Every historian has suffered the experience of not noticing or overlooking an important document. Such is the case with the photograph with this column. It is from an old glass plate negative, and has rested in the Wellington County Museum and Archives for at least 20 years. Few, if any, local historians have looked at it, because the catalogue system identifies it as “unknown village.”
The person who did the cataloguing either looked at the negative from the wrong side, or did not have knowledge to identify the scene.
Archives staff recently had another look at the picture and decided that it must be Elora, based on some recognizable buildings. The negative bears the name of Elora photographer John Connon, so it is strange the person doing the initial cataloguing did not try harder to identify the scene. I was happy to confirm staff’s conclusions. Based on the buildings visible, I would date the photo to summer of 1867. Elora’s pioneering photographer, Thomas Connon, took a number of outdoor views in 1866 and 1867, and this seems to be one. It is unusual because it looks at the village from the north. Most photographs from that series were taken from the opposite side of Elora, probably because Connon wished to use every bit of light available when exposing very slow emulsion on his glass plates. The name of John Connon on the negative merely indicates ownership. John was five when the plate was exposed.
Based on the alignments of identifiable buildings, I believe Thomas Connon stood near the corner of David and Irvine Streets, the site of St. Mary’s Roman Catholic School. That was and is the highest point on Elora’s north side.
Thomas Connon liked to use a short telephoto lens in outdoor photographs. That resulted in more detail, but distances are distorted, causing frustration to anyone trying to place buildings. The distant structures are roughly a mile away, but appear much closer.
The negative has suffered much deterioration over the past 140 years. As well, it was not one of Connon’s better shots. It is slightly overexposed, and the contrast is weak. Much detail that should be visible is murky. Perhaps that is why neither he nor John produced prints of the scene, as they did with several other shots from 1866 and 1867.
Despite its technical deficiencies, the photograph is one to quicken the pulse of anyone with a serious interest in Elora history. It is the earliest shot of several Elora buildings, and the only known photograph of a couple more.
Near the left side of the picture is a fairly large rectangular building, with a second structure directly behind it. That is an early one-storey version of the Elora Public School, now the Elora Centre for the Arts. The rear portion is the girls school of 1856. To the front, with the small bell tower over the door, is the new boys school, relocated in 1866 from a log building on McNab Street.
The building, with its cottage roof, contained two classrooms. The bell tower remained vacant until 1871, when the school board broke down and purchased a bell. Contractors finished construction in October 1866, so this is a very new structure. More changes were in the near future. A second storey went on the rear girls school portion in 1871, and in 1874 the boys school underwent a major rebuilding, with a wing extending to the north and a second storey to the entire structure. That increased its capacity from two to six classrooms.
Moving to the right, the next large structure is the original Knox Church, a wooden building constructed in 1848 in the small square on Church Street. This is a rare broadside view. Other photographs of the building show only the front facade. The building’s future life was short when Connon took this picture. It was demolished in 1873 to make way for the current Knox Church.
The next large structure to the right is the Wesleyan Methodist Church, now Elora United. It was the first of Elora’s large church buildings, and was barely five years old at the time of this photograph.
Near the right side of the picture, and partially obscured by other structures, is the Dalby House, constructed in 1865, and the best of Elora’s six hotels in 1867. Rear views of the Dalby House are rare. Plainly visible here is the white brick used around the windows, a feature now undetectable under layers of paint.
The large roof near the hotel is that of the Dalby House livery stable. In 1867. it was the headquarters of Robert Dalby’s stagecoach lines to Guelph, Fergus, and points north and west in Wellington County. At various times the lines ran to Glen Allan, Hollen, and Clifford. It was something of a rarity in that it was built of stone, and survives today as the home of Elora’s Shoppers Drug Mart.
The real treat in the photograph is in the far distance, near the centre of the picture, and silhouetted against the dense forest. That is the original St. John’s Church. I believe this is the only existing photograph of the building, though it does appear in a painting by Connon. It was a wood structure, and one of the oldest in Elora, dating from 1839, though work was not finished until 1842. Like Knox Church, it was on borrowed time. The congregation began planning for a new church in 1865, but construction would not start until 1872.
This photograph, now that it is properly identified, will be a major resource to those interested in Elora’s history of the 1860s, a period when the village went through a boom in building, and was a major trading centre for a good portion of Wellington County to the north and west.
Next week: A closer look at the portion of the photograph showing the first St. John’s Church, and some of the early history of that congregation.
