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Mining the Diamond
As much as the Historical Centre, or the Heritage Train, or the trails or the golf courses or the ski hills are important components of Uxbridge’s future tourist industry, they are not the most important components. For there are many other Ontario communities which contain museums or trails or sports facilities, even historic trains, which can strongly compete with ours.
But it would be safe to say that there are two elements of our visitor-oriented infrastructure which are unique to Uxbridge. The first is that we have a national historic site dedicated to the life and work of the woman who was easily Canada’s best-selling and most internationally celebrated novelist, Lucy Maud Montgomery. The Society which has custodianship of that site last weekend celebrated the centennial of Montgomery’s arrival in our township, and the celebration was glorious indeed.
The other unique element is just a couple of minutes down the road from the Montgomery Manse. Rather than being focussed on a historic personality, though, this site is all about the building itself. There’s nothing special architecturally, after all, about either Maud’s manse or her husband’s church (although admittedly they’re essential to the future success of the site). But in the case of the Foster Memorial (discussed in our article on pages 6 & 9), the building is unique in Canada, and its architectural beauty is matched by its virtues as a performance venue, ably demonstrated over the last few years by the Friday night concert series. In both areas it has a lot in common with a building at the other end of Ashworth Road, the Sharon Temple, which is justly famous for its qualities as both a religious edifice and a concert hall.
But why isn’t the Foster just as famous? It too is celebrating a landmark anniversary this year, its 75th, but the celebration is decidedly modest in comparison to that just thrown for the LMM site. There are no plays commissioned about the very interesting fellow who built it, or the controversial construction process, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a “folly” in the middle of an international depression. There are no academics coming to discuss its fascinating architecture or the equally fascinating symbols inside it. There could have been a week-long festival of international performers revelling in the temple’s marvellous acoustics, rather than a simple two-hour concert of local performers, all of whom we’ve seen at the Foster many times before.
Its custodians, The Friends of the Foster, call the memorial the “Diamond of Durham”, one of the Region’s best-kept secrets. But it shouldn’t be a secret, and it can’t be a secret any longer if Uxbridge is to get serious about becoming a significant national, and international, tourist destination. With a fully-restored Leaskdale Manse, with a fine new washroom and many seasons of successful concerts under the Foster’s belt, the key elements of the destination are here, supported by all the other features we listed in the first paragraph. Now the Township must dedicate funds, and staffing, to promoting our virtues to all the tourists eager to explore somewhere new. Over the winter, we’ll dedicate a series of articles to examining what exactly needs to happen for our tourism potential to be realized. It’s a discussion vital to Uxbridge’s future.
July 14, 2011
