In our weekly look at Timmins history, we continue with our theme of outdoor beautification.
Museum director-curator Karen Bachmann says in the early days, property owners were encouraged to plant lawns. It helped keep the dust down at a time when streets were not paved and there were no sidewalks.
“The hardware stores bring in all kinds of seeds,” she tells us. “So you could get grass seeds, you could get veggie seeds, you could get flower seeds, you could get all those good things.”
All that gardening activity spawned the first incarnations of a horticultural society.
They weren’t only on private property. Bachmann says the mines got in on the action, too.
“Particularly the McIntyre and the Hollinger actually had gardeners on staff and had huge gardening teams,” she observes. “So they embellished not only their properties, the McIntyre Park was one of those results as well, which they put a lot of effort into.”
Next week: the Hollinger Mine takes it to its townsite.
