Boston Mills Press

Summer Vacation Reading

     If you are looking for an Ontario get-away, or if you know where you are going, but want to read about the place or the area, then you might consider looking at the books that were published by Boston Mills Press. You have seen them, I'm sure. They are often about subjects such as "Cottage Country" and they were frequently seen on coffee tables.

     Boston Mills had some financial problems when its parent company, Stoddart Publishing, went bankrupt early in this century. Fortunately the inventory was picked up by Firefly Books and you can still order many of the titles from them. Used copies of Boston Mill's titles are found on AbeBooks and they can be located by doing a keyword search. The public libraries also have many of the books, particularly the ones relating to the local areas in which they are located.

     All of these titles are older and none are current. I am not sure if any of the tea rooms Melody Wren recommends exist now and some of the "Top 50 Tourist Attractions" may be long gone. Georgian Bay and Lake Erie are still here, however, and you can still spend the night at Windermere in Muskoka. If you are not going anywhere, you can relax and enjoy the books which are usually full of good photographs.
     Here are some sample titles and at the end, the usual useful tidbits.

The Annex : the story of a Toronto neighbourhood / Jack Batten. 2004
At the mouth of the Credit / by Betty Clarkson. 1977
The boardwalk album : memories of the beach / Barbaranne Boyer.1985
Castles and Cottages: River Retreats of the Thousand Islands, Fischer & Mollica.



Changing landscapes of southern Ontario / Virgil Martin
Country inns : Ontario's best getaways / Donna Carpenter.
Daytripper : 50 trips in and around southwestern Ontario / Donna Gibbs Carpenter
Erindale at the crook of the Credit / by Jean Adamson. 1978
Explore Muskoka / by Susan Pryke;
Fifty unusual things to see in Ontario / Ron Brown.
Guelph : take a look at us! / Donald E. Coulman. 1977
Heritage buildings of Norfolk : a sampling of pre-Confederation buildings in Norfolk County, Ontario : based on an inventory undertaken by the University Women's Club of Norfolk / edited
 by Hylda Howes.1985
The Hike Ontario guide to walks in Carolinian Canada / Brad Cundiff.1998
Huntsville, pictures from the past : Lake of Bays. 1986
Huron : Grand Bend to Southampton / Sandra Orr.1993
Kirkland Lake : Michael Barnes ; photographs by Lynne Birnie and Eddie Duke. 1994
Long Point : last port of call / Dave Stone 1988
Main street : a pictorial history of Erin village / Jean Denison. 1980
Maitland : a very neat village indeed / by Stephen A. Otto

  

Melody Wren's Tea rooms of Southern Ontario.1997
Memories of Toronto Island : 10 minutes and 1,000 miles away / M.J. Lennon.
Milton : welcome to our town / William E. Cook.1977
Mount Forest : the way we were / by William J. Edwards.1979
Muskoka's grand hotels / Barbaranne Boyer 1987
Northern steamboats : Timiskaming, Nipissing & Abitibi / Richard Tatley.1996
Oakville : a small town, 1900-1930 / Frances Robin Ahern 1981
Old relics and charming retainers of rural Ontario / by Jack Brooksbank. 1977
Over the hills to Georgian Bay : a pictorial history of the Ottawa, Arnprior and Parry Sound      Railway / by Niall MacKay. 1981
Owen Sound : steamboat days / by Andrew Armitage.1981
Parry Sound : logging days / by John Macfie. 1987
Port Carling : the hub of the Muskoka lakes / Richard Tatley 1996
Port Sydney past / by George H. Johnson. 1980
Postcard memories of Muskoka / Allan Anderson and Ralph Beaumont. 1978
A river rat's guide to the Thousand Islands / Shawn Thompson 1996
Seaforth beginnings / by Dean Robinson.1987
St. Clair Tunnel / Clare Gilbert. 1991
The steamboat era in the Muskokas / by Richard Tatley.1984
A Stratford album : memories of the Festival City / by Mary Jane Lennon.1985
Stratford / photography by Richard Bain 1998
Travel Ontario : Ontario's 50 most popular tourist attractions. 1987
Trees of the Carolinian forest : a guide to species, their ecology, and uses / Gerry Waldron.
Up the creek : a paddler's guide to Ontario / Kevin Callan.1996
Windermere House: The Tradition Continues, Susan Pryke

Sources:
The old website for Boston Mills.
The list of Boston Mills titles on Firefly Books
Among the useful titles for those who are staying at home.


Post Script
The book about logging in Parry Sound is an oral history and one learns from the old timers, two words from the glossary that will be useful when you are around the camp fire or at the cottage on Georgian Bay. You can tell them that Booyaw is an "impromptu feast, usually boiled fowl, sometimes stolen" and that Raganooter Lake is probably named that because Raganooter refers to "a fallen tree which lies partly in the water of a lake or river."