Local enthusiasts seeking to save century-old Dingle schoolhouse

Written By KIRA WRONSKA DORWARD

Unbeknownst to neighbours and the Caledon community, for close to four decades a thriving conclave of artists took up residence in Caledon's back woods. 

In a renovated 19th century schoolhouse behind the Glen Haffy trout fishing ponds off Centerville Creek Road, Rosemary Kilbourn, celebrated painter, engraver, and stained-glass artist had taken up residence in the old Dingle schoolhouse in 1957. In fact, writer Farley Mowat, living just down the road, would have to vouch that the at-the-time twenty-six-year old artist wishing to purchase and live in the abandoned schoolhouse was in her right mind.

Fresh from her return from England, where she had gone to study portrait painting after attending what was then the Ontario College of Art, Kilbourn's former instructor, Will Ogilvie, had invited her and some former classmates to his sketching cabin in Caledon. 

Having always wanted to paint and live in the country, Kilbourn especially took to the area around Palgrave, where artist David Milne had lived and worked in the 1930s. In a book on Milne's work, editors Milroy and Dejardin say of the area, “here his creativity was unleashed anew in still-life studies and in sky paintings that express a euphoric connection to the natural world.” 

Ogilvie, knowing of Rosemary's desire to move to the area after being inspired by Milne's work, showed her the schoolhouse. “I saw this,” she says, indicating the entirety of the wooden structure and outlying wilderness, “and said yes, that would suit me perfectly.” 

The History, the Schoolhouse and the Agreement

The Dingle, from the Irish word for a deep wooded valley or dell, sits on a geological area totally unique in the world. Where the Niagara Escarpment reaches the Oak Ridges Moraine is a deep valley cut by an ancient glacier that once covered Southern Ontario. When the glacier cracked and moved, the valley was created, as well as the two geographical areas. 

In more recent history, the Dingle is located on a tract of land that was given to a British Loyalist in recognition for his loyalty to the Crown. Jacob Rawn, whose descendent Debbie Rawn Gordon still lives in Caledon, was given a large tract of land to farm for his services to the British Empire on what is now the Glen Haffy Conservation Area. 

After fighting in both the American War of Independence and the War of 1812, Rawn was rewarded for his service in 1821 with a large tract of land in Mono Mills, including areas of Glen Haffy and the land on which the Dingle Schoolhouse now stands. The family were producers of maple syrup and processed the abundant salmon in the headwaters of the Humber River. Rawn and his wife were buried on the farm, although the graves were later destroyed, and the land upon which the Schoolhouse now stands was sold. The schoolhouse was then built in 1872.

At the time, trained traditionally as a painter, Kilbourn wanted to paint landscapes from the same canvas as Milne, whose simple depictions of rural life in the manner of Tom Thomson would “prefigure Canadian art to come, suggesting a rough and ready relationship to the natural world, and to making art.”

When Kilbourn first moved into the Dingle, there was a lesson on South America still sitting on the chalkboard, to the consternation of the former teacher, whom Kilbourn told years later. The plaque above the front entrance to the school house reads “School Section No. 11, Erected A. D. 1872”, and the wooden structure, whose panelling needs constant replacing, is falling into disrepair among the surrounding wilderness, which is starting to take the school back for its own.

Kilbourn was approached by the Conservation Authority (they already had ownership of the trout ponds below the property) in 1988 with an opportunity to sell the Dingle and remaining acreage back to the Conservation under the condition that she continue to live and manage the property until she was no longer able. This arrangement was made at a time when Rosemary was ill and when the heritage and cultural legacy of the building was not fully understood. 

The terms of her contract with the TRCA mean that though the structure was hers for as long as she was able to live there, upon her moving it reverted to the possession of the TRCA after six months.  

After sixty-two years of living in the schoolhouse, Kilbourn moved out of Dingle into assisted living in the spring of 2019, and will be forced to relinquish control to the TRCA on November 1 of this year. This contract has left her unable to vocalize any long-term goals or hopes for preserving the space. 

The Artist, her Friends, and the Work

The structure of the schoolhouse and its environs provided more than a scenic sanctuary for creative minds. It became in itself the focus of their artistic endeavours, and the medium through which they found self-expression. In the words of poet Amanda Jernigan, who first met Kilbourn at the memorial service for poet Richard Outram, “it's a place in the deepest sense of the word. This place sort of furnished the matrix of the world divine, that is reflected and refracted in the work. So [in that sense] the Dingle has gone out into the world.”

Jernigan is of course referring to the many works of art in various mediums produced by Rosemary and her invited guests, among which figure painter Barbara Howard, poet Richard Outram, artists Will Ogilvie, Frances Gage, Pauline Hooton (Hall), and Yvonne Williams. 

Jernigan herself, now an assistant professor of poetry and creative writing at St. Mary's University, had her first creative formulations at the old, long wooden table that spans the back wall of the schoolhouse's main room. 

“I really came of age as a maker under the tutelage of Richard and Barbara when I was nineteen, and then moved into my role with Rosemary as my mentor. As the centre of my cosmos, they showed me in their lives, their art, and in their work how to be serious about life and the work and the world,” Jernigan said. “I grew up in the country, so I came of age with serious artists coming from many artistic traditions, and coming up with them in the reality of this place.”

Of Kilbourn herself, (although the great artist says this should be taken with a grain of salt), Jernigan says, “then I discovered, having met Rosemary, that she is one of the greatest visionary artists this country has ever produced. Her work is very deeply connected to this place, so for me it is a sacred place.”

Kilbourn may have been trained and started out as a traditional landscape painter, but this quickly changed as she met other artists and explored different mediums. She became interested in engraving, and quickly began publishing work as illustrations in a history book on William Lyon Mackenzie King, written by her brother, and Farley Mowat's The Desperate People.

“I found that this was a medium more suited to me because it's linear,” Kilbourn said. “Because I have physical contact with the wood, rather than just paper, which was much more satisfying than doing a surface thing. It's drawing with light rather than making engravings with a black pen.”

Her work as an engraving artist would come to define her career, although she also became interested in stained glass, and produced many prominent pieces in that medium for churches and spaces in Toronto, including Hart House chapel. 

Jernigan is one member of the committee, including Kilbourn's niece and nephew, Phillipa and Timothy Kilbourn, various concerned local parties, and curator Zoe Lepiano (whose parents met at the schoolhouse, and grew up at Rosemary's knee) who are entreating the TRCA to preserve the property as a cultural heritage site and have it serve as an artist space and residency. Lepiano is a museum conservationist who has catalogued Kilbourn's work, including a recent exhibition at the Hamilton Art Gallery.

“I've known Rosemary since I was in utero,” says Lepiano. “I think everybody who visits Rosemary's schoolhouse feels the magic (or attachment) to the space. It has a history of collaboration of Canadian artists when Canadian art wasn't understood the way it is now. Rosemary was a single woman living in the middle of nowhere, which was intentional, the schoolhouse became a gathering point… We're trying to bring attention to this.” 

She added, “The TRCA understands natural conservation, but doesn't understand cultural heritage conservation. Even now we're just coming into our understanding of cultural history and Canadian art. We're playing catch-up, the scholarship is just beginning and unfolding.”

Check back next week for Part two of the Citizen's coverage on attempts to preserve the Dingle Schoolhouse