Come find our booth at Deputy Mayor Godwin Chan’s Spring Fair on Saturday, May 25, 2025 from noon until 3 pm. The Spring Fair returns this year to a new venue, Richmond Green Park, 1300 Elgin Mills Rd E, Richmond Hill.
The Spring Fair offers food, children’s activities, performances and door prizes. It is also a great opportunity to meet a variety of local groups and to meet with your neighbours for an enjoyable afternoon.
Take the opportunity to learn more about the Richmond Hill Historical Society and consider becoming a member!
Mark your calendars for my annual Maple Syrup Festival!
Join me for all your favourite maple syrup themed activities, including a pancake breakfast with real maple syrup. This free community event is important to me for two reasons: firstly because after a long, cold winter we can have an opportunity to gather with friends and neighbours and celebrate spring and secondly because I am a passionate amateur syrup maker and love to share this sweet part of our Canadian culture with Richmond Hill residents.
This year we will continue to have our maple syrup making demonstration and tasting booth, samples of delicious uses for maple products, and of course, thanks to our Richmond Hill Historical Society, you can purchase some of the good stuff to take home with you (all proceeds go to the RHHS). Admission is free and we ask that attendees bring a non-perishable food donation for the Richmond Hill Community Food Bank.
Together with numerous community groups, entertainers, and educators, I know it will be a fantastic day celebrating Richmond Hill community and Canadian tradition.
I look forward to sharing this sweet festival with the residents of Richmond Hill. See you there!
Saturday April 12, 2025, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Richmond Green Sports Complex at 1300 Elgin Mills Road East. www.DavidWest-RichmondHill.ca/MSF
The Richmond Hill Historical Society is pleased to have been invited to participate in Mayor David West’s Levee on Saturday, January 11, 2025. The event will be held, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at Langstaff Community Centre on Red Maple Road (https://maps.app.goo.gl/xGeRf4LtN8R1nWNY7).
Come out to chat with us and get the chance to meet and talk with councillors, local MPs, MPPs, executives of the Richmond Hill Fire and Emergency Services and York Regional Police representatives.
No registration is required for this informal event; the perfect way to kick of 2025!
Richmond Hill Historical Society President Jim Vollmershausen with the world’s tallest lumberjack? (Photograph by Vera Tachtaul)
Another year and another successful Mayor West’s Maple syrup Festival. On Saturday April 6th, the Richmond Hill Historical Society joined in with this annual event at Richmond Green. Weather is always a consideration for outside activities and this year we were able to enjoy the day both inside and out. The event began at 10:00 a.m., continued through to 3:00 p.m. and was very well attended. The activities were expanded including wagon rides, taffy tasting and demonstrations for everyone to enjoy seeing how maple syrup is made. There was great entertainment, raffles and pancakes served with delicious maple syrup. Carrick Bros supplied the maple products we were selling this year for our annual fundraiser. They expanded their product list to include yummy maple cream, maple sugar and flavored syrup aged in bourbon, cherry brandy, apple brandy and even tequila barrels!
My personal favorite was the fellow on stilts dressed as a lumberjack. He was very entertaining, performed throughout the event, and was popular with young and old.
A special cameo appearance by the Winter Carnival’s own mascot Ookpik (Photograph by Vera Tachtaul)
At the planning committee, numbers were being estimated to be more than last year. It was hard to tell this year with the surges of people entering the event but there were lots and lots of families enjoying the free pancakes and learning about how to make maple syrup. There will be a tally at our follow-up meeting but I’m sure it was well over 2000 people.
Our booth was very busy, and we were selling all day long. We had a bit of inventory returned at the end, but we did very well in a 5-hour fundraising effort. Jim will make a report when we get the final numbers tallied.
Thank you to members who attended and supported the Society and thank you to all of our wonderful member volunteers who made the day such a success! We thank Mayor West and his great team once again for including us as part of the event.
Sunday, September 10, 2023 • 1:00 – 4:00 pm & 7:00 – 9:30 pm Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts
The Richmond Hill Historical Society is excited to partner with the City of Richmond Hill to celebrate heritage in our community with the Richmond Hill Heritage Summit at the Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts on Sunday, September 10, 2023. In addition to helping celebrate Richmond Hill’s 150th Anniversary, the Summit aims to bring together a diverse collection of organizations from around Richmond Hill that will showcase to the people of the city how our heritage is nurtured and celebrated. The hope is that those who attend the summit will have a better appreciation of the breadth and value of the heritage we have inherited from the past and that we will leave for future generations.
Heritage can be defined as the full range of our inherited traditions, monuments, objects and culture. It is much more than preserving, excavating, displaying or restoring a collection of old things. In addition to that tangible evidence of our past, our heritage also includes our natural world (waterways, landscapes, wildlife) and more intangible elements such as our customs, traditions, sports, music, dance, folklore, and crafts. Taken together we can begin to perceive the scope and fullness of the heritage that we have inherited.
There are two components to the Summit, an afternoon session (1:00 – 4:00 pm) to appreciate Richmond Hill’s heritage with a meet and greet with representatives of over 25 local organizations where you can learn more about them and how they contribute to our heritage in a number of ways:
They are involved in outreach – to inform, to entertain, to educate;
They provide a forum for learning, conversation and socializing – meetings, workshops, seminars;
They advocate for a variety of issues and goals – heritage and natural conservation;
They help protect important community assets such as sites, parks, waterways – cleanups, public campaigns ;
They carry on and celebrate customs, traditions and crafts from the past;
They undertake or support projects that add to the community such as commemorative projects, benches, gardens, shelters, or fundraising.
