A walk into the past

Walking around St. Albert is about to get historical once again. Heritage Sites educational programmer Roy Toomey gets to play tour guide for his summer series of Historic Walking Tours.

“I'm excited about it. I had no idea when I started it that it was going to be this popular,” he said, describing an average attendance as “gangbusters.”

“It's been great! Pretty much every tour has seen between 20 and 30 people. It's been fantastic!”

The tour started on Thursday and runs the same day on alternating weeks and with alternating programs. Always commencing from the Little White School, participants either walk through the Perron District or along the Sturgeon River.

The former features points of note along Mission Hill, the Founders' Walk and the historic centre of the city, while Toomey offers commentary about the river itself, the riverlots, and the settlers for the latter.

“We have such a historic downtown core that we wanted people not only to be able to read about it in the museum and the heritage sites but to able to take them around the actual downtown and point out where some of the buildings were and talk about some of the historical characters. It feels a little more real when you can actually go out and see where these things were.”

He said that people hold a special place in their hearts for the Little White School itself, but also Perron Street. Toomey is a wealth of information on Fleuri Perron and the statue of St. Albert, a quirky and controversial monument especially considering it is a statue of the wrong saint. Of course, there's also the Bruin Inn.

“People love the stories about the Bruin Inn! I think the legend keeps growing too. You always hear different stories about it. It's totally nostalgic as time goes by. People always talk about the good old days. Everybody has stories. It's great!”

At the end of the season, there will be a special Saturday afternoon family backpacking tour as a guide to the nature of the area.

“We're going to have these little packs that we're going to put together with magnifying glasses and books for identifying leaves and things.”