RE: City initiates heritage designation process for Forbes Park, April 15, 2023
The Ontario Heritage Act, properties are designated as whole parcels, at the MHAC meeting, city staff recommended that all of Forbes Park, be designated.
So what were the heritage features proposed to be protected by the heritage designation of the property?
They included the wooden bandstand, and the concrete bridge.
It will now be presented to the City of Cambridge council for heritage designation at an upcoming council meeting.
To educate people on the historical significance of the bandshell and the memorial to our fallen soldiers, here is some information. The numbers of soldiers that died from Hespeler are:
WWI - 65
WWII - 21
Korean War - 4
Peacekeeping Egypt - 1
On September 28, 1924 at 3:30 p.m., memorial tablets were unveiled and dedicated to the soldiers who had given their lives in WWI from Hespeler.
The bandshell and tablets were dedicated by the Hespeler’s Women’s Institute with representatives of the Town Council and Veterans Association and originally placed in the old bandshell.
On June 24, 1967, Hespeler Women’s Institute president Mrs. Vera Prudy and Hespeler Legion Branch 272 President Gordon Goebel rededicated these plaques in a special ceremony at the park bandshell. The plaques were put on a stone cairn beside the bandshell. The plaques are now attached to the bandshell itself.
To those that suggest the bandshell has no historical significance in Hespeler shows a clear lack of respect for our fallen soldiers.
Paul Langan
Cambridge
