Tom Beedham

John McCrae’s “In Flanders Fields” is usually reserved for November reading, if not only on Nov. 11, Remembrance Day. But the City of Guelph plays host to another heritage symbol representing the World War I field surgeon Lieutenant-Colonel-cum-poet John McCrae.

McCrae’s birthplace, Guelph’s McCrae House makes remembrance a year-round occupation.

Built circa 1858, the McCrae family owned the small limestone cottage on Water St. from 1858 to 1873, when others came to occupy its quarters. Several other families have lived in the house since the McCrae family’s departure, but in 1966, a group of three local families that wanted to preserve the small limestone cottage as a privately-operated museum when they learned of its historical significance even mortgaged their homes in order to purchase the home.

Since refurbished to period-specific detail and boasting an award-winning garden that reflects the time period of the mid-to-late 1800s, the house has been operated by the City of Guelph in conjunction with the Guelph Civic Museum since 1983.

McCrae’s service medallions, letters, pictures, tableware and other objects that illustrate chapters of McCrae’s life: growing up in Guelph, time spent working as a doctor, and service in the war dominate much of the house. Visitors can even look in on an accurate restoration of what the icon’s bedroom might have looked like, complete with some actual artifacts that McCrae owned.

While exhibitions in the house interpret the life and legacy of John McCrae, the house also concerns itself with a continual focus on other aspects of the WWI era.

Over the years, the house has featured exhibits focusing on significant figures that served in the First World War as well as articles that typify what it was like to be alive during WWI, both at home and on the frontlines.

Outside of the house, summer activities like history camps and special teas in the garden are held, furthering the yearlong opportunities the house offers the Guelph community to be educated on a critical time in our cultural history.

While Remembrance Day occupies but a single space on our calendars, the McCrae house serves as a gentle reminder that our wars weren’t fought over the course of a day.

 

Rememberance Day ceremonies in Guelph:

http://www.theontarion.com/2011/11/remembrance-day-in-guelph/

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