Three prominent Oshawa properties awarded historical designations

Three prominent locations in Oshawa that hold a special place in the city’s history – and in its present – have been given historical protection by Council under the Ontario Heritage Act.

Union Cemetery at 760 King St. W., the Robert McLaughlin Gallery at 72 Queen Street (next to City Hall) and Memorial Park (110 Simcoe St. S.) were awarded the historical designation, a process established to recognize and protect properties of cultural heritage value or interest. Heritage Oshawa advises and assists Council on the preservation and promotion of cultural heritage.

“By designating these properties under the Ontario Heritage Act, City Council shows its dedication to supporting and recognizing Oshawa’s rich heritage.,” said Mayor Dan Carter. “These newest designations further honour and expand our city’s heritage and culture.”

“If these historical spaces could talk,” added Councillor Rick Kerr, “they would tell an amazing tale of community, transformation and growth that continues to be enjoyed by the community today. They are deserving additions to Oshawa’s extensive Ontario Heritage Act designations.”

Union Cemetery

Union Cemetery’s history dates back nearly 190 years to Robert Thornton, a Secessionist Minister (United Presbyterian), who arrived in Oshawa as a missionary from Scotland in 1833 and had the first church in the township built four years later.

It is the resting place of some of the city’s earliest pioneer families, with the oldest burial honours belonging to Alexander Armstrong, who died in 1837.

In 1922 the 30 acres of the cemetery had been acquired by George McLaughlin, who donated the property to the Town of Oshawa, along with a gift of $500 (big money in those days) to help bury WWI soldiers in the veterans’ section. The mausoleum would be added in 1926, and the office in 1934.

From these pioneer beginnings, Oshawa Union Cemetery has grown to be 32 acres in size with more than 25,000 burial locations. Many of the area’s most prominent residents and their children are buried in ‘Thornton’s Burying Ground,’ including the city’s most famous citizen, Col. Sam McLaughlin, with visitors greeted by wrought iron gates and a park-like setting that has pathways leading to monuments and grave markers with various materials, design motifs and surviving inscriptions surrounded by metal fencing and mature trees.

Col. Sam McLaughlin

Memorial Park

Memorial Park is a large green space in Oshawa’s downtown core that serves several social, spiritual, environmental and recreational needs. In addition to the parkland, Memorial Park contains several commemorative features, such as the full-size murals commemorating Oshawa’s fabled Ontario Regiment and the great race horse Northern Dancer, the McLaughlin Bandshell and the War Memorial and Cenotaph.

The bandshell was a gift from Oshawa philanthropist and industrialist Colonel ‘Sam’ McLaughlin, who funded the project in the middle of a war. McLaughlin told the Ontario Regimental and Civic Band, who was rehearsing in the Orange Hall over a grocery story until the army commandeered the band’s practice room for medical inspections, to “get the best architect, build the bandshell and send me the bill.”

No one is sure how McLaughlin got his hands on the structural steel needed for the job in the middle of wartime restrictions, but they didn’t call him Colonel for nothing and the bandshell was completed, at a cost of $18,000, in July 1942.

The War Memorial and Cenotaph is topped with a bronze statue and is unique in that it contains embedded stones of various colours and significant battlefield fragments from all over the world, as well as bronze tablets inscribed with names of fallen soldiers.

Memorial Park was also once the home of Pedlar People Limited, a manufacturing company which played an important role in Oshawa’s industrial history.

Robert McLaughlin Gallery

The Robert McLaughlin Gallery was established in 1967 to provide a permanent home for the arts in Oshawa. The gallery, initially built in 1969, was designed by an architect Hugh Allward and was a modernist structure made of stone, providing 6,000 square feet of exhibition space, offices and vault storage.

In 1987, the gallery underwent a $5.4 million expansion with a new design by famed architect Arthur Erickson, who utilized the existing structure and incorporated the original stone façade into the dramatic lobby with concrete columns and semi-circular windows. The lobby is filled with natural light, thanks to the glass barrel-vaulted skylights and soaring 35-foot ceilings.

The gallery is the largest in Durham and houses a significant collection of Canadian contemporary and modern artwork, including much of the work of the Group of Seven-influenced Painters Eleven, the first abstract painter’s group in Ontario.

“It’s very fitting to see these civic treasures given formal heritage designation, and hopefully this measure will further energize the conversation around other historic assets in the community,” said Councillor Derek Giberson.

Heritage Oshawa Chair Diane Stephen thanked the Robert McLaughlin board for their cooperation in the designation process.

“Heritage Oshawa is very pleased to be part of Ontario Heritage Designations as they acknowledge the rich history and heritage of our city and are always worthy of celebration.”