Al Purdy A-Frame Association Honoured with Provincial Heritage Award
Date: October 22, 2023
The Al Purdy A-Frame Association has been recognized at the provincial level after receiving the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario (ACO) Special Jury Award earlier this month. The honour was presented during the 17th annual ACO Heritage Awards, which celebrate outstanding leadership, projects, and initiatives dedicated to architectural and cultural conservation across Ontario.
Originally, the association was nominated for the Margaret and Nicholas Hill Cultural Heritage Landscape Award. While that specific award was not presented this year, the ACO jury exercised its discretion to move the nomination into a different category, resulting in the Special Jury Award recognition.
This year’s Heritage Awards attracted nominations from 11 communities across Ontario, spanning 10 award categories, highlighting exceptional contributions to preserving the province’s built and cultural heritage.
The recognition honours the Association’s work in restoring and safeguarding Al Purdy’s iconic A-frame writer’s retreat on the south shore of Roblin Lake in Ameliasburgh, Prince Edward County. The site is widely regarded as a landmark of Canadian literary heritage.
The ACO noted that the rehabilitation of the A-frame preserves its distinct vernacular architecture while continuing its original purpose as a place for writers to create. Today, it stands as the only writer’s retreat in eastern Canada and one of just two nationwide that provides a stipend for emerging writers seeking quiet, uninterrupted time to work.
Poet Al Purdy (1918–2000) spent most summers at the A-frame from the late 1950s onward, and the site became a gathering place for many of Canada’s most influential literary figures, including Margaret Laurence, Michael Ondaatje, and Milton Acorn.
The Al Purdy A-Frame Association was founded in 2008 by writer Jean Baird and publisher Howard White, who led efforts to purchase, restore, and protect the property. Their vision was not simply to preserve a building, but to keep the space alive by welcoming new generations of writers.
Purdy and his wife Eurithe purchased the lakeside property in 1957 and built the A-frame with the help of Eurithe’s father, Jim Parkhurst. Purdy often described the modest structure as his most productive creative space, returning to it throughout his career despite international recognition.
Born in Wooler and raised in Trenton, Purdy published 33 books of poetry, along with a novel, autobiography, and multiple collections of essays and correspondence. He passed away in 2000 in Sidney, British Columbia, and is widely regarded as one of Canada’s greatest poets.
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