Our recent travels on the Trans-Canada Trail took us to Penetanguishene – pronounced Pen-ah-tang-gwish-een – where we made a rather interesting find.
It was a cute old building with the windows and doors replaced with large photographs – I’m assuming from this town’s past.
The entrance to the Water Works shows the iconic view from the top of the hill on Main Street looking down to the harbour below.
What little history I could find about this structure, indicated that it used to be a water pumping station for the developing town. It was operated manually and required an attendant onsite 24 hours a day. A small room with a cot and stove for heat was built in the pumping house for the comfort of the attendant on duty.
As recently as 6 years ago, the building was being considered for heritage status, but there were concerns that it had become too derelict and couldn’t be salvaged without considerable cost. The foundation was crumbling and vandals had broken most of the original windows.
Obviously the building has since been rescued, but I could find no information about the restoration. Based on some research I’ve done, it appears that the photos gracing the sides of the building are of local athletes who gained international recognition in their field of sport.
An interesting and unexpected find in a pretty little town!
This post is brought to you by Thursday Doors, is a weekly photo feature hosted by Norm Frampton at Norm 2.0.
My Life Lived Full 
I love your photos! The architecture is stunning!
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Thanks 🙂 Glad you liked it!
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Lovely photographs as always! What a pretty building and a neat way to keep it part of the community.
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It just goes to show that sometimes a simple idea can have a big impact 🙂
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I love how the windows allow us to look into the past. And thanks for the tip on how to say the name.
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Most people, including the locals, just call it Penetang because it’s such a mouthful 🙂
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What a nice way to save the building, Joanne, and it doesn’t look too expensive. We have some empty buildings in my little town that could be dressed up with old photos. 😀
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That was my impression too. I doubt this was a very expensive solution (although I’m sure fixing the foundation was a much bigger problem) and it had a big bang impact.
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Interesting post and pictures. Good Luck saving the water works.
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I applaud this small community for the unique way they have found to both preserve this little building and honour their international athletes at the same time.
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What a great find! I love how they put photographs into the window spaces. It add a whole new dimension to its character. 🙂
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So true. The simple concept of a photo in the window and door space did give this little building a new character 🙂
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Joanne, perhaps it is my French background seeped in a history of seeing grand buildings go through the cycle of construction/reconstruction, splendor and decadence before being reborn. It is the very value of these historic constructions to outlive each and all of us and to be recreated to play a role in the lives of successive generations. The black and white photograph of the main street years ago makes for a fantastic Thursday door! Or any day of the week for that matter…..
Ben
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So eloquently expressed, Ben. That’s a dimension I often overlook – that these historic buildings were significant in the lives of those before us, they outlive us, and then play a role in the lives of those who succeed us. There’s a little bit of the phoenix in them 🙂
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Very cool images and concept!
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Some very clever thinking went into this one 🙂
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Wonderful that someone saved this pretty little building. You are becoming an architecture detective.
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oooo – I always wanted to be like Nancy Drew 😉
You make a good point though. I find these little treasures and then spend hours trying to research them 🙂
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That’s a cute waterworks building, Joanne. It was ingenious to cover the door and windows with the photographs. It has to be one-of-a-kind as I haven’t seen anything like that before.
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Me either MJ. I’ve said it many times – I’m always in awe of creative people.
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What a great idea, putting those lovely black and white images on the doors and windows. It’s a beautiful little building.
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That is a special find! So cute.
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I agree … it has a high cute factor 🙂
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Am glad they did what they could to keep this building from crumbling even more! Nice find, Joanne!
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Thanks 🙂
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Love what they did with the windows! Classy.
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It’s a very different and creative solution. I love it too.
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Now here someone would buy it and turn it into a home!
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The sad part is that I think the building isn’t actually used for anything.
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That is sad. A community hall or a library if not a home would make sense.
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What a lovely find! I love the brick, and the old image you found of the building. That original door was lovely.
I think it’s a brilliant idea someone had to put up the images of the town from days gone by. It further enhances the history.
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I agree – especially honouring successful international level athletes from the community. For such a small town, they had a remarkable amount of local talent.
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What an interesting little building Joanne. A very creative solution in replacement of the windows!
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Very creative! I think the only thing missing was some kind of information plaque. If you’re going to honour people by putting up giant photographs of them, then include some information that summarizes their achievement.
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That is a spectacular find! I’ve never seen anything like that (with the pictures in the windows and doors.) I think that’s a great way to tell a story and save a bit of history. 🙂
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I love it when I find a creative solution like this. Kudos to whoever dreamed it up, because I’ve never seen anything like it either.
