to-be created “Short History Sunday” series to be uploaded in the new year. (2021)
I have always been interested in the small histories, ones that as a single instance rarely fill a whole book but those which have had an impact on individuals and their community. I have stopped the car and dragged my hapless kidlets off to look at a plaque on many a car trip. And sometimes, over time, those plaques have disappeared. At first I thought I just mistook the location but have discovered that they sometimes disappear because their original meaning has been forgotten, the place destroyed or the plaque fallen down forgotten and lost. The neighborhood that inspired me to write this book was in Hintonburg. In 2010 I saw a plaque that had fallen down and was propped up in a window. After initial inquiries, I failed to continue to think about the lost little plaque further until the Magee house partially collapsed in 2018. As it turns out there isn’t a large database of the location of every plaque, as each may be given by a different organization or level of government, and ongoing maintenance isn’t followed up upon.
I would like this book to be a useful walking guide to historians now and in the future, and indication of where items of note were located and at that same time creating a time capule for what was commemorated indicates what was considered important to us as a community.
I hope you enjoy finding out our local secret places. This is my map of Ward 14 in Ottawa that encompasses Little Italy, Chinatown, Sparks street, and Parliament Hill: https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/1/edit?mid=1Yt6tJaDfBwwCG9kDueModU9w-08pfOrz&usp=sharing
I am adding as I collect them. At the moment I have collected more than I have sat down to do the data entry for, but that is what the cold winter months are for aren’t they?
Plaques, Statues and Cornerstones 