Creative Kids Club being launched at Chapleau Hub (St John's) in January 2019

Cynthia Barlow used with permission

A Creative Kids Club is being launched at the Chapleau Hub (St John's Anglican Church) on January 3, 2019 -- what an awesome way to start a new year.

When I saw the post about the club on Facebook, I immediately contacted Cynthia Barlow, who is behind the project, for information, and she kindly got back to me very quickly. Thanks Cynthia.

She said, "I feel today that kids need to socialize more and have the opportunity to plan events and create with crafts. So many kids can be creative".

At the club the kids will be able to do creative art, plan events like putting on shows -- fashion show. puppet show -- put together a dance or a band - a place where they can socialize and be creative.

"Our slogan is CARE. We want the children to Create, Accept everyone for who they are, Respect each other and Express themselves." Great slogan!

Cynthia is a child development practitioner with " a lot of knowledge about children and their milestones and development."

She added that she has "a very creative daughter. She loves doing crafts and loves music. She inspired me to start this club." The other person involved is Hannah Barlow who had a similar idea in mind.

Let me flash back to my own growing up years in Chapleau, where there was no official creative kids club, but there were teachers and others in the community who played a role in developing our creative side.

For example when I was in Grades 3 and 4 at Chapleau Public School we had a Junior Red Cross Society which presented plays to the class. I directed and acted in a swashbuckler play with Alison McMillan, Brian and Teddy Demers which we created ourselves. We rehearsed at the Demers home and Mrs. Demers who owned a clothing store made our costumes. Mrs. Madeleine Pellow was our teacher who fully supported our production.

This single  creative activity in the late 1940s led me into a lifetime interest in drama and many years later when I was teaching at Chapleau High School, I directed plays in student productions.I also taught drama there.

 I even studied drama at the University of Toronto, and it all led to a faculty position at College of the Rockies where I taught a course in Children's Theatre in my early years there.

I was also fortunate that my mother, Muriel E (Hunt) Morris, taught at Chapleau Public School for 32 years and directed many plays and concerts including 'HMS Pinafore' by Gilbert and Sullivan. My only regret was that Mom would not let me use the costumes for plays with my friends! She would let me attend rehearsals in the old Town Hall in the evening.

My grandfather George Hunt also played a very important  role. When I was playing with toys in the living room, Grandpa would join me, and through him I learned much of the history of England. 

In a Facebook post on the Chapleau Community Bulletin Board, Cynthia asks that those interested send an email to creative_kids_club@outlook.com to obtain a regsitration form. There is no cost to register.

"We would like to have most of the children registered so that we have an idea of how many so we can prepare everything and make sure we have enough of everything for them," the post says. It also outlines the January project in detail.

Leighton Stultz used with permision

To sum it all up, I turned to my friend Leighton Stultz, the American model and actor to share his comments on the importance of "creative kids" in a message for the kids and parents too.

Leighton wrote: "Being creative is something all kids share equally. It's the one thing you can never run out of and can never be taken from you. It's a way to display your personality, smartness, kindness and every emotion all without needing the use of words. It's what sets you apart from the crowd but just as easily brings you together. Your creativity is yours and just like your fingerprint, no two are alike so don't ever be afraid to express yourself because the world needs you and your creativity."  Thanks Leighton.

FACEBOOK: Creative Kids Club

I wish everyone involved in the Chapleau Creative Kids Club every success. I will certainly follow your progress with great interest. My email is mj.morris@live.ca

George Evans on 'Reading, Writing and 'Rithmetic' as schools established in Chapleau's early years

From the moment Chapleau was established in 1885, and families started to arrive, there were children about in  the "cluster of homes", and parents  wanted a school, according to an article by George Evans.

George, the long time teacher and assistant principal at Chapleau High School, who died in a car accident on March 18, 2012, wrote a series of articles about Chapleau called 'Snapshots of Chapleau Past'.

In one called 'Reading, Writing and 'Rithmetic', George wrote that the first school was in a tent in 1886, but was moved to a "sturdier structure" in the vestry of the first Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church.  Monthly fee was $1.00 per child.

