“History is happening all the time, and people can be a part of it by getting involved.” says Celia Hunter, the president of the Millbrook Cavan Historical Society.
The society is making it easy to take her advice by inviting everyone to spend a day in Millbrook at the 2024 Blocks and Blooms event.
Held on Saturday, June 15th from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Blocks and Blooms will provide a joyous welcome to summer with a day dedicated to community members, local businesses, historians, and visitors gathering in celebration of heritage properties, abundant gardens, and vibrant contemporary and heirloom quilts.
For only $20, ticket holders will be provided a brochure to craft their own self-guided journey — either by car, on foot, or even by horse-drawn carriage — to as many as 18 sites, including heritage properties and stunning gardens, all decorated by quilts.
Whether you’re a Millbrook resident eager to learn more about the town, a green thumb searching for garden inspiration, or a visitor enjoying the town on a late spring day, Blocks and Blooms is meant to be a community affair.
“It’s such a walkable place that you can easily stroll beautiful property after beautiful property,” says Hunter. “The blooms and flower gardens paired with the colours of the quilts just make it a kaleidoscope. It’s going to be fantastic.”
Last held in 2018, Blocks and Blooms began as a fun community event before turning into the fundraiser for the Millbrook Cavan Historical Society that it is today. Making this year’s event unique, five of the properties on the tour will be “open door,” inviting visitors to step inside and learn all about each property’s history in the most immersive way possible.
One such location is the Old Town Hall, which is now home to Millbrook’s Nexicom. In addition to sponsoring the horse-drawn carriages, Nexicom is inviting visitors into the building to learn all about the history of the telecommunications company with displays of old equipment.
To further explore the history of Nexicom, visitors and locals alike are invited into the King Street home where Dr. Henry Allan Turner first opened his medical practice in 1890. This ultimately led to the creation of the Turner Telephone Company in 1898 as a means for Dr. Turner to connect with his clients.
An owner of a town drugstore and hospital, Dr. Turner was a real entrepreneur, also building furniture in his barn and helping neighbours fix their engines. He was the first resident in the village to own an automobile, for which he built the brick garage beside the house.
“The current owners have all kinds of memorabilia and photographs that they will show to people,” says Hunter, noting that the original telephone bell is still on the wall. “The Nexicom story is rooted in Millbrook and you can really see that in this property where Dr. Turner did so much.”
Also new this year, four of the 11 gardens on the tour are located outside of Millbrook’s core, including an operational heritage farm, a garden that features a great variety of trees, wildflowers and native plants, landscaped acreage bursting with special features, and a perennial nursery that includes the owner’s own registered daylilies.
“We really wanted to reach out beyond Millbrook this year and some of the most fantastic gardens have come up just outside,” Hunter explains. “These four places are each very different, but they give so much landscape and offer something different in terms of their horticulture.”
In addition to the property owners and volunteers who will be on site to share knowledge and answer questions about blooms, gardener Jill Williams will be present at the community garden of the Old Millbrook School — the headquarters for Blocks and Blooms — to share her expertise.
“She’ll be sharing her wealth of wisdom about native plants and growing from seed and all sorts of different things,” says Hunter. “Visitors can drop by between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. and have their questions answered.”
To beautifully complement the flower beds, locally made quilts will be displayed at tour locations and at downtown businesses, symbolizing the “airing of the quilts” — a traditional rite of spring.
“The airing of the quilts in a historical context was about taking those beloved quilts that we’ve snuggled under and hunkered down under throughout those cold winter months and hanging them out to freshen them up,” says Kate DeKlerck, one of the event organizers and owner of Millbrook’s The Quilter’s Bolt. “But what comes with the whole practicality of airing those quilts out is that you get this stunning outdoor art gallery.”
Whether the businesses and property owners displaying them are quilters themselves or borrowing from DeKlerck and other neighbours, each quilt has its own story to tell.
“Everyone is always so happy to display them,” says DeKlerck. “Some local businesses especially are very keen and are already asking for quilts to show.”
The Millbrook Cavan Historical Society is not alone in telling stories through quilt art. A local committee, of which Hunter and DeKlerck are both a part, has created a Barn Quilt Trail.
The trail consists of art installations on two dozen local farms, businesses, and properties. Each barn quilt is accompanied by a story shared at the Barn Quilt Trail website at www.cmbqt.com.
“One thing unique about our Barn Quilt Trail is it tells the story of our community,” DeKlerck notes. “You can see all of the blocks and the different locations on the interactive map, but you can also access the stories.”
“Our quilt trail goes far beyond the boundary of Blocks and Blooms, but the stories that were painstakingly created for all these blocks have so much valuable information and things that people are really interested in.”
The funds raised through Blocks and Blooms will support Millbrook Cavan Historical Society projects, with specific focus on record keeping.
“One area of focus is to preserve the archives and what people donate to us,” says Hunter. “We store everything in archival boxes, which are not cheap, and so we are interested in stocking more state-of-the-art archival materials.”
Another area of focus ensures all historical data is made accessible to future generations.
“We want to engage new people and to engage new people, or engage anyone, we need to get ourselves some good tech equipment,” says Hunter. “That includes a dedicated laptop to store our archival index so people can come look things up easily.”
Above all, Blocks and Blooms is meant to be a fun, immersive, and educational way for both locals and visitors to immerse themselves in the history of the village while connecting with business and property owners.
“We have a lot of new residents here in Millbrook — it’s grown a great deal,” Hunter points out. “They’ve come here and found that the history is accessible. People have taken so much pride in their properties, so it really is one of the most beautifully preserved heritage districts — without actually being designated as such yet — that I’ve ever seen.”
Businesses in Millbrook were immediately enthusiastic at the announcement of Blocks and Blooms, and it won’t be long until the dedicated members of the Millbrook BIA decorating committee will be adding even more colour to the streets to complement the airing the quilts before the much-anticipated event.
“We feel very fortunate to have the decorating committee,” DeKlerck says. “It’s so unique to Millbrook and they’re so creative and dedicated. We’re trying to move with the momentum that came from the business community and the community members because they are what make it a success.”
As of April 25, tickets are available for $20 (cash only) in Millbrook at Moody’s Bar and Grill (3 Tupper Street), in Peterborough at The Avant-Garden Shop (165 Sherbrooke Street), and in Port Hope at Holton Flowers (62 Walton Street). Tickets can also be purchased online and picked up in person on event day (or you can pay an extra $5 to have your ticket mailed to you in advance).
Blocks and Blooms is sponsored by the Millbrook and Cavan Historical Society with generous support from Nexicom and gold-level sponsors 4th Line Theatre, Whale Family Chiropractic, and the Township of Cavan Monaghan. For more information about Blocks and Blooms and to order tickets, visit blocksandblooms.com.
For more information about the Millbrook Cavan Historical Society, visit millbrookcavanhs.org and follow them on Facebook and Instagram.
This story was created in partnership with Millbrook and Cavan Historical Society. If your organization or business is interested in a branded editorial, contact us.
