by Greg Layson
Photo submitted by the Town of Essex
The Town of Essex recognized four people and organizations for keeping the Town’s history and heritage alive.
Rita Jabbour, Essex Manager of Planning Services, on behalf of the Essex Municipal Heritage Committee, announced the 2025 Community Heritage Preservation Award winners at the regular meeting of Council on February 18.
The awards recognize organizations and individuals who have helped “preserve and promote Essex’s local history,” Jabbour said.
This year’s recipients were Heritage Colchester, Heritage Essex, Milo Johnson, and, posthumously, Gerry Pouget.
Heritage Essex was recognized for its dedication to the preservation and promotion of the history of the Essex Railway Station.
Heritage Essex is a non-profit body dedicated to the preservation of heritage sites, articles, and artifacts throughout the Town of Essex. The Essex Railway Station is considered one of the crown jewels of the heritage sites in town. The local landmark in Essex Center dates back to 1887.
A group of community-minded individuals, concerned about the state of the train station, formed Heritage Essex in the early 1990s and raised money for its preservation.
“Through the tireless work of staff and volunteers, Heritage Essex has welcomed thousands of visitors to the station from across North America and as far away as Peru and India,” Jabbour said. “They are the stewards of a variety of artifacts and memorabilia from the railway's past.”
Heritage Colchester was honoured for its work on preserving and restoring the Colchester Schoolhouse.
When the Town of Essex in 2020 considered the sale of the historic schoolhouse, a small group of people banded together and petitioned the Town of Essex to give them an opportunity to take control of the building and find a way to allow it to serve the community once again.
Heritage Colchester, on December 8, 2021, signed a 10-year lease for the building that was built in 1881 and officially named S.S.#2 Schoolhouse at the intersection of Bagot and Sullivan Streets in Colchester Centre.
Since the schoolhouse is not yet upgraded to allow for occupancy, Heritage Colchester has used the grounds surrounding the building to provide summer vendor markets and community events to fundraise for its restoration.
Heritage Colchester is eager to eventually occupy the schoolhouse and offer year-round programs and community access to the landmark.
The group also accepts the responsibility of caring for the endangered chimney swift bird population that roosts in the schoolhouse's chimney.
Individually, former Maplewood Public School teacher and current Harrow Early Immigrant Research Society (HEIRS) director Milo Johnson was recognized for his dedication to the preservation and promotion of local black history and genealogy.
Johnson’s interests in family genealogy and local black history research led him to author six books, including the “Grayer Family Genealogy,” “New Pain and Freedom Land,” and “The Mystery of New Canaan.”
“In Milo's words: ‘My black history books, short stories, poetry, and writings, endeavour to acknowledge today's vital paradigm shift for moral living to a life governed by the pursuit of riches, social media, television, and radio, to enhance people's awareness and appreciation of the world, reveal racial imbalance, advocate a consciousness of the basic needs of the disenfranchised,’” Jabbour said.
The final award winner was the late Gerry Pouget, who was also a teacher. He was a founding member, director, and Past President of HEIRS.
“As a teacher, he was instrumental in getting students from Harrow High School involved with HEIRS to the summer student programs and with the Cemetery Preservation Project, which was an extensive effort to research and preserve African Canadian cemeteries in the region,” Jabbour said.
Jabbour called Pouget “a staunch supporter of the promotion and protection of our local history.”
When the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Company in 1981 sought to demolish the Harrow Railway Station, with Harrow Town Council’s permission, Pouget wrote a strongly opinionated letter to the editor of the Amherstburg Echo, denouncing the decision.
“We North Americans have the very bad habit of destroying our old buildings. We have destroyed old churches, schools, hotels, and homes. Each time we persuade ourselves that our building is not in mint condition, it is not worth saving. The result is that we never save anything,” he wrote. “Our railway and our heritage will only be preserved when the citizens of Harrow make up their minds that they really want to preserve a small part of our heritage.”