A Stratford Album: Memories of the Festival City

Melba Croft was a freelance historian living in Owen Sound, Ontario.

Whether or not you have visited Stratford, Ontario, this delightful volume will be hauntingly reminiscent of your own home town. Six colored illustrations remind one of childhood billboards, candy stores, and romantic moments in fragrant gardens. And this is not a figment of the author’s imagination but an affectionate portrayal of Stratford from the first home in 1832 to the raising of the tent over the first stage in 1953. The remarkable photographs and memorabilia (over 280 of them) are, in the author’s own words, “not in any chronological or geographic order.” For the most part individual faces are easily recognizable, adding genealogical significance. None of the eleven books on Stratford Theatre at the local library offers the same historical quaintness or descriptive captions. A Stratford Album is a gentle, warm, and proud statement revealing one of Canada’s most famed tourist attractions in every phase of its growth. A quality production.