Get ready for some curious local culture and heritage activity at the old Barry’s Bay train station, starting this coming Sunday. The Station Keepers MV, the non-profit corporation set up last year to revitalize the old railroad station in Barry’s Bay, will begin to roll out the first of 31 Month of Sunday events planned for the 125-year-old building in 2020. One of the new regular formats that will launch this coming Sunday is called The Local. Among other things, it will focus on local historic buildings and the families associated with them. Pictured above is Joanne Olsen, to be interviewed by Sean Conway, host of The Local. (Submitted)
“The idea is to again turn the station into what it always was in the past – a point of arrival and departure, a place for the community to meet and talk about its past, present and future,” said Joanne Olsen, president of the non-profit group. “Mercifully, we still have our old train station, the last of its kind in all of Canada – and what a beautiful old building it is, inside and out — and so just because no trains stop here in Barry’s Bay anymore is no reason not to have people enjoy being here, relishing its history – and its future!”
The Station Keepers MV brought considerable life back to the old building this past year, holding nearly two-dozen events, including a 125th anniversary show celebrating the coming of the OA & PS Railroad to Barry’s Bay on October 1st, 1894. But Olsen says that was just the beginning.
“The real joy was watching what happened during and after every event we held at the station this past year,” added Olsen. “There was such a genuine warm feeling among the crowd; we all just loved being here, finally getting to enjoy being inside this grand old building, talking about its history, and the community’s culture and heritage.”
And, so for that reason, Olsen says The Station Keeper MV board of directors, along with its eleven founding members, unanimously decided to expand the number of culture and heritage events that the Station Keepers will offer at the station this year.
“We’re launching four new regular ‘culture and heritage’ formats that we experimented with last year, and they will all be audio-recorded in front of live audiences and so digitally preserved as part of our regular Sunday podcast, The Opeongo Line,” she said. “We already have thousands of people listening to that podcast – shows like The Opeongo Readers’ Theatre ‘Sinking of the Mayflower’ or The Opeongo Radio Flyers ‘War of the Worlds: The Battle of Brudenell,’ but we thought we could do more.”
“The first show deals with the glory days of the old Balmoral Hotel, something I know a bit about,” said Olsen, a member of the Billings family who originally build the hotel in 1894. “We’re also planning shows about those famous St. Hedwig’s summer picnics back in the 1920s and ‘30s, the curious history of the telegraph office here at the Station during WWII, the many wonderful stories connected to Yakabuski’s Hardware Store, Herron’s General Store or the four Palubeskie corner stores that used to operate in town; and the herculean effort made in the 1950s to build St. Francis Memorial Hospital, or, similarly, to build MVDHS in the 1960s, that sort of thing.”
The host of The Local, Sean Conway, is one of Olsen’s childhood neighbours, and a well-known son of Barry’s Bay. He recently moved back to town permanently, though, she said, he remains a part-time professor at St. Michael’s College at the University of Toronto, where he teaches a course in Ottawa Valley history.
“Sean has a passion for all things historical in this area and he knows a lot about its sacred places, if not profane characters, but there’s a genuine love of the many people who make up our local history,” Olsen added. “I’m supposed to be his first guest, talking about my family’s long involvement with the Balmoral Hotel; I only hope I don’t have to explain everything that went on at the hotel, but you know, Sean. I’m not concerned that we’ll be at a loss for words.”
Olsen went on to say that people who attend the show will get a chance to add their own stories about the Balmoral or ask questions about its history. The Local takes place at the old Barry’s Bay Station beginning at 2:00 p.m. this Sunday, January 19th.
The Station Keepers are doing a FANTASTIC job of keeping our train station alive!! Way to go!!