The Town of Aurora Canada Day Parade on July 2002 where the Browning house is still standing, photography provided by Peter Cameron.
One hundred years old or older copies of photographs are now surfacing everywhere in printed materials around Aurora. That includes Aurora’s 2013 Recycling & Garbage Collection Calendar and front page of Aurora’s Winter 2013 Parks & Recreation Program Guide. Our local newspaper The Auroran always features something old and the Aurora Public Library introduced History Mondays on Facebook and every Monday features cool vintage pictures, facts or stories about our town. Postcards of Olde Aurora, a Sesquicentennial project book by Bob McRoberts features many old photographs of Aurora in a postcard format with historical notes.
From a different perspective, perhaps we are overlooking something. Photos of Aurora that are 100+ years old are definitely interesting but there are many members of our community that do not have such deep roots in our town to fully appreciate them. Aurora’s 150 year history spans from 1863 to 2013 so we feel it’s important to recognize the relevance of photos of the last 10, 20, 30, even 40 years as well.
So to compensate we will dig into personal and others’ archives and feature some not so old photos of Aurora, maybe going back to the 1970’s. Not sure how successful we can be going back just that far, but starting with the early 2000’s is a good start for now.
It is possible that we may have a photo gap between the 1970’s and 1990’s. During that period the cost of film developing was quite high for amateur photographers and more so they would photograph family more than anything else. It wasn’t until digital photography was introduced in the early 1990’s that photo enthusiasts flourished and photographed everything around them because of the ability to view and delete unwanted images on the fly and the ability to store them in digital format.
A lot has changed in Aurora even since the early 1990’s. Many new subdivisions, new schools, new businesses, new events, new malls, new Aurora Public Library, New Town Hall, new Aurora Senior Centre, new public faces and more. Many buildings were demolished in order to erect the new buildings.
Therefore throughout the year we will feature not so old photos of Aurora. Our first contributor is Peter Cameron, Aurora resident since the early 1990’s, reporter and editor, and vivid photographer. Peter’s camera never leaves his side and he does not take any opportunity for granted. We will feature Peter’s photos throughout the Sesquicentennial year 2013.
Every year the Town of Aurora celebrates Canada Day on July 1st. Beautiful parades are organized for us to come out and celebrate.
Back in 2002 Peter Cameron photographed the Aurora Canada Day parade where he was standing on the East side of Yonge Street. In the photo above he captured children in the parade. Unintentionally, he also captured George Browning house. At that time the house was still occupied as you can see the occupants were sitting on the front lawn and watching the parade. Many years later on April 2012, Peter witnessed and photographed the demolition of the Browning house.
In the second photo you can see beautiful green trees trailing along the West side of Yonge Street all the way to the Aurora United Church, not sure if they are still around.
Anna Lozyk Romeo
Aurora, ON
CREDITS
[1] Town of Aurora Canada Day Parade, Yonge Street, George Browning House, July 2002. Photography by Peter Cameron.
[2] Town of Aurora Canada Day Parade, Yonge Street, July 2002. Photography by Peter Cameron.
