Cambridge author to publish historical book on lost town
Posted Mar 7, 2021 08:30:00 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A Cambridge author is getting ready to publish a historical book on a local lost town, Glen Christie.
Author Paul Langan told KitchenerToday in an interview that what initially started as a small booklet project in 1999 is now being turned into a novel that looks at the history of the small village which was just north of Hespeler, since its tear down in 1961.
“Well I think people like to know about lost villages and all that, and the neatest thing about that is, that when it was torn down, the people there either moved to Guelph or Hespeler, and those kids are still alive now,” said Langan.
To capture what the village was like when it was still around, Langan went out and talked to the remaining children from Glen Christie, who are now in their 60s and 70s.
“There were so many people who moved to the Cambridge and Hespeler area from Toronto and they just don't know about this subject.”
The book starts off with the village's creation in the early 1900s, the creation of homes for workers, the building of a Sunday school, and the local store that would eventually become the focus of the town.
“That store was actually the first place in Canada to have post office boxes, that's where they were invented believe it or not.”
Langan described that the companies that had the workers live in this town would eventually require them to pack up and what was once a vibrant village, would turn into a “ghost town.”
The book will be available for purchase on Langan's website along with some of his other historical novels.
“Remembering Glen Christie” will be available for purchase on April 7.
