Plenty of Nothing

Frontenac County Court House

Queen's University Architecture

Old Ontario

Amherst Train Station

Macdonald's House

The Bridge to Those Days Has Washed Out

Inside Kingston City Hall

Ontario Bank

Montreal Bridges

Broom and Shovel

Sackville New Brunswick has a little bit of a plaque problem. Where other towns have graffiti, Sackville has plaques. There are plaques to persons and places and historical events. Everywhere. Not many towns of 5000 people come with so many explanatory notes.

One of the side effects of a high plaque policy like Sackville's is the temptation it offers landlords to treat the plaque as the equivalent of the building. Conceivably you might get away with a wanton act of destruction so long as you follow it up with a display of public remembrance. If Mount Allison University actually does go through with the demolition of its heritage Memorial Library you can be pretty sure they'll erect a memorial to the memorial right afterward, like the folly they built out of bits and pieces of Palmer Hall following its destruction. I'm sure they'll be all pious about it when they do, but it's a bit like the murderer offering to pay for the headstone. 

One monument that any town would be glad to have is the sculpture of Harold Geddes' broom and shovel, at the corner of Bridge and Main Streets. Not many towns erect public art to a guy who swept the sidewalk. That's nice, unexpected and one of a kind. 

Another good piece of public art is that page of Douglas Lochhead's book High Marsh Road on the green telephone switch box in the background. There are laminated pages attached to telephone poles all along Main Street and out to the highway, each with a photo by Thaddeus Holownia and a poem by Lochhead, poet laureate of Sackville up until his death not very long ago. They are a very good introduction to the nature of the place if you have just got off the bus at Tim's and are walking in.

Alumni and family members will be walking in in a few weeks for class reunions and convocation, at which time the university administration will be touting its decision to knock down another one of its heritage buildings. A shovel and broom will come in handy then. D