This school was not too successful so by 1889 it was back to a tent over a low frame wall and floor located about where Trinity United Church is today.

Here is George's glimpse into the "pioneer students under canvas".

"They sat on home-made wooden benches and used home-made wooden desks arranged around a box stove. The teacher was responsible for cleaning and heating the school".

By 1890, it was realized that this school was not satisfactory so a public meeting was called in February 1891 and Robert Holding was named chair of a school board.

A school was established on Pine Street in a wooden building beside St. John's rectory. School street was established.

George noted that by 1893 a second room was added for students "lusting after knowledge and wisdom". The annual budget was $1100

According to Vincent Crichton’s account,which George included in his article, this was Chapleau’s version of the legendary pioneer school house.  "At the front of the class, the teacher presided behind a big wooden desk that had a large hand-bell on it. The students sat at new double-desks. A water pail with a tin cup sat on a chair near the woodstove. The girls were responsible for sweeping and cleaning the premises; the boys filled the woodbox, stoked the stove, and carried out the ashes. The teacher was stuck with getting to work early enough to get the fire in the stove going and thaw out the ink bottles. One delicate matter is not mentioned in Vince’s book and so we must assume that an outhouse or two were somewhere on the property. George wrote that in  1901, "the same year that the municipality came into being, the school board built a new public school on the lot beside St. John’s Anglican Church, just across the street from the first public school.  A fine, two-story, 4-room building with central heating, the new building brought Chapleau’s public school into the 20th century, leaving behind the crude but romantic make-do arrangements of the 19th century.'  This building was to play a long and distinguished career in Chapleau’s educational history becoming Chapleau High School after it was established in 1922. George wrote that in the mid-20s, a major transformation took place when two regular classrooms, two labs, and a low-ceilinged basement gym were added and the whole structure was given a brick exterior. This renovated building was the red-brick Chapleau High School that many people still fondly remember." Chapleau Public School was built along Pine Street beside the old Town Hall. Chapleau High School, in its turn, left the old building in 1966 to migrate to its new home atop the hill on the western edge of town  But the old building had still not finished its educational mission. It soon became the Senior Public School, housing the overflow from the Public School as the last of the baby-boomers began flowing through the system. It was demolished in 1976 and the Chapleau Civic Centre is now on the site. George noted that his article was based in part on information contained in Vince Crichton's book 'Pioneering in Northern Ontario.' Just a note: Over the years there have been several accounts written about education in Chapleau including a detailed one by J.M. Shoup long time teacher and principal of Chapleau Public School. I am spending some time on the history of education. Please feel free to email me at mj.morris@live.ca if you can contribute. APOLOGY  I apologize for the layout!! Gremlin attack!!

Ian Macdonald on distinctive face of Smith and Chapple successfully adapted to the many different eras of retailing concepts in the Chapleau region.

Note: Ian Macdonald shares the story of Smith and Chapple in Chapleau. Ian is professor emeritus and retired head of the departmnent of architecture at the University of Manitoba. Thanks Ian. MJM My email is mj.morris@live.ca


By Ian Macdonald
Commercial retail activity is a significant part of the cultural heritage of a community through speaking to the way people bought and sold goods and services. Communities along the height of land, compared to other Northern Ontario communities, remained comparatively remote except for the railroad until the 1960’s.


Image: McNamara shop interior

The region became progressively less isolated when Highway 129 from Chapleau to Thessalon on Lake Huron was opened in 1949 and Highway 101 connecting the community with Timmins and Wawa was finally completed in 1967 including the Highway 651 connection from Highway 101 to Missanabie. Goods and services until then were provided almost exclusively within the community itself. Mail order outlets facilitated catalogue shopping but for the most part, businesses were independent and mostly family owned enterprises which extended in many cases over several generations. Competition was thus not only spirited but also very very personal.


