Judy Neville stands at the Aultsville Train Station.

11 September 2011

Historical Sites Open Doors

Morrisburg Ontario - Local residents had the chance to walk the floor their ancestors trod during the annual Doors Open Festival of History and Culture.
 
The Aultsville Train Station was one of many sites included in the two-day event, allowing people to learn more about the region's past.
 
"It's just one of those buildings that our ancestors have connection to," said Judy Neville, who worked as the interpreter over the weekend. She said most of the area's former residents would have visited the station at one point, to travel, pick up telegrams, and receive news about loved ones oversees during the war. Many children sent to Ontario from England would have sat on the platform with their trunks, waiting for someone to pick them up and take them to a new home.
 
"This train station plays a big role in the British Home Child story," she said.
 
The building was moved to its current site just off County Road 2 prior to the flooding of the seaway in the 1950s. Next to the structure are several train cars, sitting on an original piece of track from the Grand Trunk Railway line.
 
"Many of these little train stations have been lost forever," said Neville. "This one has been preserved for us to come back to."
 
She said the festival was a great way to showcase historical sites that are not generally open to guests.
 
Neville, who works for the St. Lawrence Parks Commission at Upper Canada Village, said her own parents would have walked through the train station back at its original site.
 
Cheryl Brink.