What’s called “the built history of Timmins” is being celebrated all this week. It’s part of Doors Open Ontario and has mostly gone online due to the pandemic.
But Timmins museum director-curator Karen Bachmann says some of the eleven sites will be open for in-person visits this Saturday, September 26th. She’s also encouraging you to visit the Whitney Cemetery to learn about the 1911 Porcupine Fire and the big cemetery in Timmins.
“If you visit the Timmins Cemetery, you’ll find Bill Barilko’s grave,” Bachmann notes, targetting Toronto Maple Leafs fans. “You’ll also find the mass grave that was created fro the Hollinger Mine Disaster in 1928 and you’ll learn a little bit about some of the older pioneers from the community who are buried there.”
Thirty-nine miners died in that mine fire on February 10th, 1928.
The Timmins Museum will be open, as will the Hollinger house, right outside its front door.
Bachmann says the house has a small exhibit room that provides the history of the houses in he context of the mine, and how they fit into the development of Timmins.
“If you go through, you’ll just get a great sense of what it was like to live at that time, with the potbellied stove and the teeny tiny bathroom and trying to fit a very large family into a building that really wasn’t that big.”
St. Matthew’s Cathedral might be open to view the stained glass windows, and the Timmins fire hall, to check out its trucks. For other sites open to the public, go to the Doors Open Timmins website.