He’s written two books in two years about his hometown of Galt.
Author John Hagopian, offers a glimpse into the area’s Victorian past with his biography, The Life and Times of Florence Dickson, and his neighbourhood book, Dickson's Hill: Galt's Victorian Masterpiece.
Venturing off to school as a young boy, Hagopian remembers all the mystery and charm the old Dickson Hill neighbourhood had to offer.
Named after the Honourable William Dickson, a prominent Galt settler who arrived in 1816, the historic area was where the rich and powerful of Galt use to build their homes.
“I was born in Galt, in a downtown working-class neighbourhood. And then we moved the suburbs of Galt, out on Blair Road almost outside the city limits,” Hagopian said.
“There was no school out there beyond Grade 3. There was Blair Road School, and then after that, nothing. So, we were bussed to Highland School, right in the Dickson Hill neighbourhood.”
As an eight-year-old boy, Hagopian says he saw big Victorian houses in a style that he had never seen before.
“I grew up on Beverly Street and suddenly, I see these big houses with designs that look like they came from another planet,” he said.
“I always thought what a weird, old neighbourhood. To see it standing in front of you, it was interesting, but it did pose questions.”
Hagopian went on to university where he studied urban history.
“I thought, well, I don’t really have to go looking at books in exotic places. There are things to write about right in my own hometown,” he said.
“Much about Dickson Hill was beyond my comprehension and experience as a child. I became curious as an adult to understand why it was different from the city as a whole. I wanted to know how this area had come to exist, and why it looked and felt unlike the rest of the city.”
In 1996, Hagopian began researching Dickson Hill in his spare time to determine whether its history was worth writing.
“After examining some old subdivision plans and tracing the role of the Dickson family, I decided that a full-time effort was warranted,” he said.
Hagopian received a master’s degree in urban geography and spent much of the 90’s writing historical articles in academic journals. He has also worked as a lawyer and civil servant with the Ontario government in the land transfer tax dept.
“I did that for 20 years and I retired very recently. So, I thought well I have some time now, I’ll write a book,” he said.
Hagopian says Dickson Hill had a definite sense of community both in the landscape and in its social aspects.
And the neighbourhood still has its share of oddities.
“There’s a huge, spooky cemetery and mausoleum was just north of it,” he said.
"And an absurd structure made of tombstones stood mysteriously like Stonehenge in the middle of an open clearing in the southern section of the neighbourhood, while residents walked or drove by, indifferent or oblivious to its bizarre presence.”
In his biography, The Life and Times of Florence Dickson, Hagopian describes upper-class social life in the 1890’s through the eyes of one prominent local socialite.
“I was doing title searches on local properties and this name kept coming up, ‘Florence Dickson’. And I thought, wow! She owned the whole neighbourhood. I thought, how did this woman end up owning it all, all 178 acres of it?” he said.
But, Hagopian says, there is a whole story behind Florence.
“Her brothers set her up so they could exploit her. Florence inherited a lot of money, but she didn’t actually receive it. Her brothers lived extravagantly. They lived like aristocracy, at her expense. So, it’s a very sad story,” Hagopian said.
“But Florence didn’t seem to care a whole lot about money. She seemed to look at more abstract things such as art, culture, and religion. Those things seemed to be far more important to her.”
Hagopian says writing the biography did come with a few challenges.
“The land registry office is key in the Dickson Hill story. The deeds tell you important things like who the spouses were, what they did for a living, and you can get it all from your computer. This one was less frustrating than the biography, which had less information to work with,” he said.
“When writing a biography, you are almost grasping for straws because you are trying to capture the essence of a person. When it’s something not human, such as a building, you can be fairly confident and factual. With a biography, you often question yourself.”
Hagopian says he didn’t have any diaries to work with, but he did have Florence Dickson’s scrap book.
The other major source was the Toronto Globe.
“Florence would spend her winters in Toronto and engage in a lot of social activity there. Back then, the local newspapers reported what the upper-class people were doing,” he said.
“They were big on dances and would describe who was there and what they were wearing. So, I found out a lot about Florence from newspaper articles. It was easy to do because the Toronto Globe and the Toronto Star became digitized.”
Hagopian, who now resides in Whitby, says what he enjoys most throughout the writing process, is the historical research.
“It’s like detective work. You are delving into something where you are not getting a whole lot of help. It’s almost like a murder mystery or playing the board game, Clue. You are piecing together, taking incomplete information, and finding out how to make it complete,” Hagopian said.
“What your are doing as a historical researcher, is finding out how your city got there, how that neighbourhood got there, and how that house got there. It’s a real world jig saw puzzle and when you solve it, the thing standing in front of you, you suddenly understand it."
Why should people take interest in the life of Florence Dickson?
“She was an anomaly, and people who are different can be more interesting than people who are typical. Florence chose not to meet the expectations of society and her family. Her sisters married into rich families and had children to perpetuate the Dickson clan. Florence never married, had no children, and preferred to give money away to charitable and religious causes rather than hoard it,” Hagopian said.
“Though superficially one could argue she had a comfortable and privileged life, a more careful examination reveals the hardship that she endured. Florence tried to live with purpose and goodwill rather than follow the path of least resistance.”
Hagopian's books can be purchased at the Rookery Bookstore on Main Street, and at the Idea Exchange Library in Cambridge.
