In tune with nature: Sturgeon Point at 125

Just in Time local history series

Every year since 2018 – save for a pandemic-induced hiatus in 2020 and 2021 – a good friend of mine and I have made a tradition of motoring up to Sturgeon Point for church one Sunday each summer.

Here in the famous octagonal sanctuary, the sound of vigorous hymn-singing echoes across the Georgian pine walls, commingling with the hymns of birds perched amid the towering trees outside and the distant drone of an outboard motor ferrying a pleasure craft across Sturgeon Lake. Following the service, we might go for a short stroll up and down the shady streets – all of which are numbered, rather like in New York City – before adjourning to Bobcaygeon or Fenelon Falls for luncheon.

In last month’s issue of the Advocate, I noted that time seems to stand still in some parts of Kawartha Lakes. This is certainly true for the village of Sturgeon Point, which in 2024 marks its 125th anniversary as an incorporated community. Whether standing in the shadows of the Union Church, beneath the eaves of the upper wharf rain shelter, or in the enclosed porch of a cottage built during the reign of Queen Victoria, it is easy to imagine the sight of elegantly-attired young people making their way through the village on bicycles, the sound of a shrieking whistle calling holiday-goers back to the waiting steamboat, and the smell of supper being prepared over a cast-iron woodstove.

Although it was formally incorporated in 1899, Sturgeon Point had been welcoming visitors since the 1830s. Tradition indicates that the first sailing regatta transpired in 1838, and one has been held virtually every year since 1878. Within a decade of Canadian Confederation, tourist traffic at “The Point” was such that a substantial hotel was required to accommodate everyone.

George Crandell, an ex-convict who later made a name for himself as businessman and boat builder, set his sights on an attractive piece of property not far from the lake and here built a palatial hotel in 1876. Five years later, some 3,000 people were said to have flocked to the Point for a production of The Pirates of Penzance. The little community was fast becoming the place to be for anyone wanting to escape the hubbub of urban Ontario – or at least Lindsay – and over the course of the next two decades cottages great and small sprang up on lots laid out by Crandell. (This was a farsighted move, considering that the latter’s hotel would be consumed by fire after only 22 years in operation.)

The inaugural council consisted of J.D. Flavelle (reeve), Charles H. Grantham, Robert Kennedy, G. Milne, and Thomas Stewart. When these gentlemen took office in June of 1899, the summer season was already in full swing. Residents and excursionists alike found much to occupy themselves with over the ensuing months, with the August civic holiday weekend no doubt being a highlight.

“The Orillians enjoyed their stay at the Point very much, and admitted that Lindsay’s summer resort compared favourably with any of the pleasure resorts on Lakes Couchiching and Simcoe,” noted a correspondent of the long weekend in the Aug. 18, 1899 edition of the Canadian Post. “Some of them spent the afternoon exploring the shady walks, others went bathing or boating, and a goodly number were interested spectators of the sports and games, in charge of Messrs. J.D. Flavelle and R. Millar,” the correspondent continued. “The warm weather drove many to drink, and two or three refreshment booths on the grounds did a rushing business, lemonade, soda water, etc. being the only tipples.”

Among the summer residents these visitors from Orillia might have met was W.A. Goodwin, a Lindsay-based painter and decorator who was noted for both his talents with a brush and his decidedly unorthodox views on faith and politics. Goodwin’s drawings and paintings of Sturgeon Point and surrounding area became an important record of how people were engaging the land and water for recreational purposes. His diminutive cottage at 19 3rd Street was christened Cherry Tree Lodge and today it remains one of Sturgeon Point’s most picturesque landmarks.

One of Mr. Goodwin’s neighbours, Charles Lindstrum, built a two-storey summer home affectionately called Hideaway Cottage up on Irene Avenue opposite 2nd Street. Following his death, this cottage was left to his sister-in-law Nevada Parkin, whose husband, Richard Butler, owned a thriving hotel in Lindsay. “We’d go on the weekends to stay with Uncle Dick and Aunt Nevada,” recalls great-niece Ann MacLeish, whose father purchased the property after Mr. Butler died in 1956.

In addition to the generously-proportioned interior – two bedrooms upstairs and two bedrooms downstairs with 20-foot-high ceilings – MacLeish remembers the enormous screened-in porch where the family ate their meals, and where one might curl up with a good book or a board game on a rainy day. “It was a really, really busy community in those days,” MacLeish recalls of the point. “It was so well-kept – it was just immaculate. It is a great feeling to be there, where you’re in tune with nature.”

W.A. Goodwin said much the same thing in 1937, and to him we give the last word: “Sturgeon Point is certainly a happy place, to enjoy the good old summer time.”