Storied Happened Here

This piece of art by Jacqui Eisen was inspired by anecdotes told to her by neighbours when she moved to house she still lives in. A woman, named Mary Moore, who lived on the street from the early 1900’s into the 50’s and 60’s used to tell stories to neighbourhood children at her house.  These were much simpler times. When story time was done she would serve refreshments but expected children to “give thanks”  before she served them.

Phone directories from the early 1900’s which listed phone numbers by streets, refer to her as Mrs. Mary Moore.  Mr. Moore was not mentioned. Was she widowed quite young? She must have been young in 1913 to have lived to the 60’s. Did she ever have children of her own or did early widowhood rob her of the chance. Clearly she loved children.

Elderly neighbours believed that her house was the oldest on the street dating from when the area was a farm.  At some point the original clapboard on the house was covered with pebble dash stucco. Eventually that too was painted. However, the painting portrays the house in a rural setting as it might have looked like when Mary Moore was a child.

The piece is named, “Stories Happened Here” because Mary’s storytelling became its own story. Despite it being a short one block street, in the early years of living there the artist heard many stories about Spencer Street from people who lived all over Welland.  Small streets like Spencer Street in small towns like Welland, could be little communities in their own right. Many of the older residents in the late 1980’s had grown up on the street or on a nearby street.  The city was also much smaller than it is today with the lives of its residents intertwined in many ways.