Whimsical historic village replica in Mississauga gets star treatment in short documentary

For 20 years, Mississauga resident Terry Wilson has been lovingly maintaining one of the city’s most striking hidden gems–a miniature replica of the historic Meadowvale Village.

And now, a new short documentary that’s screening at film festivals throughout Canada and the U.S. is telling a slice of his–and his village’s–story. 

“I grew up next to Terry and his village,” Jack Kukolic, a fourth-year Sheridan student and the director/producer of Terry’s Little Village, told INsauga.com. 

Kukolic, who is studying film and television at Sheridan College’s Trafalgar campus in Oakville, says that he grew up in Meadowvale Village and was able to visit Wilson’s expansive recreation of the heritage district during his childhood. 

“He built replicas of buildings that used to stand and he built everything by hand out of recycled products. We wanted to give him a platform to tell us his story,” Kukolic says. 

The village itself is something to behold. A passion project founded by Wilson and his late mother, Rosemary, the miniature town is spread out over two residential lots and contains over 15 shed-sized recreations of some historic buildings that once called Meadowvale Village home. While it’s not open to the public on a regular basis, Kukolic says people have been able to explore the quaint general store and other buildings during Doors Open events.

He also says Wilson would sometimes decorate the village for Halloween. 

“For Terry, it’s always a work in progress,” he says. 

“The buildings that are there took 20 years to build. He maintains [everything] himself. His mom used to help, but she passed away about five years ago.” 

Kukolic (left) and Wilson (right) in the village

The almost seven-minute documentary centres on Wilson, a 70-year-old Mississauga man who has lived in Meadowvale Village–declared Ontario’s first Heritage Conservation District in 1980–his entire life. In addition to maintaining the village with his income and savings, he also writes books and shares stories about his childhood and his family’s time in their beloved neighbourhood on his Facebook page. 

“From [1980] forward, we had guidelines that were intended to preserve the character. It was recognized that Meadowvale had an incredible inventory of surviving old buildings from the 1800s. My mother and I were able to create a tribute where we built replicas to represent many of the buildings in Meadowvale, including the lost buildings in Meadowvale,” Wilson says in the documentary.

In the film, Wilson says the project began when his mother was going through a difficult time. To lift her spirits, he started by recreating the Harrowsmith House as her garden house. Although Wilson says his mother would worry he was taking on too much, he felt compelled to continue and went on to build a library in Rosemary’s garden. 

Wilson says Rosemary filled the library, opened it up to the community every Thursday, and decided that building more structures might be a good idea. After that, Terry and Rosemary built and designed two mills, a church, houses, shops, stores, a train station, a blacksmith shop and a covered bridge.  

In the film, Wilson says his mother decorated and filled the houses and that he just did whatever required “neither brains nor talent.” 

“My mom decorated everything and she gave the buildings the feeling that they have inside. I closed them in and she made them special.” 

The documentary says the miniature village is not just an homage to Meadowvale Village’s history, but a way to preserve a lifestyle and aesthetic that is slowly being lost to development and modernity. 

“The [buildings] have artifacts from the last years of Meadowvale and that’s a big part of this–he wanted to create a place for stuff to live on,” Kukolic says. 

“Meadowvale has always been affected by development and while the village itself is protected, a nearby farm could be redeveloped. Terry created a space where the village can live on.” 

In the documentary, Wilson talks about the massive development that occurred around Meadowvale Village in the 1990s and a raging (and suspicious) fire that destroyed a white stucco Victorian property in the community shortly after a developer purchased it. 

“This was the most charming, the most beautiful place anywhere and I know it was because I saw it when I was a little boy. It was incredible and I’ve always dreamed that it could be that way again, but it can’t,” Wilson says in the film, adding that that’s why he keeps the little village going.

While Kukolic’s film, written by local writer and director Emmy Pitschner, is set to screen at Celebration Square tonight (Sept. 5) in its first large Canadian debut, it has already sparked some conversations on the festival circuit. Terry’s Little Village was accepted for screening at the North Carolina Film Festival in August and will also show at the Buffalo International Film Festival this month. 

Kukolic also says he recently found out that his documentary has been accepted for screening at the Cindependent Film Festival in Cincinnati and is nominated for Best Documentary. 

“I think it’s amazing that so many American film festivals are interested in a short documentary about a tiny heritage village in Ontario,” he says, adding that it will be screened at more Canadian events in the near future. 

One question the documentary posits is what’s next for Terry’s village, especially as the city changes. 

“I think the biggest response we get is what’s next for the village and for Terry, as he doesn’t know,” Kukolic says.  

“He maintains it but he doesn’t have anyone to take it over, so he hopes having this platform will let him meet new people who might have the means to maintain it.”

Photos courtesy of Kukolic and Terry’s Little Village’s official Facebook page