Humber College Lakeshore currently stands where the Mimico Asylum did, even using many of the buildings as part of the campus. The deep history of the land where Humber College Lakeshore now stands is very significant to the history of Toronto and Lakeshore. The team that makes up the ‘Interpretive Centre’ at the Humber campus utilises the history of the area to create different events and highlight the history of the land inclusively, building awareness in the area. The Interpretive Centre is based in the Humber Welcome Centre, where they use exhibitions, tours and an abundance of information on their website to reach people who want to learn more about the history of the lands and community. 

Humber College Lakeshore stands on grounds that were originally owned by the Mississaugas New Credit First Nations. In 1890 the land was turned into a psychiatric hospital, named the Mimico Asylum, later on changed to Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital in the 1960’s. The patients were expected to follow a routine that emphasised daily labour, prescribed recreation, and a regulated diet. The labour projects assigned to the patients were unpaid. Exploiting unpaid labour was something the asylum used to construct many of the cottages that stand today. A bulk of the hospital’s records were not preserved despite the hospital’s rich history.

There were tunnels built underneath the cottages by the hospital, originally the tunnels were used as passage to deliver food and items to the cottages. They were heavily utilized by the staff in the winter to get around different areas of the hospital because of its architectural layout. Today, the Interpretive Centre uses the tunnels under Humber to create an engaging and informational “tunnel tour” where the guide takes a group around the tunnels explaining what they were used for, what they are used for now, along with a couple chances to see the bare bones of the psychiatric hospital that hasn’t yet been covered up by Humber or modern technology.

Because of the COVID-19 lockdown the Interpretive Centre had to face a new challenge in completely switching the way they ran things due to the pandemic. Being on site and in-person throughout the historic spaces themselves, is very crucial for the Interpretive Centre because they offer guided tours on the grounds. This way they are able to share specific stories and events that happened in those very spaces. Nadine Finlay the curator at the interpretive centre said, “when your whole job is to connect people with the land, and when you’re not able to be on the site you’re talking about it makes things a little more complicated,”. Building the atmosphere is important for the audience to be able to connect to their environment and surroundings. When everything was shut down they had to come up with ideas to keep the Interpretive Centre relevant. Ideas like virtual tours, tid-bit tour stories, zoom events, and more.

After shifting their dynamic to being online for a significant amount of time, when the campus reopened for the 2022-2023 school year, the Interpretive Centre once again had to respond to the challenge of re-connecting to its audiences having operated remotely during the pandemic. Nadine Finlay the Curator at the Interpretive Centre said, “The way we engage with visitors is naturally going to change as we return post lockdown and we are still working out some of the kinks about what we can do to bring people to our exhibits,”. As the centre transitions back into in-person dynamic the team is diligently looking for new ways and ways to improve their existing interactions and events through experimentation. For example they hosted a “Community Rocks” event recently and gained helpful insight for future events.

The Interpretive Centre has been creating many ways to re-connect its audience. In the Humber Welcome Centre’s “third floor gallery” they are currently supporting student works and local artists by giving them three month exhibitions that are showcased to the public. They’ve launched three community artists in the past year, essentially creating a chance to kickstart their careers and giving them the experience of sharing their art to the public, bringing in community voices. The interpretive centre has seen 1800+ people on tours and presentations from April 2022 to March 2023 bringing people back into the spaces.  “we had a really amazing reach and impact” mentioned Finlay.

The Interpretive centre has put so much effort into preserving the lands at Humber College lakeshore and are actively finding new ways to connect and bring awareness to the community. The land that Humber sits on has such a vast history that just talking about the psychiatric hospital is only scratching the surface. The Indigenous heritage, education, environmental sustainability, film and television history, history of the neighbourhoods of South Etobicoke are many more examples of the heritage of the land. For more information on these topics go to: https://www.lakeshoregrounds.ca/