Why save Shakespeare?

Why should we try to save the little village of Shakespeare, Ontario? This is my latest campaign and I believe Shakespeare is worth saving.
 
It is home to 750 people who run some great antique shops and other businesses and like living here between Stratford and Kitchener-Waterloo.
 
Perhaps just as important, it’s a great slice of our history. After all, the place is 177 years old and a lot of people struggled hard and many died in their efforts to put this little dot on the map of Canada.

Jeff Workman, Chair of the Shakespeare Area Residents Association  (SARA) is leading opposition to the potential widening of the highway that runs through this historic village near Stratford, Ontario.  A highway widening to four or five lanes would threaten businesses and the rich history of the 177-year-old community.

The move could hurt the antique stores that make this village a popular tourist and consumer stop. Recently the Shakespeare Area Residents Association presented their concerns to the Perth East Council. Goldhawk thinks the residents have an excellent case.
   
Jeff Workman talked about the highway widening plan with Goldhawk on Thursday, September 3. Here is that interview:
  

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Shakespeare, Ontario, is on the way to the much larger and more famous Stratford, Ontario. You can get from Shakespeare to Toronto by driving 138 kilometres to the east or to Windsor, 264 K to the west, or to London, Ontario, down Highways 7 and 4 to the southwest for 74 kilometres.

The Scots, as everyone knows, settled a lot of Canada including this village of Shakespeare. A man named David Bell, originally of Dumfries, Scotland, built his home in June, 1832, on the side of a corduroy road – that’s a type of log road dating back to Roman times and it made for a bumpy ride but kept you out of the mud of this lowland region.

Across the road another Scot named Donald Robertson built another log shanty like Bell’s and these two houses became the main street of Bell’s Corners.

Many of those who followed Bell, in the 1830s, were Scots Highlanders who had been evicted from their homes across the sea by The second Marquis of Breadalbane. The Marquis was making way on his estate for more profitable sheep.

The Scottish settlers came to Perth County by sailing for three months on ships and walking from cities like Hamilton through dense bush. Many died along the way or later went into the woods around towns like Shakespeare, never to be seen again. A lot of the settlers worked building and maintaining that road through the county and through Shakespeare.

Land was worth about two dollars an acre in those early days but settlers could buy it by working on the road instead of in cash, making sure the logs in that corduroy road didn’t roll around and break the legs of horses or pedestrians.

It wasn’t an easy life. Settlers would walk along that rough corduroy road for 35 miles to Galt with sacks of grain over their shoulders and trade the grain for household goods and livestock. Then, they’d walk home.

A Shakespeare area farmer, George Hyde, won the provincial gold medal for the best farm in Ontario.

Sometime in the 1800s, the name of the village was changed to Shakespeare because of its proximity to Stratford, seven miles to the west along the Huron Road, the historic name of Highway 7 and 8.

Shakespeare became a boomtown. Near its height in the 1800s, it had 400 residents, a mill, tannery, pottery, carriage and cabinet factories, a cooperage, tin shop, four shoe shops and five general stores. It even had three hotels and a couple of tailor shops. There was the customary blacksmith shop – in fact there were three of those.

Then the Presbyterians came in force and put up a church that seated four hundred people. They spent sixteen hundred dollars on that big building. Then, there were six hundred and fifty people and the town was selling wheat grown by farmers all around – more wheat than was being sold in Stratford.

The railroad came through Perth County where Shakespeare is located. The farmers didn’t have to bring their grain and livestock to the town anymore and the place began to wither away. Just as it looked like Shakespeare could disappear altogether, the new highway came into the town with its two lanes of paved surface. Shakespeare made a comeback. It became part of one of the best historical tourist trails in Ontario.

Shakespeare is now the starting point of the Southwestern Ontario tourist trail called Shakespeare to the Shoreline which is the town of Goderich on the shore of Lake Huron. Thousands of tourists come to explore the boutiques, general stores, farm markets, galleries and museums that make this trail so colorful and fascinating.

There’s a clutch of antique shops along Shakespeare’s main street, selling Canadian furniture and ‘smalls’ – knickknacks and things – that might date back 200 years.