Organizations scheduled to participate in the afternoon session include:
There will also be a “pop up” museum featuring items from the City’s artifact collection!
The evening session (7:00 – 9:30 pm) will feature a talk by noted historian, journalist and author Ted Barris as he shares with us stories from his book Rush to Danger: Medics in the Line of Fire.
While the Heritage Summit is free to attend, those wishing to attend the evening session with Ted Barris’ must register for their free tickets in advance through the Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts Centre website.
The evening will also include guest speakers and awards presentations, including the Society’s Bert Hunt Heritage Award.
We are excited to be bringing you this important event in Richmond Hill in conjunction with the city and look forward to seeing you at the Summit!
Maple Syrup from Carrick Bros. for sale at the Richmond Hill Historical Society booth (photograph courtesy Chris Robart)
by Andrea Kulesh
The Society joined in with Mayor West for his very first maple syrup festival as the Mayor on April 1, 2023. We have previously been involved for 3 years running pre-pandemic. Maple syrup was ordered from Carrick Bros. who generously donated all of the syrup for the pancake breakfast. Numbers were estimated for the event but no one really knew how many would come.
Estimations were made at 1,500 – 3,000 attendees. There were free pancakes and syrup and self serve coffee on hand. The tables were set up in front of the RHHS so we were in a great position to sell maple syrup to those who had just sampled the Carrick Bros. delicious maple syrup.
The doors opened at 10:00 a.m. and there were people literally running to get their pancakes! There were a lot of families and the plan had been for a lot of the children’s activities to be outside but unfortunately the weather didn’t fully cooperate. Although it was a sunny day, the wind prevented some of the activities planned to go ahead. Our member Marj Andre was “Ma Maple” demonstrating the old method of reducing the sap collected to make maple syrup. Unfortunately, the wind did stop some of the activities and they were brought inside. There was music ongoing, speeches for the official opening, lots and lots of vendors and a general and noisy hubbub with a very well attended and successful event.
Richmond Hill Historical Society booth highlighting our 50th Anniversary in 2023 (photo courtesy of Vera Tachtaul)
The RHHS was busy for the entire 4 hours. Fortunately, we were very organized to begin with. Member volunteers set up on Friday night with a very nice display of the syrup, our pamphlets and a table display about the Maple Leaf. Vera Tachtaul, immediately posted photos to our FB page with the latest images of our booth. Volunteers were on hand very early on site, to look after everything before the doors opened. We priced everything and waited until our first customer. The maple syrup started to be sold almost right away and it was evident people were interested in buying but also to learn a little about maple syrup. We had “Quik Facts” on hand and were able to answer knowledgeably about the products we were selling. Some people made the mistake of saying they would come back later to pick something up, but for those people who hesitated, they were sadly disappointed when we sold out around 1:30 p.m. We did receive a few more bottles of syrup from city staff and we sold some just before the event closed.
Denise Hughes, Andrea Kulesh, Agnes Parr, Alison Hughes and Linda Clark at the Richmond Hill Historical Society table. (photograph courtesy Chris Robart)
A special thank you to all of the volunteers who helped to make this the success it was! Vera Tachtaul, Chuck Fraser, Elinor Charters, Agnes Parr, Joan Lund, Barbara Di Mambro, Alison Hughes, Denise Hughes and Linda Clark. We could not have done it without you!
What a great success for the Society! Selling out the entire order! Of course we do have to pay for the maple syrup once we receive the invoice but this will be our main fundraiser for this year after three years of no activity….. We have to thank Mayor West for including us once again in this event. The city event staff were wonderful and worked so hard to put this event on. It was Mayor West’s first Mayor’s event and it was a wonderful day!
The David Dunlap Observatory (photograph by Peter Wilson)
The City of Richmond Hill is seeking public feedback on proposed designs for an accessible pedestrian/cycling overpass bridge and pickleball facility at the Richmond Hill David Dunlap Observatory (RHDDO) Park.
An online survey is available until March 17, 2023 and a Virtual Information Centre will be held on Thursday, March 9 from 6 – 8 pm. For complete details, access to the survey and a link to register for the Virtual Information Centre, visit https://www.richmondhill.ca/en/find-or-learn-about/ddo-ongoing-projects.aspx.
The David Dunlap Observatory opened in 1935, and was built on land donated by Jessie Dunlap in memory of her husband David. The main Observatory building, pictured above, houses a 74-inch (1.88m) reflector telescope.
This is your opportunity to say that heritage matters here in Richmond Hill.
Richmond Hill residents are invited to join these City run, on-line workshops to discuss the vision, character, and function we would like to see. At these meetings the staff does present provincial and regional direction or parameters. But there is a real need to share your knowledge about the local context. It is our opportunity to work together to discuss how the different areas can develop over time.
Here is the schedule (use the link below to register):
Bathurst Street & Highway 7 Area (May 4, 2021)
Yonge Street & 16th Avenue Area (May 6, 2021) – Register here
Village & Richmond Hill GO Station Area (May 11, 2021) – Register here
Bayview & Highway 7 Area (May 13, 2021) – Register here
Oak Ridges Centre Area (May 18, 2021) – Register here
East Beaver Creek & Highway 7 Area (May 20, 2021) – Register here
Richmond Hill Historical Society 