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That’s a really interesting and unique little building. I’ve never seen anything like the doors and windows, but the brick arch over the door is [was] common around here. Good find.
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I think it’s a great way to introduce local history to the community. The only thing I thought was missing was some kind of commemorative plaque providing information about that history.
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Such a beautiful building, Joanne! It’s too bad that you could not find out more information about its restoration. I would love to read more!
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If you’re interested, I just commented back to Norm about the 3 athletes featured on the side of the building. It took quite a bit of digging, but I was rather impressed that such a small community could produce so many world class athletes.
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Wonderful stuff! It’s always nice when a heritage building can be saved. I do like the idea of those photos in place of the doors and windows.
I guess it makes me VERY Canadian to know who that curler is among the local athletes, right?
Glenn Howard – several time Canadian and world champion. Not sure about the track star or the ball player though 😉
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You’re good!! I had to do some pretty deep digging to find out who they were.
I’m not a curler, so I didn’t know Glenn Howard before, but now I do 🙂
The runner was a female track star named Jean Thompson who participated in the Summer Olympics in 1928 when women were first allowed to compete in athletics and gymnastics. She came in 4th in the 800 metre. However, it was such a fierce competition, that several of the athletes collapsed at the finish line *demonstrating* that women were too fragile to compete. As a result, they were banned again until 1960.
I couldn’t definitively nail down the ball player but I’m pretty sure it’s a major league player from the 1930-40s called Phil Marchildon … also known as Fidgety Phil and Penetang Phil.
Sadly, I didn’t think to take a photo of the other side of the building. I’m pretty sure Chris Kontos from the NHL in the 1990s is there.
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A cool little building for sure!
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It definitely caught my eye as we were driving by. Thankfully in small towns the traffic is relatively light and I could screech to a sudden stop without causing an accident 🙂
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So glad the building was rescued and what a great idea to replace windows (that are ripe for vandalism) with photographs of the town’s history. Now I want to visit this cute little Ontario town.
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I’ve now been there twice – once in winter and now. I will be back again 🙂
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Such a pretty little building! I’m glad it was restored – too much history is destroyed due to the lack of funds. Love the clever solution for the windows and doors.
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I agree about the lack of funds. That sadly seems to be the common cry now in communities.
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This is such a beautiful little brick building, Joanne. I’m glad to see that it was repaired (looks like it has a new foundation) and I like the way they handled the doors and windows. Sometimes, a little creative thinking is required.
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I’m guessing they were looking for a solution what would mitigate the risk of constantly fixing broken windows … vandals really are jerks. Kudos to them for their creative thinking.
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I thought it was about shedding tears! 🙂
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LOL! I hadn’t considered that interpretation at the time, but now that you say it, it sounds so obvious!
I was actually thinking of fire works at the time 😀
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It makes me sad to see buildings with broken windows, etc because of vandals. The restoration does look good though! Is it used for other things nowadays? Looks like it’d make a nice little museum or something
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Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any recent info on this building. I agree it would make a cute little museum.
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What a lovely renovation! A great find…
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A very unique solution to the potential problem of more broken windows. It does however make me think that the building itself isn’t used for anything since there is no longer any natural light.
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I think its wonderful that people stepped forward to save this building Joanne. History must be preserved. Great shots by the way and this building would make a great tiny home 🙂
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Thanks Joe … and I think they found such an interesting and unique way to preserve their history. Kudos to these unknown heros who step up to make a difference in their community.
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At the risk of repeating myself, I am so glad that the unknown benefactors prevailed and saved the building.
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I’m starting to appreciate how these are unsung heros in their community. I tend to cringe whenever I hear the expression “someone should do something about that”.
People are quick to criticize, yet few contribute.
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I think this is pretty ingenious! Some people are so very imaginative.
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That’s my feeling too. However this idea was generated, it was brilliantly executed!
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What a creative way to get some interest back in an older building – guess the photos could be changed for different celebrations from time to time. It was a hand pump once – wow, you would have needed a roster for taking baths in town!
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I hadn’t thought about the idea of changing the photos for different celebrations. I didn’t look that closely at them, so I don’t know how difficult it would be to change them.
I don’t think the water was literally hand pumped. It sounds more like a human had to control the flow of water manually. For example, in the article I read, if there was fire, a phone call to the pumping station would tell the operator to increase the water flow to meet the demand of the fire trucks.
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Beautiful photographs
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Thank you 🙂
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What a neat idea. I really like that.
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Me too. More clever people at work. It’s such a simple idea, but had a big bang impact 🙂
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Love it. I will pin this to my around Toronto board.
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Thank you. That’s very considerate. I should mention though that Penetanguishene is about a 2 hour drive north of Toronto.
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