ARRIVAL OF MUSEUM.....A GLOWING ACHIEVEMENT

WOODCHESTER HAD IT ALL - OR SO IT APPEARED

When Wayland Drew called me one evening, and asked if I had time to meet with him, regarding the idea I had recently proposed (in the local press) for a Bracebridge Historical Society (circa 1978 I believe), I was thrilled to have a potential partner. The initial response had been slow. I didn’t really know who Wayland (Buster) was, at that point, until my girlfriend at the time, Gail Smith, told me about the book he wrote on Lake Superior. I found out quite a bit about the good Mr. Drew, before I attended the meeting at his Bracebridge house. Here I was, a snotty nosed recent university graduate, with the ink still wet on the diploma, and I’m having an intimate meeting about Canadian and regional history, with an author of considerable national acclaim.

I wasn’t in that meeting five minutes, before I knew we would come to be good friends, and something terrific would happen up on that Woodchester Villa hillside. He had such a gentle, calming influence over a scared kid, who had just then, been happily, but politely put in his place. I was delighted to be his underling. And that never changed through many years and quite a few challenges. We didn’t always agree. Wayland and I got into a terrible fight over the removal of huge trees, that lined the steep lane up to the Bird house. He was trying to protect the century old pines and I advocated cutting them down. I was wrong. I told him so later. By then some of those trees had been removed. I won the initial argument, siding with the town, but it was no victory when I realized I’d crushed my partner.....a keen environmentalist who cared so much about the heritage of nature.....

Wayland may never have known this, because I certainly gave the appearance of being an unflinchingly independent, arrogant son-of-a-bitch, but he became one of the only mentors I’ve ever had. I read everything he’d put his pen to, and I thoroughly enjoyed his company for those early Historical Society evenings. He was an important man but you’d never know it, being in his company. It’s at Woodchester now that I see him so clearly. Every time I visit the site, I think about our first tour up to the Bird House, all boarded-up and desolate in early 1978. Gail and I walked around the property with him.....and despite how desperate the situation to reclaim the building, he had confidence something construction could happen here. And it did. He called his friends. Those friends called others, and it kept going and going, until there was a battalion of volunteers. I spent a lot of time in Wayland’s company, usually with my chin stuck against my chest, in absolute awe how he did what he did!

While to many Bracebridge citizens today, Woodchester Villa isn’t even a blip on the community radar. Why would it be? It’s just a museum. It has become largely a tourist-only venue, in its own thirty year history, although that was never the intent by those who faithfully tended the restoration. There is something important here that has been lost....just as much in need of refurbishing as the building itself. It’s the attitude we nursed along for that first decade, trying to make Bracebridge citizens as proud of the museum as we were. It was the exceptional show of citizen action, the diverse backgrounds and accomplishments of folks who worked on that restoration......, and set-up the museum, that inspires me even today about the power of a hometown to attain incredible milestones. I think now about the thousands of hours spent on paper work issues, negotiations for the Alvin Kaye collection, gardening, decorating, painting and trimming.....not to mention work spent on so many elaborate fundraising events in those early years. To many weary folks, exhausted from exquisite Empire Dinners, and both Blueberry and Strawberry Socials, that took so many, many hours away from family, home and business responsibilities. It did result in family stresses. I was threatened with divorce many times during my years of near-residence on-site. Yet, at the end of every event, at closing time every day, sitting on those steps of the front verandah, it all seemed worth the effort. It seemed so very relevant to Bracebridge.....and it’s true that all the work, and blind faith in what we were doing, tended to blind us to the reality many citizens still had no interest in visiting.....even when we suspended admission charges. We just didn’t have the money to invest in promotion and counted on the generosity of two local newspapers to help us out. But that was running into opposition as well, by the late 1980's, as their publishers decided the free-ride was over. It was a back breaker but they were right. We should have been able to pay for and profit from promotions. It didn’t happen that way. Then came the recession. Change was imminent.

When it comes to a thorough examination of Woodchester’s future, I will have no hesitation whatsoever, barking out in a loud, clear, and arrogant voice, about my very great pleasure in life, to have been associated with the grand effort of the Bracebridge Historical Society, the Bracebridge Rotary Club and the Town of Bracebridge, in a hometown partnership that produced a really fine museum. What might now be considered a nuisance expense, and a civic burden, was once considered the hallmark of citizen action. It was not just the “who’s who” of Bracebridge who rebuilt Woodchester, but a mixture of casual acquaintances who became friends; good and lasting friends.

The last time I spoke with Wayland Drew, it was at an outdoor literary event, sponsored by “Muskoka Ink,” held at Woodchester, long after we had both retired from the Historical Society. Quite ill, by this time, I remember him walking across the lawn to shake my hand, after I’d read a short paper about former Toronto Sun columnist, Paul Rimstead, a former Bracebridge lad. I didn’t know it prior to this, but Wayland and I were both Rimstead fans. He let me know I’d written an excellent tribute piece. From him, it was a moment to be cherished. The fact that he acknowledged my writing at all, was a great honor. We stood for awhile talking about the old days at Woodchester, all the work, the frustrations, anxious moments, and successes we both felt had been achieved on this beautiful hillside, overlooking the Muskoka River. It was such a perfect, warm and memorable evening. We shook hands, made the same trustful eye contact, we had on our first meeting, and wished each other well. And I knew this would probably be our last meeting. It was.

When it comes to making a decision about the property, there are many who should be consulted about its fate. There’s a lot more to this old building than what appears to the eye. It is very much a monument to so many people, who had the best intentions for the site.......but if they can be at fault for anything, it was a general misunderstanding of grants and revenues, long past those first five years of operation. The fact so many of these people were elderly at the beginning, meant an ongoing need to bring aboard enthusiastic young folks to carry the burden. It didn’t happen with the same vigor as it had begun. As the town debates this site’s future, I hope it will consider its history with some sensitivity and compassion......because to dismiss it casually, or disregard its storied past, would be unforgivable to all hometown values.

Let Town Council know what you think. They know my opinion!