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PAGE 4, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 2 1985, WHITBY FREE PRESS Published every Wednesday ~ whitbyMICHAEL KNELL by M.B.M. Publishing Communtyditor and Photography lnc. Phon Vifix-fil 11 W '~ luI ~ TeF're Prse uildng. Advertlalng Manager S IS The Free Press Building. 13 1 Brock Street North. Second Class Mail Voc fteCut onMcallnBres ulrker -Raaig dtrFegistralion No 5351 The only Whitby ewspaper indpendently oned and operated y Whitby esidnts for Whitby residents.whitby, Ont. BesR option to ensure ies preservation Lynde House must be moved Emotions have run high and tempers have had originally wanted the house moved within one sufficient and will also prove a vital fund flared recently over the future of Lynde House - year of the gift but have not enforced the con- tool for other valuable projects undertake the second oldest home in the Town of Whitby. dition. time to time by the historical society. Lynde House, which also serves as the Whitby For some time now, many have expressed grave Some have suggested that If Lynde Hou Museum, is located at Dundas St. W. and D'Hillier concerns for the house's future. Since it has be moved it should be taken to the site St. on land thatis currently owned by Whittington become apparent over the course of the last few Whitby Arts Station Gallery. However, It Investments Ltd. (the real estate division of the weeks that Whittington Investments was under- appear that this would be impractical f Loblaws supermarket chain). The company gifted standably unwilling to donate the land the house engineering standpoint. The house would1 the house to the Whitby Historical Society 13 sits on to the community, and the purchase price cross over Hwy. 401 and no one Is sure years ago on the condition that it be moved. They too expensive, the decision to re-locate the house any bridge in this area would be cap 1f-la-d ta taeie maGe.heim I rarely go on holiday without thinking of John Buchan, Lord Tweedsmuir, our 35th Go<Vernor General. Partly, I suppose, that is because his Han- nay stories make such good vacation reading. But also because a couple of his novels begin with the hero, Richard Hannay, or perhaps Dickson McCunn, going on an unscheduled holiday. The one I'm thinking of must have involved Han- nay, because it began in London, not Glasgow, with our hero working too hard, smoking too much and generally feeling stale. His Harley street doctor ad- vised him gravely to get away for a while, or he wouldn't answer for the consequences. So Hannay pulled some stout boots and serviceable tweeds from his closet, stuffed shaving tackle, a change of socks and a copy of Pilgrim's Progress into a kit bag, and set out by train to walk in the Scottish Highlan- ds. How wonderful. It's a holiday I have taken many times in my imagination, and will take some day in fact. You can't read many of John Buchan's books without coming to know a great deal about the man himself. He was very conservative in current terms. He had a keen sense of adventure, loved the out-of- doors, was sentimental about his friends, and frien- dship, and had heros, like T.E. Lawrence, who em- bodled for him the lost friends of his youth. There was an exhibition here in Ottawa at the National Archives earlier in the summer, com- memorating the 50th anniversary of his appointment in 1935 as Governor General. Buchan may not have been a great writer, or a great scholar, but he paid his dues in both fields. i was astonished, therefore, to find in the exhibition a letter to him from the Prime Minister of the day, in which Mr. King dared to in- struct him in matters literary. The letter appeared to be in reference to a purely ceremonial speech the Governor General was going to make, inaugurating the War Memorial on Confederation Square. King told his Governor General to say "the", not "this" in one place, and went on to make other petty and not so petty changes in language and phraseology in the draft Buchan had sent him. The Governor General, being a decent fellow, not the sort to stand on either his literary or his vice-regal dignity, probably went along with him. A number of biographies have been written about John Buchan, but i suspect there is also a good book for someone simply on his five Canadian years. had to be made. The society executive has voted unanimously to accept a proposai from Len Cullen, owner of Cullen Gardens and Miniature Village to re-locate the house onto his property, the site of Whitby's largest tourist attraction. While this newspaper doesn't believe that this is the most desirable location, after having heard the agruements and seen the facts documented, we believe that this is the best available, ob- tainable alternative that will guarantee that the house is preserved and protected over the long term. If the house is not moved, it will be demolished at some poirt in the future to make way for new development in that part of Whitby. Lynde House, we are told, is in need of ap- proximately $100,000 worth of restoration work to bring it up to the required museum standards laid down by the Ontario Ministry of Citizenship and Culture. To justify that kind of expense it must be shown that people, wherever they may live, have taken an interest in Lynde House's future. Currently, the museum hosts 500 to 600 visitors a year. At Cullen Gardens, literally tens of thousands of people will have the opportunity to become aware of an im- portant part of both Whitby's and Canada's history. Moving Lynde House to Cullen Gardens will make it easy to justify spending the capital costs needed to restore the house. It will also go a long way to making the museum financially self- raising en from se is to of the t would rom an have to whether able of holding thie weighit of the house. Neither the society nor the town would lose control of Lynde House's destiny because of the move. Cullen Gardens will not assume ownership - the people of Whitby will still own the house. Cullen has promised to lease the land, free of charge, for a minimum of 30 years. Lynde House will be located at Cullen Gardens, but will not be part of Cullen Gardens. The Local Architectural Conservation Advisory Committee has endorsed the 'proposai to re- locate the house because it believes that it is the best available way of preserMing it. And surely, when all is said and done, that has to be the pur- pose of any decision made concerning the future of Lynde House. Lynde House, as we've said before, is an impor- tant piece of Canada's historical heritage. It is our belief that the Whitby Historical Society, L.A.C.A.C., the Town of Whitby and Cullen Gar- dens as well as every concerned resident of this community has an obligation and responsibility to ensure that we preserve and protect that heritage for future generations. In describing this situation, one prominent local resident reminded L.A.C.A.C. of the old saying that "When striving for the unobtainable best, do not overlook the obtainable good." The obtainable good, in this case, is moving Lynde House to Cullen Gardens. Everyone in- volved has an obligation to act both quickly and thoughtfully to ensure that the best, long term in- terests of the house are served. AUOUORA.W 7O~ GLORAL NEWB ~