{"id":18555,"date":"2017-10-05T14:44:25","date_gmt":"2017-10-05T18:44:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=18555"},"modified":"2017-10-05T14:44:25","modified_gmt":"2017-10-05T18:44:25","slug":"hillary-house-ball-will-take-you-back-to-1867","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/hillary-house-ball-will-take-you-back-to-1867\/","title":{"rendered":"Hillary House Ball will take you back to 1867"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong> <\/p>\n

150 years ago, Queen Victoria was on the throne, John A. Macdonald was just settling into his new gig, and the former Provinces of Canada, along with the colonies of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were going through the growing pains of becoming a new blended family.
\nCanada was but a mere infant and Hillary House was just four, but the Aurora Historical Society will take you back to these early days of our collective history this month with the Hillary House Ball.
\nSet for Saturday, October 21, at King Valley Golf Club, the sixth annual Hillary House Ball will celebrate the sesquicentennial of Canada\u2019s nationhood with a night of dancing, music, and good food \u2013 all in the name of raising funds for the upkeep and much-needed repairs of Aurora\u2019s only National Historic Site.
\n\u201cCanada 150 has been a big theme throughout our year, but we wanted to make sure it was incorporated into our biggest event of the year,\u201d says Erika Mazanik of the Aurora Historical Society. \u201cYou will see it as soon as you go in and see the d\u00e9cor. Our volunteers, instead of the typical black and white clothes will be dressed appropriately. It\u2019s all in the details.
\n\u201cThere will also be a special surprise from our collection on display [working with the theme]. I don\u2019t want to give too much away, but it will be one of the first things you see.\u201d
\nThe historic accents will also be found at the tables as volunteers have been hard at work reviving the tradition of hand-made paper flowers.
\nAnd traditions abound. One of the artefacts on display this year will be related to Aurora dances of the Victorian and Edwardian eras. Dances and balls have a long-standing heritage in Aurora, with Hillary House boasting a ballroom of its own.
\nFrom there, Mrs. Hillary would play chatelaine to Aurora\u2019s great and good as they came together for an evening of celebration.
\nThis month\u2019s ball, in Ms. Mazanik\u2019s view, is the continuation of a storied past.
\nWhile the music, food, dancing and silent auctions have all been integral to the success of the Ball five years running, the success of the Ball has been integral to the ongoing maintenance of the house.
\nThis year alone, the Aurora Historical Society has spent nearly $25,000 in restoration work on the 1863 house, which is celebrated as one of the finest examples of Victorian Gothic architecture in the country.
\nIndividual tickets are set at $150 this year, and organizers are hoping to raise approximately $20,000 from the Ball.
\n\u201cWe feel that is attainable and it all goes towards the restoration of the house,\u201d says Ms. Mazanik. \u201cThe house is 155 this year and it is constantly needing TLC here and there. We\u2019re in the midst of getting reports done to find out exactly the areas of greatest need. We want to make sure we\u2019re spending money strategically and not just on anything we think needs to get done next. We\u2019re in the process of making sure whatever we raise is well-spent and the Historical Society is fiscally responsible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tickets are on sale now. For more information, visit aurorahs.com\/hillary-house-ball.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

150 years ago, Queen Victoria was on the throne, John A. Macdonald was just settling into his new gig, and the former Provinces of Canada, along with the colonies of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were going through the growing pains of becoming a new blended family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4Ph","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-10 15:03:55","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18555\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}