Looking back at Brampton's first hospital

Looking back at Brampton's first hospital
The Brampton Guardian Friday July 6 2007
PAM DOUGLAS, Staff Writer

A sketch of Brampton's first hospital.

BRAMPTON - The history hidden in Brampton's downtown core still has some surprises left in it.
A local historian has just revealed that, contrary to current written history, Peel Memorial Hospital's opening in 1924 with 12 beds did not mark the start of the very first hospital in Brampton.
In fact, it was three years earlier that a plucky nurse named Venus Sawyer arrived in Brampton from England, bought a house at 78 Mill St. N. and opened a 15-bed private hospital.
Sawyer's hospital came at a time when the community-- with a population of 4,527-- was in dire need of such an institution, and it was busy. In the first two years, 61 babies were born in the house-turned-hospital, 59 operations performed by local doctors looking for a more sterile environment than a patient's kitchen table, and 58 medical cases were handled.
You would never know it by looking at the building now. Although some long-time residents know the home's history, it has remained an unintentional secret for the most part. The house is not listed on the city's heritage inventory, and is not even red-flagged.
"This building is extremely historic," said Bob Hulley, the man who was alerted to the building's history by life-long resident Dean Gowling. Hulley has researched the building and wants to find out more about it. Much of his information was supplied to him by Gowling, whose brother was born in the house and whose mother kept detailed notes about early Brampton.
Hulley and current homeowner Kevin Eggett are anxious to hear from Bramptonians who may have stories or information to share about Sawyer, her family or the Mill Street house.
The passage of time has allowed her to slip into anonymity, but Hulley wants to rectify that.
"We intend to have a memorial plaque placed on the building and, as a member of the Brampton Heritage Board, move to have it listed and designated as a heritage site," Hulley said. "This is the least we could do to honour Venus Sawyer's contribution to medical advancement in the City of Brampton."
Eggett is enthusiastic about having the home recognized, and hopes to do what he can to restore some of its features.
The house is on the northeast corner of Mill and Joseph Streets. The two-storey clapboard house was built in 1902 for Alexander Hunter, who worked at the Brampton Milling Company down the street.
It has been reincarnated more than once over the years. The hospital transitioned into a nursing home, and was later sold to Jim Archdekin and his wife, who lived in it for a while and then later divided it into three rental apartments, which it remains to this day. Archdekin later became Brampton's 35th mayor, serving from 1970 to 1982.
But it was Venus Sawyer's contributions to early Brampton that Hulley wants to find out more about. She was a familiar sight in the town, riding her bicycle around, and she married a cab driver by the name of Davis.
"I think it's a terrific story of this woman. She should be recognized in some way. She's like Florence Nightingale."
A newspaper interview with Venus Sawyer's niece, Anna Wing, a British actress who appeared in the popular British TV series The EastEnders many years ago, noted Sawyer brought 600 babies into the world in Brampton. She did it using the latest techniques in hospital sanitation and cleanliness, which she learned at a London school of nursing during a time when Florence Nightingale was spreading the word about reducing patient deaths.
Brampton's history will need to be rewritten in light of this new information, and the timing--- on the eve of the opening of Brampton's next generation hospita-- makes the discovery that much more interesting, Hulley said.
He said it is a prime example of how history needs to be talked about and documented.
"Most people would look at that (the house) and say it's a piece of junk. It's far from it," he said.
But city officials can't do it all by themselves.
"It really troubles me," he said. "We shouldn't just assume that the city knows about heritage properties. It comes back again to public involvement."
Then again, "A lot of people feel that nobody cares," he said.
However, plenty of people do care, he said.
Hulley would like to see the city start a practice of posting a sign on any property for which a demolition permit has been requested, much like the way a sign is posted when a rezoning is requested.
"Before any demolition takes place, there should be a sign put on the property," he said. The same as the signs that go up when a re-zoning application is filed. Those signs are up for months before."
That way, if a property, like the one on Mill Street, is an undiscovered heritage gem, someone in the community who knows it might call and let the city know.
As president of the Brampton branch of the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario (ACO), Hulley is working with that organization to get the idea adopted by municipalities across the province.
Such a system would ensure that, if there are any other buildings like the one on Mill Street, they will not be lost forever.
"It's not listed. It's not even red-flagged," Hulley said of the Mill Street house. "The law has a loophole in it."