In Season 5 of The Open Door, we’ll be highlighting stories from interviews for The Brown Homestead Oral History Project. Each episode will take one tiny aspect of everyday life to tell a broader story of childhood, nostalgia, and rural living that we can all relate to. By peeling back the layers of the everyday, we reveal the extraordinary in the ordinary. 

To honour the long tradition of storytelling during the holidays, we are pleased to offer Jennifer Humeniuk’s reading of A Child’s Christmas in Wales, a classic tale written by Welsh poet and author Dylan Thomas. Merry Christmas from The Brown Homestead team! 

Whether or not you believe in the supernatural, ghost stories can offer valuable insight into the past. Haunted histories often feature real people, places and events - the ghostly tales serve as the medium for sharing. Hamilton and Niagara-based podcaster and Ghost Walks leader Ghost Guide Daniel takes a tour of the John Brown House and considers his approach to storytelling through the lens of the paranormal.

When a historic building is preserved, the stories embedded into its walls and floorboards are also preserved. On this special crossover episode with Brock University’s Foreword, we take The Tattooed Historian YouTuber and podcaster, John R. Heckman, on an immersive audio tour of The Brown Homestead. We peel back the layers of history found in floor stencils, lath walls, and wallpaper to uncover why purpose-driven adaptive reuse matters in the heritage field. 

A history of whisky in Niagara offers a flavourful glimpse into Loyalist agricultural industry and trade in Upper Canada, the social nature of tavern culture, and the unexpected outcome of the temperance movement. Ajay Bhardwaj, Canada’s first certified whisky ambassador, leads a live, guided tasting of three select whiskies paired with insightful stories from Niagara’s past to help us understand whisky culture today. 

The Kanesatake Resistance, or Oka Crisis, was a defining historic moment with an enduring legacy in Canada’s challenged relationships with Indigenous peoples. Mohawk writer and director Tracey Deer speaks to her experience as a twelve-year old girl in the summer of 1990, and how it helped shape her powerful, and immensely personal 2021 Canadian Screen Award winning film, Beans.

In celebration of the holiday season, we are happy to offer Jennifer Humeniuk’s reading of Truman Capote’s classic tale, A Christmas Memory.

Is E.A. Brown Dead? In 1894, Charles McCain published a History of the SS Beaver containing a chapter recounting the events of the night that Edward Brown disappeared. Does it contain clues to what really happened or an answer to the mystery that followed and the ultimate fate of his friend? You be the judge!

A young man from Pelham moved to Vancouver in 1888 following a family tragedy. Four years later, on New Year’s Eve, a friend reported that he drowned, leaving behind a wife and two children. But did he? Rumours and reports of sightings began flooding into the police and newspapers and continued for many years, leading people to ask … Is E.A. Brown Dead?

The old barns scattered across our countryside are the iconic backdrop to Canada’s rural heritage, yet comparatively little has been documented about them. Studying the structure and style of a barn can enrich our understanding of rural life, and how farming has evolved over time. In this episode, author and Ontario Barn Preservation President Hugh Fraser shares the unique qualities of the historic swing beam barns of early Niagara.