Peterborough’s history should not be up for sale
When Jennifer Jones, the city’s acting director of arts and culture, reported that no one has bought naming rights for the library at the twin pad arena under construction in Morrow Park, Mayor Jeff Leal’s response was a welcome one.
The library is a replacement for the DelaFosse Library, which served the city’s south end from 1965 until 2020. It was named after Frederick Montague de la Fosse, as well it should have been.
De la Fosse was Peterborough’s first chief librarian, a reportedly welcoming presence in the old Carnegie library from its start in 1911 until his retirement in 1946.
In fact, he was on staff in 1910, a year before the library’s doors actually opened.
Generations of book-reading citizens of all ages owed him a lot. He deserves to have his name on a branch of the library he did so much to establish.
The mayor clearly thinks so, too.
“I can only encourage you to keep the name,” he told Jones. “It really has a lot of history with it.”
“Noted,” Jones responded.
Let us hope the library board agrees.
Certainly hairdresser Marcy does. A south-end resident who reads, she frequented the DelaFosse library.
“I knew they were moving it,” she said Saturday morning, blow-dryer in hand. “I certainly had no idea they were going to change the name. They shouldn’t do that.”
We should hold on to our history. And Frederick Montague de la Fosse is certainly part of Peterborough’s history. His name should not be for sale.
His personal history is interesting. Who would have thought that a child born in 1860 at a military station in Bengal, India, would eventually make his way to a library on George Street in Peterborough, Canada? And, an author himself, stay there for 36 years — through two world wars and the Great Depression — watching the reading habits of his adopted town change as it changed.
Local history is important and should be taught in school, where not a lot of history of any kind seems to be taught any more. It is only on the curriculum for a couple of grades of elementary school and Grade 10. Even then, it is the big picture that is stressed. World history and national history.
But what about the history that surrounds the students day-by-day, history that they can see and feel?
It can be found on street names, in cemeteries, on buildings.
Do you live on Weller Street? Who was Judge Charles A. Weller? Or on Albertus? Did you know that was named after Sir George Albertus Cox, a Peterborough boy who became one of Canada’s richest men? The same fellow Cox Terrace, once threatened with destruction, now a national historic site, is named for.
Who was Sir Sandford Fleming? What did he have to do with Peterborough?
Who were the first people to live here? What was life like for them?
Who was Richard Birdsall Rogers? Or Mark Burnham? How did they contribute to the city we know today?
Why is Bolivar Street named after a South American hero? Or George Street for an English king? (I had to explain to my toddler son, George, that, no, it was not named after him. It was probably his first traumatic experience.)
We should teach our children the history on their doorstep so that they know and appreciate the place they call home.
And we should not trade honouring those who helped build that place for a mess of cash.