If you are Canadian, you must have held a fifty-dollar bill at least a few times. I have several but had yet to learn who the man featured was or his importance to Canadian history and politics.
Charlene and I were starting a weekend trip down to Windsor; this location was the first stop. In Kitchener, a city I once lived in and enjoyed my stay there, is a National Historic Site that I should have visited. Oddly, its proximity to my former home was never enough to pique my curiosity, but I had yet to discover the joys of travelling back then. With Charlene in my life now, travel and the joys of sharing the discoveries from travelling are an addiction we can never get enough of.
Windsor is four hours from our current address. A big trip needs to be broken up into smaller segments so the day doesn’t feel like all we did was spend time in the car. Woodside was the first spot in our weekend quest for new discoveries.
William Lyon Mackenzie King grew up in Kitchener, then called Berlin. Woodside is his childhood home. Years ago, it was slated for demolition, and the property was to be sold. A group of concerned citizens wanted to preserve Canadian heritage and was able to save the site and have it eventually made into a National Historic Site. William Lyon Mackenzie King would be the longest-serving Prime Minister for Canada and the longest-serving in all of the Commonwealth. He served as Canada’s leader during World War Two and is remembered and respected with fondness.
Canada would add William Lyon Mackenzie King to the $50 denomination in 1975 and has proudly lined the pockets of many Canadians since then. The Bank of Canada greatly explains the current $50 note in circulation.
At the time, I had no idea who King was or his significance, and I just wanted to see his former residence. Seeing heritage homes is one of our key attractions. Learning how people lived in different periods, whether rich or not, is always enlightening. Plus, tours show us what is significant to the area regarding history.
We were able to visit inside Woodside and do a proper tour. It happened to be decorated for Christmas (since it was December when we visited). At other times of the year, the inside is not opened as often. It is important to check their website for tour times. The exterior grounds are open all year long.
There are three sites in Canada that have some connection to King. Woodside is his childhood home. Laurier House was his residence in Ottawa. Then there is his estate in Quebec. These three locations we visited are open to the public. We even went to an event in Riverwood Conservatory where King was featured during their historic haunted tour in an October years past. Without trying, we learned a lot about William Lyon Mackenzie King and had also gotten to visit four great sites.
This is the main thing that we love about travel: so many things are connected. Seeing one site and learning how it is connected to another one in an entirely different province adds to the experience.
- It is free to tour the grounds.
- The entry fee to the inside of Woodside is relatively inexpensive, and most places run by the federal government are usually very reasonable.
- The time to tour the inside is about 1 hour.
- We had a free cookie!
- Free parking.
- Check out Featured Map for directions to these great places.
