What’s in a Name?
“Without change there is no innovation, creativity, or incentive for improvement.”
We are pleased to announce that the name of the John Brown Heritage Foundation has been officially changed to The Brown Homestead. We have also updated our website and our social media to reflect that change.
But why, you may ask?
It begins and ends with our motto: The Brown Homestead is Niagara’s Homestead.
Planning overview cover, 2019
It’s been almost six years since the charity was incorporated as the John Brown Heritage Foundation to preserve and protect the John Brown House, the oldest home in St. Catharines. Since then, we have done some much needed repair and restoration work. We have also immersed ourselves in the rich history of this place and its inhabitants. We sought out stories of the homestead and the surrounding community, past and present, seeking to discover the best way forward.
This journey has always been outwardly focused. Mostly, we listened. To you. We listened to Niagara residents who participated in our events and surveys. We listened to the people who grew up in this house and their descendants. We listened to heritage professionals in Canada and beyond, who are trying to preserve and protect other sites like ours. We are beholden to each of you.
Short Hills Park survey station, Fall 2017
We also listened to the homestead itself. Jon Jouppien, the well known heritage conservationist and former owner of The Brown Homestead once said to us, “the house will tell you what it wants … if you listen.” It has. And not just the house. When the vineyards that surround the homestead come alive in the spring, and the red-winged blackbirds sing in our meadow, when we hike through the Short Hills Park, or watch the sun set beyond the escarpment, we better understand its place - and by extension, our place - in history’s continuum.
Throughout these years, past and present combined to show us the way forward, until the story of the next chapter in the life of The Brown Homestead emerged. As our future came into focus, we realized that a correction was needed. The dual names were confusing. People asked us, “If this is The Brown Homestead, what is the John Brown Heritage Foundation?” A name is like a joke. If you have to explain it, it isn’t a good one.
“The Brown Homestead” is the best reflection of our bright future. Early on, we realized that what is special about this historic place is not just the house, but its context; the cultural landscape of this old Loyalist farm - and how the story of Niagara has been written in the changes that have occurred here over time.
The ‘homestead’ ethos is central to our story, past and future - for a homestead is the home and land of a family. A place that nurtures. A gathering place. The Brown Homestead has always been such a place - from its earliest days as a site of church services and its decades as Adam Brown’s tavern, to the Victorian era Chellew family reunions and later Powers family picnics under an old apple tree, to the heritage restoration demonstrations given by Jon Jouppien and the first Volunteer Family Meal of the John Brown Heritage Foundation.
The Brown Homestead Volunteer Family Meal, 2017
The John Brown House has long offered shelter, sustenance and communion to both its inhabitants and its community, but the story of this place begins well before the construction of the house. Located on the pre-settlement Mohawk Trail, the homestead lies within the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee peoples. We are pleased to recognize and honour their friendship as well, and the continuing historic partnership that makes it possible for us to be here today.
We are retaining the Brown name as a nod to the family who settled here around 1785 and built the house, but the homestead will celebrate all the families who have lived here and all the families that will continue to share it with us.
The Brown Homestead is a place for everyone, a place where we celebrate our shared past while always looking to the future. It is Niagara’s Homestead.
Doors Open St. Catharines, 2017
Here, in this sublime pastoral setting, we are creating one of Niagara’s most exciting cultural venues, where we will offer community festivals, public and private events, and creative educational programming, often with our outstanding educational, cultural and charitable partners.
We are very excited about The Road Ahead and can’t wait to start sharing it with you, beginning this summer. Come join us. Our door is open.
If you want to receive an invitation to our upcoming event featuring our plans for the future of The Brown Homestead, click to let us know.
Community engagement workshop, 2016