January 2025 Update from your Executive:
To members and friends of the Swansea Historical Society, we wish you good health, happiness, and prosperity for 2025.
We are pleased to remind you that the 2025 Swansea Community Calendar has been available for purchase since early December. As in past years, the calendar includes dates of upcoming community events and a selection of historic photographs of the area, and the price is being held at $10.00 per copy. Calendars can be purchased over-the-counter at the office of the Swansea Town Hall, or at any SHS events. We can also receive orders by telephone (647-859-3901), via email, or regular mail (95 Lavinia Ave., Box 102, Toronto, Ontario M6S 3H9), for calendars to be mailed to you — or hand-delivered if you are in the area. (A hearty “thank-you” to Lance Gleich and Wallace Boustead for their roles in making the annual calendar a success once again).
Monthly SHS meeting, Wednesday evening, February 5, 7:30 pm
Also, please mark your calendars for the next meeting of the Swansea Historical Society, scheduled for 8 pm, Wednesday evening, February 5, 2025. Our speaker for February will be Hilary Dawson. Her topic will be “Finding 19th-Century Black History in Toronto”.
February is Black History Month, and we have invited Hilary to share her interesting and little-known stories concerning the contributions of Toronto’s Black community in the 1800s. Hilary spoke to the Swansea Historical Society on a related topic more than 20 years ago, and we are delighted that she will be returning in February.
The February meeting will be conducted in a hybrid format so that participants can attend in-person at the Swansea Town Hall or connect on-line using the Zoom tool. For those who prefer to join us on-line, a Zoom link will be provided closer to the meeting date. The Zoom connection will be open before 7:30 pm. If possible, we suggest that on-line participants start tuning in as soon as the link is open, so that we can be ready to kick off the meeting at 7:30 pm.
All are welcome!!
Swansea Historical Society
January 2025
Membership
As of September 1, 2023, we will be in a new membership year which extends to August 31, 2024. Some of you have already paid your membership for 2023-2024, and we thank you. If you have not yet paid your membership fees for 2023-2024, we invite you to do so at your earliest convenience. Fees can be paid at any SHS events, or payments can be sent to: 95 Lavinia Avenue, Box 102, Toronto, M6S 3H9, or fees can be paid electronically by means of e-transfer to: swanseahistoricalsociety@gmail.com .
If you are using the e-transfer option, in order to assist our Treasurer, please use the “message” area to indicate whether your payment is for a single membership, family membership, and/or donation, etc. Also, if you are a new member joining for the first time, please send us a follow-up e-mail with your contact information
For many years, the annual membership fees have been held at $15 for an individual and $20 for a family. In view of rising costs, your Executive has been considering the option of increasing the fees and bringing them more in line with other organizations in the area. This could be brought before the membership for consideration at the October AGM. In the meantime, we encourage you to renew your membership now, while the current fee structure is still in place.
Your fees help to offset many of the costs incurred by the Society in its ongoing operations. If you are reading this and you are not already a member of the Swansea Historical Society, please join us so that you can be added to our mailing list and help support this worthy cause.
Thank you.
Swansea Historical Society
Read more about Swansea Historical Society membership
Volunteer!
The Swansea Historical Society is a registered charity – and all of its work is done by a small group of dedicated volunteers. We can always benefit from more help and fresh ideas!
Previous experience is not a requirement, and you don’t have be an expert in local history in order to participate. We have some vacancies that need to be filled listed here. In addition to filling jobs with ongoing responsibilities, we are also happy to welcome people on-board as “Executive Members Without Portfolio”, who may be asked to participate in specific initiatives from time to time.
Please give some thought as to how you could contribute even a small amount of your time and talent, and let us know of any ideas you might have. Or, perhaps you know of someone you would like to recommend (with that person’s permission) for a position on the Executive. Read more about Volunteering at the Swansea Historical Society.
Now available* at Swansea Town Hall: Love is Blind” by Ruth Vallis.
Ruth Vallis is a long-time resident of Swansea and a long-time member and supporter of the Swansea Historical Society. She was our featured speaker for the December 2022 SHS meeting on Zoom, where she spoke about her career as a professional physiotherapist, her life as a political activist, and some of the many amazing things she has accomplished while having been blind since before the age of three. Ruth’s recently-published book Love is Blind includes many more details of her remarkable experiences.
Love is Blind is published by Friesen Press. This truly inspiring book can be purchased at select book stores. Also, until mid-January 2023, Ruth’s book may be purchased over-the-counter at the office of the Swansea Town Hall, 95 Lavinia Avenue, for the special members’ price of $20.00 for a single copy, or the discounted price of $15.00 per copy for any members wishing to buy 2 or more copies. We highly recommend this book as a unique Christmas gift.
Please note: If you plan to purchase copies of Ruth’s book at the Town Hall, we ask that you please bring cash, as the Town Hall is not able to deal with credit or debit cards for this type of transaction.
*While quantities last
We now accept payments electronically
In addition, we are pleased to remind you that the Swansea Historical Society can now accept payments electronically. E-transfers directed to swanseahistoricalsociety@gmail.com will result in a direct deposit to the SHS bank account at Scotiabank. This e-transfer approach can be used to pay membership fees, purchase publications, make donations to the Society, etc. We invite you to give it a try. If you are sending money by e-transfer, please use the “message” (or “notes”?) area to identify the purpose of your payment.
Membership: In normal times, we would be in a new membership year starting September 1, 2021. Last year, we extended a special one-time offer to our members: any renewals or new memberships were to be considered valid for a two-year term, from September 1, 2020, to August 31, 2022, at the one-year rate ($15 for an individual and $20 for a family). If you have not renewed your membership after August 2020, we invite you to do so now, as you are technically in arrears. In the absence of monthly meetings, you can send your payment to: 95 Lavinia Avenue, Box 102, Toronto, M6S 3H9. However, since we have only very occasional access to our mail-box at the Town Hall, we are encouraging our members, if possible, to pay their fees electronically by means of e-transfer to: swanseahistoricalsociety@gmail.com . As requested above, in order to assist our Treasurer, please use the “message” (or “notes”?) area to indicate whether your payment is for a single membership, family membership, and/or donation, etc.
Your fees help to offset many of the costs incurred by the Society in its ongoing operations. If you are reading this and you are not already a member of the Swansea Historical Society, please join us so that you can be added to our mailing list and help support this worthy cause.
Communicating with Your Society: During the pandemic, we are doing our best to respond to all requests, although our answers may be delayed somewhat because we have limited access to our files at the Town Hall. In the meantime, we invite you to continue following our activities through this website and the website of the Swansea Town Hall www.swanseatownhall.ca . You can also follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/Swansea_History
or Instagram at www.instagram.com/swansea_history.
If you wish to contact us, the Society’s mobile telephone number is 647-859-3901, and you can send e-mails to: swanseahistoricalsociety@gmail.com or swancnews@gmail.com or through the SHS website. Our mailing address is 95 Lavinia Avenue, Box 102, Toronto ON M6S 3H9. However, we suggest that you use email or telephone where possible, since we have only very occasional access to our mail-box at the Town Hall. Your comments and suggestions are always most welcome, and please let us know of any developments that may be of interest to the Society and its members.
Wanted
Police historian Steven Green is looking for any information, photos, or artefacts related to the Swansea Police Force. If you had a family member on the Force, he would love to document your stories or take photos of any artefacts in order for him to publish an article on this subject. Steven can be contacted at 416-873-8893 or by email at walkthebeat@sympatico.ca.