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    A Kingston Album: Glimpses of the Way We Were
    A Kingston Album: Glimpses of the Way We Were
    A Kingston Album: Glimpses of the Way We Were
    Ebook147 pages51 minutes

    A Kingston Album: Glimpses of the Way We Were

    By Marion Van de Wetering

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    About this ebook

    This album follows the history of Kingston from the founding of Fort Frontenac and the accompanying French settlement of Cataraqui in 1673 to its present-day incarnation as a popular tourist and travel destination. In addition to its fine military tradition, Kingston has also been the centre of commerce, shipping, industry, education, and government in the region.

    Many local citizens have prospered greatly from these diverse endeavours. Others have been less fortunate. From the boom times of Dilene Dexter Calvin’s huge shipping industry and James Richardson’s grain enterprise to the corruption and cruelty of Kingston Penetentiary under Warden Henry Smith Sr., the ups and downs of Kingston’s citizens have mirrored the city’s own.

    As Kingston’s importance grew, so too did the influence its inhabitants had during the last days of the unified colony and the first of the fledgling Dominion. Sir John Graves Simcoe made Kingston his home for a time, as did Lord Sydenham and Sir John A. Macdonald.

    More than one hundred black-and-white photographs accompany the text, granting an intimate look at all facets of life in Kingston over the last century. From the prisoners’ quarters at Fort Henry during World War I and the fire in City Hall, to the bustle of market square at the turn of the century and the lonely stretch of road which was Division Street, these photos display both the momentous occasions in the city’s history and the mundane. Hand-picked from the collections of the National Archives of Canada, the Archives of Ontario, and Queen’s University Archives, these beautiful photographs capture the pride and the pain of a city constantly in transition.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDundurn
    Release dateOct 1, 1998
    ISBN9781554880539
    A Kingston Album: Glimpses of the Way We Were
    Author

    Marion Van de Wetering

    Born in Powell River, BC, Marion Van de Wetering is a graduate of the University of Guelph. She has written articles for the Toronto Star and is a parttime graduate student at the University of Ottawa. Marion and her husband, writer Mark Bourrie, live in Ottawa.

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      Book preview

      A Kingston Album - Marion Van de Wetering

      anyway.

      Introduction

      Kingston is a study in contrasts: the British military base with French origins, the quick rise to prominence followed by the languid decline, the centre of a shipping system in the age of air travel.

      It would be easy to say that decisions not of Kingston’s making have forced it to become less than it could have been. The city’s rise to prominence as the principal point of transshipment on the Great Lakes, where cargoes going inland had to be transferred from small bateaux to the great sailing ships which plied the lakes, was followed by a gradual decline as market forces and improvements in the St. Lawrence Seaway dictated.

      The city’s initial position as one of the most important fortifications in the British colonies was later undermined as troops were recalled with the advent of Confederation. Similarly, Kingston’s dream of retaining its position as capital of a united Canada fell by the wayside, a casualty of political expediency.

      And yet, there is something about the city, something rare and beautiful, which captivates visitors, leaving them spellbound.

      Perhaps it is that sense of history, so often paved over or subdivided into condos in other cities, that lends Kingston its particular charm. Perhaps it is the fact that its people have beaten their swords into ploughshares by turning their military installations, such as Fort Henry and Murney Tower, into museums, allowing the uninitiated a glimpse of the glory days of the British Empire. Perhaps it is the sense of living history – evident in the fact that so many of the surnames of Kingston’s original citizens, like Grass and Richardson, still survive there today – that makes Kingston special.

      Or perhaps it is the sense that Kingston has continued to build according to its own vision of its potential that has led it to prosper despite its misfortunes. The founding of Queen’s College (later Queen’s University) and the Royal Military College were decisions that have continued to profit the city in innumerable ways. The vision of the city council that built City Hall has finally been vindicated, as the structure is one of the most striking of its kind in the land. And, although the many penal institutions in the immediate vicinity lend Kingston a somewhat notorious air, there is no doubt that these facilities lend an aura of stability to the community.

      Despite Kingston’s trials, the unmistakable vitality is still there. It’s there in the way those who were raised there and moved away long to return. It’s there in the passion with which those who come and stay speak of their adopted home. And it’s there in the sense of connectedness citizens feel with their past – and their future.

      St. John’s Street, c. 1860s.

      National Archives of Canada #PA-62177. Rifle Brigade collection.

      King Street, c. 1860s.

      National Archives of Canada #PA-62172. Rifle Brigade collection.

      Residential District, c. 1860s.

      National Archives of Canada #PA-119319.

      Photographer: Sheldon and Davis.

      The mouth of the Cataraqui River was originally chosen as the site of the new settlement of Cataraqui because of its fine harbour. French ships could pull into the estuary at the mouth of the river, protected from the fierce gales off Lake Ontario by the spit of land which curled around the bay.

      This made Cataraqui a natural point at which the smaller bateaux and Durham boats needed to transport goods up the St. Lawrence could be offloaded onto larger sailing vessels for the voyage up the Great Lakes. The larger ships made good economic sense. The bigger the ship, the more furs that could be transported from the interior at the same time, decreasing transportation costs. Fort Frontenac was built to protect this new harbour from the competition: the British, and their Iroquois allies.

      In 1758, Fort Frontenac was captured by British forces under the command of Colonel Bradstreet. This marked a decline in Cataraqui’s fortunes, as the major fur trade route was diverted south to the British-controlled Hudson River, instead of continuing to follow the French-dominated St. Lawrence route.

      Another blow came during the Revolutionary War when Captain Twiss recommended in 1778 that the British Navy build a fort on the newly renamed Carleton Island instead of building at Cataraqui. Throughout the conflict, the new fort, Haldimand, took over the roles Cataraqui had played, both as a military centre and as a major shipping port.

      For the duration of the war, only naval ships of the provincial marine were permitted on the lakes. After the war, the expected influx of settlers and supplies to the area created the need for the re-establishment

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