General store buildings in those early days were simple and straightforward with gable or shed roofs. They were generally one and a half or two storey structures with the sales floor on the main floor. Granite bedrock in most locations lurked only a few feet below ground level forcing the main floor to be two to five feet above grade if basement space was required. Second floors were typically residential and occasionally commercial office space depending on the building location. Internal organization of the stores were mostly symmetrical with a clearly defined main entrance located on the main axis and recessed to form an entry alcove. This allowed for increased window area and larger displays.

Shop areas had high ceilings and the front façade included large plate glass display windows. Long counters were located on one or both sides of the main customer circulation area and business was mostly conducted over the counter. Timber construction was predominant for both structural and decorative purposes with little option but to use local labour skills and resourceful use of materials. The store front, however, was different and was seen to be one of the main factors in establishing a competitive edge in a highly competitive market.

Image: Beamish and Smith store

The importance of the store front in commercial retailing is best illustrated in one of the first stores built in Chapleau by James McNiece Austin in Chapleau in the 1890’s on the north east corner of Birch and Young Street. The original business had been established on a site 100 feet to the east by T.A.Austin in 1885 and sold to his brother, James McNiece Austin in 1888 who operated the business for five years before selling out in 1903 to R.A. Beamish and Stuart Smith. This new enterprise became known as Beamish and Smith and lasted four years before it was acquired in 1907 by the partnership of Stuart Smith and V.T.Chapple and became Smith and Chapple.

The original store building facing Birch Street was approximately thirty feet wide, a hundred feet deep and typical of most general stores of that era. The structure was of rudimentary wood frame construction with a flat roof slightly sloping south to north. The plan organization of the building was symmetrical around a glazed double door main entrance. It was similar to most other commercial buildings in the newcommunity with the exception of the Birch Street store front that incorporated enough architectural features to fill a history text book.


Image: architectural drawing of Smith and Chapple

The Birch Street store front was consistent with established principles associated with highly urban areas like London, England where the shop is usually part of an established urban streetscape rather than a single free standing corner building on the Canadian frontier. These architectural features included overly large wood panelled corner pilasters to establish physical separation from neighbouring buildings and supported a bold and complex cornice at roof level. Bold cornice detailing was also an established way of providing clear definition between the shop front and the upper floor. The store also had the advantage of a large blank wall surface facing Young Street that allowed for additional signage. Entrance to the store was a recessed glazed double door that provided a strongly defined entrance alcove and additional plate glass display area.

Image: Smith and Chapple original storefront

The store had changed owners three times before it became Smith and Chapple in 1907. There were no changes to the architectural features of the original store front during these changes in proprietorship. The name of the respective owners was simply repainted on the second-floor wall facing Birch Street and minor changes were made in the signage over the plate glass display windows.
Image: Smith and Chapple 1915 Expansion

V.T. Chapple who is recorded as being the most energetic and ambitious of the Smith and Chapple partners, tripled the size of the original store with a building expansion in 1915. The expansion was effectively the double replication of the original building which faithfully maintained and repeated the same distinctive features of the original.

Image: Smith and Chapple final Expansion

The store would be further expanded one more time during the depression years with the addition of a butcher shop, groceteria and basement level snack bar and shop. This renovation included removal of most of the distinctive architectural features of the original building. Decorative ornament was eliminated and the building surfaces were smoothed out to give a more “modern” appearance and a large Smith and Chapple sign would stretch over the entire length of the building facing Birch Street.

Image: Village Shops exterior image

The store remained this way until 1987 when it was acquired by the Bignucolo family who renovated the building and rebranded the business as “The Village Shops” . This renovation, responding to more open and contemporary retailing principles, Included removal of Interior walls and partitions and conversion of second floor commercial retail space to eight apartment units.

 Image 8 Village Shops interior image

This venerable old building is one of the few early commercial retail buildings that has endured the ravages of time and successfully adapted to the many different eras of retailing concepts in the region.


Ian advised that Images in this article are from the Vincent Crichton Sr. Chapleau Historical Photo Collection are published with the kind permission of Dr. Vince Crichton Jr.
Photos 7 and 8 of the Village Shops are provided by Lucy Bignucolo