Just east of the main part of town, on Highway 7 – 8, is the Fryfogel Tavern. This is the last surviving tavern on the old Huron Road. This is the road that settlers traveled to buy land from the Canada Land Company for a few dollars an acre in the Huron Tract that covered about a million acres.

The tavern was built in about 1845 by Sebastian Fryfogel. It’s literally one of a kind since the other taverns like it have disappeared. The Fryfogel Tavern is just one of the buildings in and near Shakespeare that may be threatened by the expansion of Highway 7 – 8. The Tavern served as a stagecoach shop, cheese factory, private home and a restaurant, for some of its history but, today, it’s owned by the Perth County Historical Foundation.

The Perth County Historical Society, earlier this year,  were firm about preservation of the tavern. Society chair Roger Hilderley said, “We don’t want the inn infringed on in any way,” In fact, members expressed shock that widening of the highway affecting the inn would even be considered.

One said, “It’s the last surviving inn on the Huron Road. We consider it the most significantly historic building in Perth County.”

The Issue

Highway 7/8 is a major arterial provincial highway, currently designated as a controlled access highway. In Perth County. The highway is the main street of Shakespeare.

For years, the Ontario Ministry of Transport has been studying the highway citing the rationale that ‘the role and function of the highway supports inter city travel and is part of a broader provincial system that places efficient mobility and safety in high regard.’

It has not been the ministry’s intention to create a fully controlled access 400-series style freeway in Perth County because traffic forecasts along Highway 7/8, to the year 2031, do not reach the threshold for a 400 series highway of 20,000 vehicles per day. However, there’s no doubt the Ministry and others would like to see a wide highway allowing faster travel and shipment of goods from the Kitchener-Waterloo area to Stratford – through Shakespeare.

In 1975, a new route for Highway 7&8 was designated, based on a study that recommended a future plan for a new four-lane highway bypassing Stratford and running east to New Hamburg, the gateway to the K-W area. As a result of objections from the municipalities and the agricultural community, the route was reassessed between 1979 and 1982. Due to further opposition, and with the agreement of the municipalities, the Ministry of Transportation revoked the designated route in 1982.

In December, 2002, MTO again identified a future need for increased highway capacity, and recommended a Study Design be initiated as a first step in the Environmental Assessment (EA) process.

The Study Design, completed in early 2006, according to the MTO, ‘confirmed the need and justification for safety, operational and capacity improvements for the Highway 7&8 corridor and recommended a future Corridor Planning and EA Study be initiated.’ This study began early in 2007, with the engineering firm of Totten Sims Hubicki (TSH) helping the MTO identify transportation needs to 2031, and to obtain the necessary environmental clearance to implement the recommended strategy. This Study is expected to be completed in 2010.

There is no specific timeline for changes to be made to the highway over the coming 30 years; timing depends on the money being available. But residents of Shakespeare are concerned the Ministry will continue to assume Highway 7 and 8 will be widened through this village and that would put businesses and homes in jeopardy whenever it happens. As well, residents object to living with this ‘hanging over their heads’ for years.

Recent and future key events:

Public Information Centre (PIC) – Tuesday August 11, 2009 at the Shakespeare and District Optimist Hall in Shakespeare:

- This PIC informed residents about the widening (from 2 to 4/5 lanes) of Highway 7&8 from the vicinity of Perth Road 110 through Shakespeare to west of Regional Road 1 with a new median barrier on Highway 7&8 through New Hamburg, including modification and/or closure of intersections, with possible local segments of service road.

The stakeholders have until September 30 to submit their comments on the MTO plans.  The study team will then review and respond to all comments. It seems as though the MTO study team has made up its mind to create a wider highway through the area because its next steps, after September 30, are to: finalize the preferred corridor; undertake the assessment and evaluation of the widening / route alternatives within the preferred corridor, and commence the public consultation process for PIC#4 (tentatively scheduled for late Fall 2009).

 So, the intention of opponents to the highway widening in Shakespeare is to create an alternative route that will not disrupt the village and possibly threaten many buildings on its main street or to retain the two lanes that run through Shakespeare, effectively pinching the highway from four or five lanes outside Shakespeare to two lanes through the village.

 Additional information about the study, including the study process and study schedule, can be found at the MTO study website at www.7and8corridorstudy.ca.

Some Photos by Jenny Kotulak, Real Estate Broker, Oakville

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