The Fanshawe Pioneer Village is preparing for their 65 year anniversary, opening for the season this coming Victoria Day weekend.
“When the village first opened up, we were a fairly small amount of buildings, only four original buildings,” says Public Programming Coordinator, Christina van Hardeveld.
“Since then we’ve grown to 33 buildings so in and amongst that there’s all these new stories and spaces and things that have happened during that time lately.
Hardeveld says, while they primarily hold celebrations at the turn of each decade such as their 60 or soon to be 70 year anniversary, the Fanshawe Pioneer Village is still using the time to reflect on the years.
“We are very excited to be looking forward at what the village has done over the past 65 years and where we’re kind of continuing to grow for the next hopefully 65 more.”
She says that there have been plenty of changes since they first began back in 1959, with plenty even being able to be seen in the later years as well.
Christina van Hardeveld, Public Programming Coordinator for the Fanshawe Pioneer Village.
“I’ve been here for about a decade now and so the biggest changes that I’ve been seeing really have been including more and more voices. We’ve just recently had the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and this is its first full season here with us as an open Building and so we are really looking at continuing to grow new voices as we go for the next few years.”
The village is set to open up officially on May 18 over the Victoria Day weekend, with Hardeveld saying there are plenty of activities for all ages to enjoy.
“We’re going to be having Elden House as a guest to the village here talking about tea practices. At the time in the afternoon tea, we will also be having live music during the day,” says Hardeveld.
“We’re going to be having dancing celebrations and then we’re lucky enough to have her royal Majesty Queen Victoria briefly visiting for us for the day, so it’s exciting to have her attending the village of Fanshawe.”
With plenty of new attractions having been added, Hardeveld says that it’s tough to find a favourite, but there is one in particular that has still stuck with her.
The African Methodist Episcopal Church, which will see its first full season at the Fanshawe Pioneer Village.
“I think my favorite one, the one that always kind of sticks to my heart, is Peel house. It’s a house built in about 1850, so it’s one of our older buildings, but it is the Childhood home of Paul Peel. What I really like about it is even though the house was built in 1850, we often talk about it because it was a city home closer to the 1910s, and so with that comes a lot of women’s history which is more my specialty and field of practice.”
The 65th regular season will run from May 18 to October 14.The full series of opening weekend events will run from Saturday May 18 to Sunday May 19 between 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. The full list of events, times, and schedule for the full season can be found on the Fanshawe Pioneer Village website.
