My Dad visited England during the 1940's.

My Dad and Stepmother visited Montreal's Jarry Park to see the Montreal Expos baseball team play - 1970.

               

I have all of the negatives, and they will all be developed.

The Project of a Lifetime.

My Goal
To save all of the Corrections Canada buildings and towers in Kingston, Ontario, past and present.
To create a multifaceted, unique tourism experience in the Limestone City.

Try to convince the Prime Minister of Canada, Members of Parliament, Parks Canada and the Government of Ontario to preserve all of the prison buildings and landscapes.
Create a multimedia centre in the Kingston Penitentiary or the Prison for Women. The Centre will include videos, interactive content, paintings by prisoners; newspaper articles about the Pen by Charles Dickens and Ernest Hemingway: a speech by Canadian writer Margaret Atwood to a Save Our Prison Farms rally; documentaries, etc:

Canadian writer Margaret Atwood at Corrections Canada Headquarters, Kingston.

YouTube videos:
He's 38 years old and never kissed a girl - by the Tragically Hip.
We become our own wolves - with music by Rae Spoon. An animated video featuring works of art by women prisoners at the Isabel MacNeill Halfway House,
Small Minds by Vera Sola - Danielle Aykroyd.
Live at Collins Bay Penitentiary - by the Blue Diamonds.
I've Come to get My Baby Out Of Jail - The Rattlesnake Choir/Handsome Ned,
Music from The Big House - Rita Chiarelli.

Songs and Music Albums
Audible Songs from Rockwood - by Simone Schmidt.
Time off for Good Behavior - by Neil Young,
"My brother went to Kingston
He's in Kingston doin' time
He got seven years for sellin'
What I've been smokin all my life."

Documentaries:
P4W
The Netflix presentation "Alias Grace" by Margaret Atwood.
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Items that can be sold in the Penitentiary Museum:
Limestone necklaces and earrings. (Own a piece of the rock).
Replicas of the denim dresses that P4W inmates wore during the 1960's.
Key chains that resemble licence plates. (Prisoners used to manufacture licence plates for the Ontario government,)
Mug shots of tourists.
Record albums by the Tragically Hip, Rita Chiarelli, Rae Spoon, Simone Schmidt.
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I will contact:
The Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport - The Hon. Sylvia Jones, MPP.
The Official Website of Tourism in Ontario.
Tourism Kingston, located in Innovation Park, 209 Ontario Street.
The Haunted Walk of Kingston.
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Architecture
On a plaque in front of each building, document the fact that Kingston Penitentiary inmates were responsible for the construction of all of  the buildings; that limestone was used; give the dates of the construction and the names of the architects.
Return Canada's Maple Leaf Flag and Coat of Arms to the Kingston Pen, Rockwood Asylum, Prison for Women, Stone Gables, Isabel MacNeill Halfway House, etc.

Do not let the new owner of the Prison for Women remove any bars from the windows or cells, knock down any interior walls, or the demolish the remaining perimeter wall. YouTube has a video showing the 3 walls and many buildings being demolished, Google "P4W walls coming down."
Replace the bell in the Prison for Women bell tower.
Install telescopes in each of the Kingston Pen guard towers.

Sell books by local architectural historian Dr. Jennifer McKendry:
Historic Portsmouth Village, Kingston (1995).
With Our Past Before Us: 19th Century Architecture in the Kingston Area (1995)
Portsmouth Village, Kingston: An illustrated history. (2010)
Get copies of a presentation given by Dr. Jennifer McKendry before the Frontenac Heritage Foundation, called "The Importance of Kingston Penitentiary".
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 Street names where the buildings are located:
Sir John A. Macdonald Boulevard
Mowat Avenue
King Street
Union Street
Stone Gables
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Places of Worship located within the Kingston Pen.
Church of the Good Thief - a nearby Catholic Church built by inmates using limestone.
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All of the land surrounding the Kingston Penitentiary and Rockwood Asylum will remain public:

Rockwood Asylum was built by Kingston Pen inmates to house federal prisoners, before the property was sold to the Province of Ontario. From: A City Of Kingston report, June 20, 2018---"The subject lands are part of a recognized "cultural heritage landscape" within Section 7.3.D.5 of the City of Kingston Official Plan." Real estate developers would like to commercialize the 100-acre Provincial Lands that surround the Asylum.

See the Corrections Canada Internet article "Kingston Penitentiary Harbourfront Property-CSC-SCC-"The remediated area will no longer be leased for boat slips or long-term boat storage, so the refreshed space will be open for the public to enjoy!"

More historical buildings and landscapes in the Village of Portsmouth.

1.) Penitentiary Water Tower - 61 West Campus Lane, Kingston. In 1969 the Government of Canada transferred prison farm land and an old limestone quarry to Queen's University.

2.) Penitentiary Farm House - 61 West Campus Lane - 1850-1900. The farm house is the oldest Kingston Pen building surviving outside of the prison walls.

