Baseball, Bond, bones, bowling, books, heirs and heirlooms
By Mark Schadenberg
BEACHVILLE – There truly is a wonderful gem of a museum in Beachville.
I call it the Victorian home of baseball as the world’s first recorded
baseball game took place in Beachville in 1838 and even though the Canadian
baseball hall of fame is located in St. Marys, the Beachville museum boasts its
own commemorative display to honour its place in the history books.
The Beachville District Museum site was built soon after that first
ball game of rounders (there were four bases and not three at the time) in 1851 – not to
recognize baseball, but as a residence for a family operating the lime quarry. Apparently
the second floor was added to the structure in 1902.
The museum folks would buy the building (see blog link below) for two
dollars in 1992 after it had been utilized as offices and storage for Domtar.
Just to re-fresh myself on its many permanent displays, I walked
through the museum this week -- on Nov. 26.
One of the on-going exhibits is Mastadon bones, which proves the
location has something for everyone. Discovered on a Zorra / West Oxford farm owned by the
Bond family, it would appear the lower jaw of a mammoth-like animal is part of
the assemblage locked in a glass case.
Since Christmas is all about toys and Santa (for this story it is
anyway), the Beachville museum has a second-floor room dedicated to toys. Old
board games, marbles, puzzles and dolls is just the beginning of a long list of
treasures to see. If you’re searching for a vintage Atari game system with
tennis and hockey, you will be out of luck as everything dates back at least 60
years. There is a table-top five-pin bowling game though, which I was tempted to try,
but naturally the signs say: ‘do not touch.’
On an obvious somber mood, the current display on the main floor recognizes
Remembrance Day and it includes many photos, wartime heirlooms, uniforms and
helmets, letters and stories about the poppy and/or sacrifices.
Schools And Maps
History of Oxford County is seen throughout the building as there are
maps, a model (inside a glass case of course) of what Beachville would have
looked like before 1875, noting the streets and businesses. The pictured history includes descriptions of old county schools in dots on the map even I
had not heard about before.
There is most certainly quite a thorough depiction of the history of
the Beachville lime quarry as well, including lineage of ownership, artifacts,
books and rocks.
A unique sewing room has ancient sewing machines on display, along
with quilts and what are likely patterns for styles of the era.
Another second floor room is set up to replicate a general store from
the 1800’s.
The Price To Pay
The admission is $5 for adults, students are $3, while children under
5 are free. Hours are Monday – Saturday, 9:30 – 4:30; and Sunday, 1 – 4:30. I
would think that any type of donation would cover your admission, especially if
you attended with a group of folks. The curator certainly didn’t insist on me
dropping off all my coins.
A museum is not complete without a small gift shop area. Shirts and hats are for sale,
but so are signed copies of the book The Baseball Creation Myth by London Free
Press reporter Chip Martin, which I have written about in a previous blog.
For more details and specific information, contact
the museum at (519) 423-6497, visit www.beachvilledistrictmuseum.ca
or email bmchin@execulink.com
The Beachville museum is on Beachville Road (County Rd 9) just east of
County Road 6.
Mark
Schadenberg, Sales Representative
Royal
LePage Triland Realty
757 Dundas
St, Woodstock
www.wesellwoodstock.com
(519) 537-1553,
cell or text
Email:
mschadenberg@rogers.com
Twitter:
markroyallepage
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