After opening in 1882 – 35 years after the Mississaugas moved from their ancestral home along the banks of the Credit River to their present home bordered by Six Nations – the council house became a gathering point for band members.
Always serving as the heart of the community, the Old Council House has doubled as a community centre, schoolhouse, concert hall, and even a factory to make burlap upholstery for car seats – manufacturing equipment was pushed aside for council meetings.
“The council house was the centre,” said historian and former MCFN chief Carolyn King, who is on the committee working to restore the venerable building.
As an employee of the band’s economic development office on the upper floor of the council house, King remembers attending council meetings in the unheated chambers in the 1980s, with snow blowing under the doors.
