Post by Rick (Admin) on Apr 16, 2013 20:09:00 GMT -5
Timmins Maple Leaf Hotel forever
TIMMINS - The stage clothes that were once displayed in the Shania Twain Centre have long since been returned to its original owner.
However, Twain’s outfits were not the only items of local historical or cultural value on display.
Memorabilia from the old Maple Leaf Hotel was put together in a way that gave visitors a sense of what it was like be in that historic tavern. The Maple Leaf was the career launch pad of both Twain and Stompin’ Tom Connors.
City officials assure the memorabilia from the hotel, which was torn down in 2006, will not be lost in the eventual demolition of that centre.
“The museum is taking some of the pieces,” said Karen Bachmann, curator of the Timmins Museum: National Exhibition Centre. “We will definitely be taking that big sign that hung outside of the building, the bar, some of the stools and some of the smaller photographs.
“They will become part of the museum’s collection so they will be available for future exhibitions.”
Bachmann said they have not moved the items out of the centre just yet.
“We are looking at doing that within the next few weeks.”
The Maple Leaf Tavern sign would not be the largest item to become part of the museum collection. In fact, it wouldn’t even be the largest sign.
“We have some quite large older signs from companies that used to operate in Timmins,” said Bachmann.
Some of these pieces, she said, date back to the 1920s.
Aside from the Maple Leaf memorabilia, another item from Twain site that is being retrieved and preserved by the museum is the Hollinger house that is currently located next door to the centre, behind the Underground Gold Mine Tour.
Bachmann said they are still in the “planning stages” of determining how they are going to move the house and where it will be re-established.
While the museum property would seem to be the obvious choice, Bachmann said they have figure out how to do it without eliminating a bunch of parking spaces or leaving the historic building vulnerable to vandals.
More than 300 of the homes were built to house Hollinger Mine employees and their families. The one being discussed by the museum is the last remaining original Hollinger house in Timmins.
All of these items are being moved since the Shania Twain Centre and Underground Gold Mine Tour site closed permanently at the end of January.
The city has agreed to sell the property to Goldcorp Porcupine Gold Mines for $5 million.
The sale’s closing date of June 28 is conditional on Goldcorp receiving its permits to proceed with its Hollinger open pit project.
www.timminspress.com/2013/04/16/the-maple-leaf-forever