3.)  The Penitentiary Stone Quarry - 181 Mowat Avenue is three minutes away from "The Big House". A baseball diamond and a park now inhabit the site where Kingston Pen inmates worked for years, excavating limestone. A plaque was recently unveiled in Garrigan Park, see the YouTube video "Project Book Canada: Unveiling of 'The Convict Lover' plaque' .In the video Hugh Christopher Brown sings "The Prisoner's Song" and author Merilyn Simonds reads from her book "The Convict Lover"---a book that is based on correspondence between a penitentiary inmate and a Village of Portsmouth woman during the year 1919.

The Penitentiary Stone Quarry - 181 Mowat Avenue.

4.)  Tunnels - a tunnel connected "The Big House" to the nearby Rockwood Asylum. Rockwood was built to accommodate inmates who could not tolerate living in the prison. A tunnel also connected the penitentiary to the Prison for Women. Actress Sarah Gadon took a photograph of the tunnel during the filming of "Alias Grace", a novel by Margaret Atwood.

A scene from the television program "Alias Grace". Grace is being escorted to the "Governor's House", 555 King Street West. The building is a Corrections Canada museum, open to the public. Photo is from: The kingstonherald.com.

The tunnel connecting Kingston Penitentiary to P4W  across the street. Photo by actress Sarah Gadon, from the kingstonherald.com.

The following buildings can be saved by the United Nations.

A United Nations agency called UNESCO has the power intervene when heritage buildings and landscapes are threatened by war, development pressures and the adaption of existing buildings that would threaten their authenticity. The following properties are located in the city of Kingston, Ontario Canada:
The Kingston Penitentiary - 560 King Street West.

Corrections Canada - 443 Union Street.

The Penitentiary Museum - 555 King Street West.

The former Prison for Women - 40 Sir John A. Macdonald Boulevard.

The Isabel MacNeill Halfway House - 325 King Street West.

The Church of the Good Thief - 743 King Street West.

The Rockwood Asylum - 8 Gable Lane

Ontario Regional Headquarters, 440 King Street West.

Former Portsmouth Community Correctional Centre - 508 Portsmouth Avenue

  

The City of Kingston and the loss of Corrections Canada properties.

Eleven Kingston Penitentiary buildings are slated for demolition, and the Prison for Women will be converted into student housing, high end condos on the top floor and commercial businesses on the ground floor. The large green space encompassing the nearby Training Centre on Union Street may be the focus of residential housing. I lived in Kingston during the 1960's and early 1970's, and it fills me with despair when I see what is happening to a beautiful, unique, historic city. Local politicians have no vision, they are on the wrong side of history, they cannot comprehend how much damage they are inflicting on the community.
A Cautionary Tale  
I lived in Toronto, Ontario 40 years ago and during the summer I spent a lot of time at the waterfront because I did not have air conditioning in my stifling Parkdale living space and I enjoyed being outdoors. There were miles and miles of green spaces, trees, playgrounds, beaches that were staffed by lifeguards, pavilions, picnic areas with tables and hibachis, horse trails...I saw people riding horses.
Everything is gone now. The Toronto waterfront now resembles Hong Kong. I have no desire to visit Toronto or Vancouver because they are concrete jungles.
     In 1972 the government of Pierre Trudeau created a Crown corporation called "Harbourfront". Harbourfront was established to revitalize 100 acres of waterfront land in Toronto, to turn the land into green space and cultural attractions. Harbourfront now owns 10 acres.. Political leaders and many other people halted the demolition of Union Station, the Windsor Station in Montreal, Summerhill in North Toronto and the Conference Centre in Ottawa.

From the Globe and Mail newspaper.

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Many politicians, historical societies, tourism agencies and ordinary citizens are opposed any destruction of Kingston Penitentiary. The Big House or The Pen has dominated the waterfront for almost 200 years---if left alone, the Pen will define the skyline thousands of years from now, because it was created with limestone. The limestone Great Pyramid of Giza is 4,000 years old.
 People from all over the world will not visit Kingston Ontario so they can see commemorative plaques or photographs of these buildings.

The former Warden's House, now the Penitentiary Museum, ca 1900. The photo was sent to me by the Federal Heritage Buildings Review Office in Gatineau, Quebec.

The Natural Resources Complex in Ottawa will not be preserved.

     Once a federal building is transferred to a Crown corporation the building loses all heritage designation and protection. The Mulroney government  privatized thousands of Dominion Buildings that housed Canada Post, Manpower and Immigration, Canada Customs and the RCMP. The new owners had carte blanche, free reign to demolish the properties, or to convert them into high end condos.The Federal Heritage Buildings Review Office has absolutely no power to save historic buildings. I know, because years ago I contacted FHBRO to try to prevent the destruction of CFB Downsview aircraft hangars and the de Havilland factory. The factory was re purposed and Centennial College established a new campus there. To see an Earth Cam live video of the construction Google: "Campus development|Downsview campus".
FHBRO was unable to preserve:
1.)  The Veteran's Affairs Senneville Quebec property.
2.)  The Spadina Roundhouse--- demolished to pave the way for the Skydome/Rogers Centre, Toronto.
3.)  An Art Deco mail processing plant in Toronto, now the Air Canada Centre.