Interview Videos: Voices of Port Stanley

Meeting at the historic Alma Villa, David Russell and Nora Sanders will share excerpts from Heritage Port Stanley’s oral history interviews, capturing memories of long-term Port Stanley residents to bring local history to life.

Heritage Port Stanley

Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025 1:30
Alma Villa, 201 Lakeside Dr.

Attendance 35 ( 31 members and 4 guests)
Chair David Russell opened the meeting at 1:30 and welcomed everyone.
Nora Sanders shared the land acknowledgement and explained the reason for it.

1. Adoption of the Minutes of September 25 meeting: Moved by Richard Haddow and seconded by Anne McPhail that the minutes be approved as circulated and the motion carried.
2. Treasurer’s report: Anne Kent presented the treasurer’s report: Current balance in the general account is $2304.85 with two GICs of $8000 and $3000. A $300 donation was made to PSTR and $102 in book sales was collected. Moved by Joan Clayton, seconded by Laurie Nagge that the report be adopted as presented. The motion carried.
3. Executive Update: David and Nora noted the web site was up but still had errors to be corrected and thanked those that had offered suggestions for corrections or improvements. Work is progressing on the updating of the walking tour brochure. The heritage interview videos are now available. Members are encouraged to think about whether there are topics that they would like to learn about in future meetings, and/or topics that they would like to research and report on.
4. November meeting at Riva: We need to know by mid November if members are planning to have lunch at Riva before the meeting. There will be limited options but will include pizza and salads. Please let Sally Martyn know if you are coming for lunch at 12:00. The regular meeting will start at 1:30.
5. Heritage Question of the Month
   Question: Who built Alma Villa and in what year? Nancy Moore (as well as Craig Cole) knew it was built by James Duffield in 1916.
6. Tentative Future meetings:
   date location topic Speaker
   November 27 Riva Industrial harbour Dan McNeil
   December 11 Alma Villa getting to know each other All
7. Heritage Announcements
   Craig Cole and Janice Mann will work with Mahesh to get the post cards up on the web site and catalogued in an easily searched form.
   Sally announced there were just a few tickets left for the fall heritage feast in Sparta November 8th featuring 1952 and the Stork Club with an 8 piece brass band and food of the period.
8. Feature Presentation:
   Nora and David introduced the 10 edited videos from the first year and showed us brief excerpts from each video. The order was Katie Valentine, Sally Martyn, John (Blutch) Moore, Bob Shewan, Don Bell and Len Gilbert together, Craig Cole, Laurie Nagge, John Smith, Sharon Larmour and Bob Nemett. Everyone seemed to enjoy seeing these videos and thanked Nora and David for all their work making the videos. To watch the full version of each go to our website heritageportstanley.ca. On the website go to Heritage and History then to Heritage Gallery. It was noted with appreciation that funding from the Municipality of Central Elgin has been received to help with the editing costs.

The meeting adjourned at 2:48.

The next meeting is November 27 at Riva with Dan McNeil speaking on the Industrial Harbour. (See note above concerning lunch and times)

Secretary: Sally Martyn

Chair: David Russell

For the full minutes of the meeting, please click here: Meeting Minutes

Excerpts from the first 10 videos: Video Link