The Knox Presbyterian Church in Conn will open its doors to the public once again on Sept. 23, revealing the rich history of the village and its people.
Doors Open is a province-wide initiative held throughout the year to invite the public into cultural and heritage sites and businesses, some not typically open to the public.
Wellington North will feature nine sites throughout the township on Sept. 23, including libraries, the Lynes Blacksmith Shop in Kenilworth, the Mount Forest Museum and Archives and more.
This year, volunteers at Knox Presbyterian Church have added a new exhibit that gives a bird’s-eye view of the hamlet.
The mock community allows visitors to explore the hamlet, just as it is laid out in the real world. Each property has a list of past owners as well as photos of the buildings that stood on the land.
“It was a thriving community,” said Penny Renken, a member of the church’s Doors Open committee.
“The streets are set up exactly as the blocks outside; we have a lot of businesses that are no longer here, like the cheese factory and the chopping mill, and the saw mill, the telephone company, the post office, hotels.”
Conn, once named Evansville then Bells Corners, dates back to 1857 when the plot of land was first purchased for 80 pounds. It was then sold in 1866, one year before Canada’s Confederation, to William Evans. His two sons took over the land and a village was built and registered in 1876.
It wasn’t until a post office was required in the village, which had a population of 300 to 400 people at its largest, that the name Conn came to be.
“The post office was the thing that did it,” explained Janet de Groot, Doors Open committee member.
Robert Conn, a hotel owner in the village, applied to the government for a post office but the names Evansville and Bells Corners had already been taken.
“His name was Robert Conn and they suggested, ‘Why don’t you call it Conn?’ And that’s how it got its name,” said de Groot.
The church decided to take on the pictorial history project for Doors Open because the theme this year is “identity.”
“So we took identity, Canada’s 150th, (and) we went with the identity of Conn going back approximately 150 years,” said Renken.
The group also has a display featuring Conn’s First World War veterans in the church’s sanctuary, as well as a period high tea by donation held in the basement.
Visitors can dive into the history of the 17 individuals of the church’s congregation that served in the First World War, including their roles in the famous battles that occurred.
In the front of the church, a plaque reads, “In honor of our young men who fought for our liberties in the Great War 1914-1919” and lists two men who were killed in action and 15 men who volunteered to serve.
“That has stood there my whole life and I didn’t pay much attention to it, until we researched all those guys,” said de Groot.
“This is the research we found all from this church,” she said pointing to the numerous displays.
De Groot added the displays took 500 volunteer hours to put together for the 2014 Doors Open event, plus another 500 hours for the mock display this year.
Doors Open Wellington North takes place Sept. 23 from 10am to 4pm at nine locations around the township.
For more information and a map of the locations, visit doorsopenontario.on.ca.
