Andrew C. Brown

Nominated for the ACO Public Education and Engagement Award

Andrew C. Brown has had a major impact on the documentation of historic structures and people of Stratford and area. Since he started volunteering to make these documentaries in 2019, the Stratford & District Historical Society (SDHS) now has ten short documentaries available through its YouTube channel, including The Railway Stations of Stratford, Ontario; Saving City Hall; Constructing Confederation Falls; Avon Crest; and Innovation at the Beacon Herald. There are five in production as of May 2025.

The longest, ‘Under This Roof,’ was directed and edited by Brown, with the production assistance of Nancy Musselman of the SDHS. In the one-hour documentary, local artisans and well-known authors Gerard Brender à Brandis and his sister Marianne Brandis speak about the artist, the archivist, and the last of the frame cottages. When Gerard moved into the house, one of the last old frame houses in Stratford, it marked the coming together of an artist practising the traditional arts and crafts of wood engraving and bookmaking with a historic dwelling built in 1866 and thoroughly restored in the 1980s with an eye to authenticity. The house was Gerard’s home and his workspace. The former dining room became his studio, and the former parlour served as a gallery for displaying his work. The house was designated in 1985 as the McDonald-Creasy House, and until 2019 the studio was open to the public five days a week from May to October.

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