The Porcupine's Quill
Celebrating thirty-five years on the Main Street
of Erin Village, Wellington County
Events
Saturday, July 10, 2010: Doors Open
Ten sites within Erin Village (including the Porcupine's Quill) have confirmed that they will participate in Doors Open in Erin Village on Saturday, July 10. 10:00am to 4:00pm.
Included in the event, woodworker Brian Oates will offer instructive tours of Mundell’s (1838) Planing Mill (51 Main Street, rear); and Alan Kirkwood will man an information kiosk at the Pioneer Cemetery on the east side of Wellington County Road 23, just north of 17 Sideroad (David's Restaurant).
All Saints Anglican (81 Main Street) will feature Kersti Finnie on the pipe organ built in 1947 by Casavant Freres of Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec — a historic firm that first came to international prominence in 1891 when they installed the organ in the Basilica of Notre-Dame in Montreal.
All Saints will also feature Anna Marie Holtom and John Wright screening ‘Stars of the Town’, one of a collection of 85 black and white films depicting day-to-day life in small town Southwestern Ontario captured by the late Rev. Leroy (Roy) Massecar (1918-1986) between 1947 to 1949. To supplement his modest Church stipend, the Rev. Massecar filmed people from various small towns, including Erin, and returned to screen the films at town halls and community centres, invited the ‘stars’ to attend, and charged an admission fee.
‘Stars of the Town’ will be screened at All Saints throughout the day. Admission is (now) free.
At 10:30am Bill Dinwoody will lead a walking tour, accompanied by Lisa Brusse of Credit Valley Conservation and local historian Steve Revell, from 68 Main Street (the Porcupine's Quill), past Mundell Lumber, up Mill Street to Woollen Mill Lane and then through the Conservation area to the site of the Woollen Mill (1840). An ample exemplar of the species Castor Canadensis has been sighted in the vicinity and dubbed ‘Danny’ in memory of Erin's first master builder of dams, Daniel McMillan. A (smaller) muskrat may also entertain on the Lower Pond (north of Charles Street dam).
Throughout the day maps will be available at The Porcupine’s Quill (68 Main Street) which will enable visitors to take self-guided walking tours of the downtown.
The Porcupine's Quill will also feature book signings by authors Richard Nevitt (A Caledon Sketchbook), Jane Lind (Joyce Wieland), and Shane Neilson (Complete Physical). Times to be announced.
At 2:00pm Steve Revell will lead a more challenging walking tour from 68 Main Street, past the Charles Street dam and Devonshire House to March Street and then up the switchback to the water tower and across the top of the moraine for an overview of the village and the edge of the Escarpment in the distance.
Both of the guided walking tours (10:30am and 2:00pm) will assemble at The Porcupine’s Quill, 68 Main Street (opposite the Esso gas station).
Other sites participating in the event include Devonshire House (3 Union Street, half a block west of the cenotaph) which was built in 1856 by Daniel McMillan's brother Charles; and Renaissance, at 60 Main Street, which has been described as ‘a wonderfully preserved example of nineteenth-century Ontario village commercial architecture’, and received a commendation from the Ontario Heritage Trust in the ‘Heritage Community Recognition Programme’ in 2007.
Century Church Theatre (Hillsburgh) is trying to arrange to have actors & actresses in period costume walk the Main Street of Erin Village throughout the day, and attend various events in the three historic churches ... All Saints Anglican, Erin United and Burns Presbyterian.
Saturday, September 25, 2010: Culture Days
The Porcupine's Quill will participate in Culture Days. Saturday, September 25. 10:00am to 4:00pm. Open house. Guest artists to be announced.
The Porcupine’s Quill is remarkable in Canadian publishing in that most of the physical production of our journal is completed in-house at the shop on the Main Street of Erin Village. We print on a twenty-five inch Heidelberg KORD, typically onto acid-free Zephyr Antique laid. The sheets are then folded, and sewn into signatures on a 1907 model Smyth National Book Sewing machine.
To take a virtual tour of the pressroom, visit us at YouTube for a discussion of offset printing in general, and the operation of a Heidelberg KORD in particular. Other videos include Four Colour Printing, Smyth Sewing and Wood Engraving. Photographs of production machinery used on these pages were taken by Sandra Traversy on site at the printing office of the Porcupine's Quill, December 2008.
The Porcupine's Quill would like to acknowledge the support of the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program. The financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP) is also gratefully acknowledged.