By Emily R. Zarevich, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Do you know which lone train station in Burlington was available in the 1960s? Did you ever dine at the Ben-Hur restaurant and if you did, do you know what is at the location now? How much did it cost to cross the Skyway Bridge sixty years ago? When did the Dairy Queen on Plains Road, the one that has seemingly been there forever, first open? The Burlington Historical Society wants to know if you know.
Burlington’s annual Heritage Week has been well underway with its usual roster of events designed to keep the city’s population well-educated on their community’s history since the settlers came in the eighteenth century. On Wednesday, August 6, 2025, the Burlington Historical Society (BHS) held its fourth consecutive Heritage Week Trivia Night to pick Burlingtonian brains for tidbits of information on our city’s past and present. The challenge took place at the Burlington Performing Arts Centre from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. and was hosted by long-term friends and Burlington residents Don Thorpe and David Craig. Thorpe is the president of the BHS. Craig is a member of the organization and is notable for being the content creator and host of the YouTube series Burlington History Minutes.
According to the history buff duo, it took a total of twenty hours, nearly an entire day’s work, to compile the trivia questions. Fact-checking, that necessary step in anything history-related, was top priority. The original Heritage Week Trivia Night, which was coordinated as a wintertime pub crawl four years ago, started off with some issues, mainly due to Canada’s notoriously ruthless weather.
“It was February,” says Craig. “We went from the Sherwood to the Queen’s Head to the Coronation, and then over to Emma’s Back Porch, and it was icy and slippery. We were on the committee for Heritage Week. We said, ‘This is crazy!’ People aren’t coming out. Let’s do it in summertime when we can do walks around the town.”
And this year, people did come out. Burlington’s senior community packed into the BPAC’s cabaret-style Community Studio Theatre, armed with their pens and a store of niche knowledge that only comes from living in an ever-changing city for decades. Town crier David Vollick announced the start of the evening, and then the memory test began. With a slideshow of vintage photographs gathered from Craig’s private collection, the Burlington Historical Society Archives, and Museums Burlington, Craig had the attendees working like students presented with an exam they couldn’t possibly study for. Thorpe and Craig make it a point not to reuse the same trivia questions from previous years. The trivia is always fresh and untried.
“I think sometimes our wry sense of humour comes in and we will try something maybe a little cheeky in our questions,” says Craig, on putting together the trivia. “We try to make them not too easy because some of them are quite obvious. If you ask, ‘What hotel is this?’ and the name is in the photograph, they’ll know right away.”
Trivia Night is even structured as a school-style test. “There will be questions where you have to fill in the blank. Then there’s some questions where you have A, B, C, or D choices as well. Or true or false,” Thorpe confirms.
Thorpe and Craig’s questions for the 2025 roster ranged from identifying details about the city’s capital punishment laws in the 1800s, when Burlington was still a ship-building colony settlement, to 2014, when Burlington made national news when an intoxicated driver crashed on the Skyway Bridge. It was about what the audience was taught in history class and what they remember from watching and reading the news. One of Burlington’s former mayors was also the city’s first car owner, what was his name? The first movie theatre in Burlington, what was it called? And what movie had scenes filmed in Burlington in the 1980s? Burlington has come a long way as a city, and it has left behind a long trail of facts.
Both Thorpe and Craig believe Burlington has a long way to go before all of its citizens can be considered well-versed in those facts. “I think with today’s fast pace, you look at young people like my daughter. She’s got two young children. They don’t have time to wind their watch,” Craig observes. “The kids are busy doing this and that. They’ve got jobs. I think that’s the problem with that generation. They don’t have time. But if they can go and relax and see something on their way, like in Spencer Smith Park, that’s just a little glimpse into the past. It may give them the idea, ‘I’d like to learn more.’”
The citizens who do have the knowledge appreciate Heritage Week Trivia Night for the opportunity to apply it to something fun and nostalgic. “I just enjoy reliving my memories from when I was young,” says Linda Gasson, who is 78 years old. “We came here to Burlington from Toronto when I was six years old. I love looking back and seeing all the pictures.”
Linda is a member of the Burlington Historical Society along with her husband, Brent Gasson, who is also 78 years old. “We have a deep interest in Burlington,” says Brent. “We’ve seen it really grow from the 1950s, when we first moved here. We’ve seen all the changes. We’ve seen everything grow all the way through. And we have fond memories.”
The Gassons and their fellow Trivia Night attendees could have consulted their cell phones for quick answers, but out of the spirit of good sportsmanship, they didn’t. Teams sitting together at tables conspired amongst themselves, whispering, while those working alone concentrated with their heads bent over their papers. Although there were no prizes given out for getting the most answers correct, there was still intense competitive energy in the room. The prizes came later from the raffle, but those were won entirely by chance.
The Burlington Historical Society is accepting donations of old and historically valuable photographs that can be copied for their archives and used for next year’s Heritage Week Trivia Night. Anyone who digs through their albums and finds a treasure can contact info@burlingtonhistorical.ca. BHS is also accepting donations so that they can continue their work keeping Burlington’s past ripe and alive. Donations are accepted here.
