Pop-up photo art created by Lesley Walker Fitzpatrick  tells a hotel story. Her photos honour the history and heritage of the Dominion House Bar & Grill. The public house was built in Stratford, Ontario, in 1865. Lesley took her 280 photographs in the last week of the establishment’s operation. The pop-up photo art hangs on a chain link fence that surrounds the vacant lot where the hotel once stood.

Last Call

The exhibit title for photos taken during the last week of the hotel’s operation

Dominion Hotel

The Dominion House Bar & Grill as she was

Built 1865

Dominion House Bar & Grill on the south side of the tracks

The artist

Lesley Walker Fitzpatrick

Photos

Photos lit up by the setting sun

The photos, crisp and clear in the setting sunlight of a late December day, depict the love and loyalty of the hotel patrons and staff.

Photo faces

Faces of patrons

Kitchen

The hotel kitchen

Demolition

The building is gone

The artist at work

Lesley making sure her gift of love does not disappear with the wind

Each day, Lesley battles the weather to tighten the fasteners on her photos. The string of photographs recreates the camaraderie and community of the hotel.

Phyllis and artist

So good to bump into Lesley along the fence

Neighbours, hotel patrons, passersby, and pop-up art appreciators stop to take in the exhibit.

 

Other Stratford stories:

Stratford Chefs School’s Long Table Dinner 2019

Elizabethan Feast at The Meighen Forum Event Stratford