‘I really feel that the past explains the present. We have to understand the past and present to see what the future is going to be,’ says a historical walk participant
Penetanguishene, one of the oldest settlements in Ontario, was a thriving town in the late 1800s and early 1900s, largely due to the lumber industry.
Churches, schools, mercantiles, banks and clothiers set up shop in the bustling downtown with houses were built near and far.
“In the late 1880s, Penetanguishene had five hotels. Now we have zero,” says Nicole Jackson, curator of the Penetanguishene Centennial Museum and Archives.
Jackson and summer student Rachel Whittington recently led a group of 12 on the summer’s first Downtown Historical Walking Tour…