A new concept in historical storytelling. Dominion Woollens & Worsteds launches a company website 75 years later.

The Hespeler Heritage Centre is launching their latest project in historical storytelling. The not-for-profit organization holds a vast amount of knowledge and materials on Hespeler’s past.

The new project goes live May 1, 2021 and tells the story of the village’s most popular employer, Dominion Woollens and Worsteds Ltd. spanning the years 1941 – 1945.

“We have so much great content on Dominion Woollens during the war years,” says Marty Lachance, Hespeler Heritage Centre board member. “We could have produced a book, but I thought that a more creative approach would be needed to tell their diverse and deserving story.”

The solution was to create a digital platform that could provide a glimpse into the life of the company as well as the Hespeler community – all while tying in the past and present. The website places the visitor directly back in 1945.

“By digitizing this material, we create a great searchable index of Hespeler people and events that can be used by future researchers,” says Lary Turner, Chair of the Hespeler Heritage Centre. “I suspect it will only grow in popularity in the coming months and years.”

The black-and-white website project was named a ‘Throwback Website’. It’s essentially a website for an organization that would have had a website if they could have had a website during their operating years.

“By creating this digital platform for Dominion Woollens, we open up an entirely new way of educating people and interacting with history. Two features were created that set the project apart from traditional book-storytelling. These provide the static nature of a book and the dynamic features of digital media,” says Lachance. “With this, we have the ability to curate additional content from the community and seamlessly integrate it without affecting the provenance of Dominion Woollens.”

In creating something that is modern and engaging, the Hespeler Heritage Centre believes the platform will invite the exploration of a new generation that has a preference for digital formats.

The new (old) website can be found at www.dominionwoollens.ca