Check out the newest issue of the Kitchissippi Times for a neat article I've written on the history of the piece of land at the top of the Churchill Avenue hill. For years it has been a coin laundry/dry cleaners known as "Laundry Land", but I was surprised when my research took me back to when part of the building was originally a faith healing church as far back as 1900! It's been several other things since then, and has quite a colourful history.
Working on this story has also yielded one of the biggest coincidences of my life. I'd been poking at the story for a couple of weeks back in June, when one day into my inbox I read the subject line "Hornerite Church on Churchill". It was an email from esteemed historian Bruce Elliott. I'm always glad to hear from Dr. Elliott on any subject, and in this case he was kindly forwarding something he had randomly come across that he thought I might be interested in. What a huge coincidence, as I was already in the midst of researching the Hornerites and the history of that Church! For about ten seconds when I read that subject line, I was stunned. How does anyone even know I'm working on this, I wondered. Anyways, what a coincidence, but the article did reveal a few details that led me to making the important confirmation that the Church was actually moved, and not demolished and replaced by a new commercial building. So great timing on that for sure.
Anyhow, it's a sad story, the closing of Laundry Land, and who knows what lies in store for that impressive piece of land in the heart of Westboro. So I'm happy to share the history of the property, and the building.
Click here: https://kitchissippi.com/2021/08/09/loads-of-history-if-the-walls-of-laundry-land-could-talk/
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| (Photo credit: Francis Ferland/CBC) |
