Huntsville: Pictures from the Past

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.

Anyone interested in the early days of Ontario will enjoy this excellent book (winner of both the American Association for State and Local History Award and a Heritage Canada Communications Award).

The concept for the work puts historic photos first; text relates to the photos. All the photos were taken before 1939, so there’s a definite sense of times past here. All too often local histories include material from the 1950s and 1960s, which tends to weaken the impression of another era. With Huntsville, the selection process called for photographic quality as well as interesting content. The result is a fascinating album, a portrait of the town’s main street, businesses, industries, houses, churches, hotels, schools, resorts, stores, and cottages.

The informative and anecdotal text is informal but well edited. It is a great example of what a local history should be, but seldom is.

While the material will of course have special meaning to anyone who has been to the town of Huntsville, the book has sufficient quality to achieve that universal quality which makes it of interest to anyone who has a curiosity about life in Ontario before World War II.