The Bayfield Lions and the Bayfield Historical Society are working together on a project to recognize the history of the Tom Penhale Horse-Drawn Landau in Bayfield.
Lions Club member Dave Gillians detailed what the project involves.
“The project is to acquire a pristine Tom Penhale Landau, totally re-furbished, build a reproduction of a Bayfield two-cow barn behind the Archive Building at 20 Main Street, and to house and display the Landau there,” Gillians explained.
A presentation was made to Bluewater council this week and got council’s blessing for the project. And Gillians points out, they’re not asking council for any money, they’ll raise whatever funds are required to purchase the landau and construct the two-cow barn behind the Archive Building.
The next step, Gillians notes, is to make their presentation to the Heritage Committee.
“So once we’ve got the municipality’s blessing and the Heritage Committee’s approvals then we can start fund-raising. Our hope is that we can have a display at the Lions Home and Garden show at the end of April and start our fund-raising campaign at that time,” added Gillians.
Gillians says once they’ve acquired the landau and built the barn, they’ll turn both of them over to the municipality so they can use them as part of their branding at various events.
Tom Penhale, as Gillians explains, grew up on a farm in Huron County and learned all of his skills there as far as building his own equipment and repairing his own equipment, and that led him to create the carriages that made him famous. Gillians says Penhale built some of the most beautiful horse-drawn carriages in North America, including carriages for Disney, the Rose Bowl Parade Grand Marshall, Weston Foods and Wells Fargo. Gillians says for twenty years from the 1970’s to the 1990’s Tom Penhale built some of the most spectacular horse-drawn carriages in the world and this project is meant to honour his memory.
