Site Visit - General · Wilfrid Laurier University Library Exhibits

Detail of Worn Red Brick Entranceway

Detail of a worn red brick entranceway on the Huronia site. Rough repairs have been done on some of the brickwork

Detail of Worn Red Brick Entranceway with Repairs

Detail of worn red brick entranceway at the Huronia site. Mortar repairs to the frame are rough.

Detail of a Worn Red Brick Wall

A detail of a worn red brick wall on the Huronia site. Mortar repairs are visible and rough.

Detail of Huronia Basement with Yellow Pipes

A detail of the basement at Huronia. There are large, dirty, bright yellow pipes with red shut off valves in the foreground. The ceiling is vaulted beige aluminum. Visible to the right is a very damaged textured brick wall with a beige-framed bay window. The white, square-patterned curtains are drawn on this window and behind it are fluorescent lights and some office-style furnishings. A brown asphalt shingled A-frame roof is visible in the left of the frame. This was Huronia's barbershop.

Huronia Boiler Room with Vaulted Ceiling

Huronia site boiler room ceiling pipes. the ceiling is vaulted with light coming from windows at the top. A wall fills the frame. It is brick on top and cement on the bottom. It is painted white and is dirt and water stained. The pipes are yellow, or white, or copper, or black. A few valves are visible on the pipes.

Huronia Boiler Room Yellow Pipes

Huronia site boiler room ceiling pipes. The pipes are yellow and repaired in one spot with white putty and tape. A red valve is visible. The ceiling is vaulted and light comes from windows at the top.

Quarry Tiled Wall in Huronia Kitchen Hall

Detail of a red quarry tiled wall in the Huronia kitchen hall with printed directions: 4 Bau Sunrise Au 2, 5 Pav, 6 Inf. These are abbreviations for resident lines to collect meals. Also visible on the wall are metal electrical outlets.

Blue Door with Padlock Hasp and Louvers

A light blue door with four louvers in each corner. Louvers are designed to allow air to circulate while keeping the door shut. There is a hasp on the door. A hasp is the hardware required for a padlock. The knob on the light blue door is brass.

Huronia Site Kitchen Hall

The Huronia site kitchen hall. The hall has been stripped of kitchen equipment. The floor is cement. The walls are quarry tiles a third of the way up, with the remainder painted sky blue. There are multiple grease vents, including ones that hang in the middle of the room attached to a large silver industrial hood. Industrial pendant lights hang from the high ceiling, which is also sky blue. There is a brown kitchen door with butcher's paper taped to its window at the furthest end of the room, with two large white fire extinguishers to its left.

Partitioned Cottage Interior

A partitioned cottage interior. The partitions are white painted wood on the lower half and glass on top half. Some partitions feature flimsy blue curtains. The walls are beige to the hallway point and white to the ceiling. The ceiling is small square white acoustic panels, and has white fans and opaque white glass ceiling lamps. The floor is terrazzo.

Huronia Site Hallway

Huronia site hallway. A dim hallway with a damaged red linoleum tiled floor. The walls are light blue to the midway and white to the ceiling. There are doorways down the hallway. On the left wall is a red support bar. Above the bar is what appears to be a framed directory and map of the institution. The ceiling is plaster and damaged in spots, with fluorescent tube lights. There are two red lit exits signs. One red lit exit sign is above a doorway on the right wall, the other is above a fire exit with a window at the end of the hallway. This window on the fire exit door provides the dim light in the hallway.

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Building on the grounds. Detail of the administrative red brick building's archway and windows, some rectangular and some arched, with white frames.

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A detail of one of the cottages. It is a red brick building with a white doorway and white framed windows. An evergreen tree is in the foreground.

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Huronia site cemetery sign

Black Metal Plaque on Grounds

A black metal plaque with silver text on Huronia grounds that reads: "From 1876 to 2009 many thousands of children and adults with developmental disabilities and other conditions resided in the wards, called "cottages", of this institution. In 2013, the Government of Ontario issued an apology to the former residents for the conditions over time." The plaque includes a French translation of this text.

Recounting Huronia Community Archive