Historic Windsor

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

Windsor, Nova Scotia, established c. 1760, was a significant urban
centre throughout the Victorian era and both World Wars. It is a place
where many things happened first. It had the first horse racetrack in
Canada and the first agricultural fair in North America. It was home to
Canada’s first university and granted the first arts and theology
degrees in Canada. It was in Windsor that the first game of “ice
hurley” (hockey) was played and the first Canadian covered ice rink
was built. And those ubiquitous potted mums sold by every florist? They
were developed in Windsor.

During World War II, the town was home to one of the largest army
training camps in Canada and had a large hospital to treat war
casualties. Early industries included shipbuilding, gypsum quarries, and
textile and furniture factories. Its most famous citizen was Thomas
Chandler Haliburton, a lawyer, judge, politician, and writer/humorist
and the originator of many sayings that have become part of our
language, such as “sharp as a tack” and “quick as a wink.”

Archival photos—at least 165 of them—supported by extensive,
detailed captions, form the innovative organizational structure for the
book. Within this format, Vaughan covers transportation, military life,
the Great Fire of 1897, schools, churches, industries, commerce, sports,
special events, and prominent citizens.

Local histories, while always of interest for the insights they give
into our past, are usually messy things, a mishmash of disorganized bits
assembled by well-meaning amateurs. That’s where Vaughan’s work is
refreshingly different. It is structured. It is organized. It’s crisp,
to the point, and has the readability that only comes from professional
writing and editing.