Meetings & Events

Our 2024 proposed year’s programme can be seen here.

Meetings will be hybrid meetings: live at Kingsbridge Retirement Community and on Zoom. At present there are no Covid restrictions at Kingsbridge. The spaciousness of this venue also allows us to offer light refreshments and an opportunity for socialization preceding each lecture: 6:30 for 7:00 p.m.

Members receive the Zoom link on the Friday before the Wednesday meeting. Non-members: for the Zoom link, please email before 6 p.m. on the day of the meeting.

The Kingsbridge Retirement Community at 950 Centennial Drive is the tall building just south of Princess Street.  Enter on the east side (the other end from Centennial Drive). Staff will be at the door to give you directions. Park in any unmarked parking space; there is also parking around Shoppers Drug Mart. Express buses #501 and 502 serve Upper Princess Street with a stop very near Kingsbridge. Bus #4 offers slower service along Princess Street from downtown. Use the Centennial Drive bus stop.

Please scroll down for the links to our previous meetings available for viewing on YouTube, and to outside events of interest.

Next Meeting

Wednesday, April 17th Margaret Ross will talk on“ ‘Your Town is Rotten’: Prostitution, Profit and the Governing of Vice in Kingston, Ontario, 1860-1920s,”

Non members can email kingstonhs@gmail.com for the Zoom link before 6 pm on the 20th. Members will be emailed the link.

Upcoming Meetings

(more detailed descriptions are available here)

Wednesday, May 15th: Ian Macpherson McCulloch will talk on his 2022 book John Bradstreet’s Raid 1758

Thursday, June 6th: The Society will host the annual commemoration of Sir John A. Macdonald at his graveside in Cataraqui Cemetery. Details to be announced on the Society website nearer the date. 

Wednesday, September 18th Alan McLeod will discuss Brewing and Beer in Eastern Upper Canada 1790s to 1840s and its role as precursor of today’s bustling craft brewing industry. 

Wednesday, October 16th William Galbraith will talk on John Buchan: Model Governor General 

Wednesday, November 20th: Well-known local architectural historian and archaeologist John Grenville will discuss the interesting career of architect Ernest R. Beckwith (1879-1963), who worked in Kingston as City Engineer and operated as an architect in the years before World War I, leaving a built legacy in both residential and commercial Kingston still evident today. 


Past meetings available on YouTube

Meetings held in 2020 to 2023 are indexed by topic and by speaker here. You can download a Word document with live links to YouTube.

2024

January: Professor Gordon Dueck :Barbers in Blackface? African-Canadian Musicians in Fin-de-Siecle Kingston.”You can watch the presentation here The original recordings are lost but the sheet music survives and one can find renditions of the songs from “In Dahomey” on YouTube at

https://youtu.be/Mki_FLAMnXc?si=BKCBI0DNV71Uu7Q5

https://youtu.be/Gnf-tja58-g?si=AGNQQEn-d1cd7OaJ

https://youtu.be/KnM__IAMnl4?si=OXRc7Mj3PPa9RBTk

Annual General Meeting. The Agenda is here . The YouTube video is here. The Financial Statement for 2023 is here

March:  Eric Gagnon:Two Miles, Two Tracks, Two Railways, To Obscurity.” You can watch the presentation here

You might want to catch up on your reading about Kingston. We have produced a Reading List – click here to see it! Contact us here with suggestions for additions to the list. We also recommend you viewing a video describing the 22 National Historic Sites of Kingston. You can find it here . If you have comments on it, please contact Greg Anderson at gpanderson191@gmail.

Outside Events Of Interest

Frontenac Heritage Foundaton will present Randy Bagg, a member of the non-profit group  Ontario Barn Preservation talking on Saving Eastern Ontario Barns on Tuesday, March 26, 7 p.m.  This event will be held through Zoom. Send an email to contact@frontenacheritage.ca to ask for the Zoom link. For more information about the group – go to their website:  https://www.ontariobarnpreservation.com/

Canadian Club Kingston meets on April 11 to hear Prof. Paul Gardiner, Queen’s University, to speak on The US Elections. All Canadian Club meetings are held at Cataraqui Golf & Country Club, 32 Country Club Lane. Lecture is preceded by lunch at 12 p.m. Lunch price – $35 members/ $43 – non-members. All welcome. Registration required one week in advance.  To register: Info@canadianclubkingston.org or rsvp@canadianclubkingston.org or call 613-699-3102.

Kingston Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society meets on Saturday April 20 at 10:00 a.m. Rowena McGowan, Curator of the Museum of Health Care at Kingston, with a presentation titled Iron Lungs and Wax Faces: A Journey Through the Museum of Health Care at Kingston. The Zoom link is here.

Frontenac Heritage Foundaton Wednesday, April 24, will premier the video Remarkable Point Frederick. There will be two showings at the Screening Room, the first starting at 3 p.m., and the second at 4 p.m. Tickets will be available through Eventbrite (at no cost) with Frontenac Heritage Foundation members having priority. You will recall that in 2022, the Foundation was successful in obtaining funding from the City of Kingston Heritage Fund to assist Dr. Robert Banks in publishing his book ‘Warriors and Warships’ – and in the fall of 2022, Bob conducted a walking tour of the Point. A book launch was held in February 2023. Then in the fall last year, Sue Bazely and Bob Banks were interviewed by David McCallum for a video to record a walking tour of the point. The newly finished 23-minute video combines historical images along with drone imagery to give you a look back in time to life on Point Frederick before the Royal Military College was established.

Canadian Club Kingston meets on May 9 to hear Prof. Teresa Scassa, University of Ottawa talk on Artificial Intelligence. All Canadian Club meetings are held at Cataraqui Golf & Country Club, 32 Country Club Lane. Lecture is preceded by lunch at 12 p.m. Lunch price – $35 members/ $43 – non-members. All welcome. Registration required one week in advance.  To register: Info@canadianclubkingston.org or rsvp@canadianclubkingston.org or call 613-699-3102.

Back to Top