Maitland Tower
HippoCampus
About HippoCampus (French)
About HippoCampus (English)
welcome to the
HippoCampus
The Campus. — We are 8 years in, yet still at the very beginning of a long shared journey.
Our Mission
To be a place of transformation, where nature and humanity meet, heal, thrive, and move into the future together.
We feel this has to happen on the road to a brighter future, and we want to play our part. At the intersection of Artificial Intelligence, Community and Nature. So…we are building a ”HippoCampus”.
A campus of sorts, but so much more. A campus built on the road less travelled (in part because it is located on County Road 2 and not HWY 401). Keep reading, our name will make a more sense soon.
We are creating a hub where people come from all walks of life to participate in creating a brighter future through a connection to nature and the St. Lawrence River .
It’s a heritage rich and complex; as one of the first colonies of both the French and the English, it’s connected with the entrepreneurship and community building of Upper Canadian first settlers.
Our site is where the flour mill built in 1828 was the hub of the development of the village of Maitland. This iconic windmill tower still stands as a reminder of times past.
As restoration efforts bring the site back to life, we stand on the shoulders of generations of the Dumbrille and Webster families. Whose love for Maitland can be seen in the care for the stone buildings still standing after 200 years. We will build on that legacy through our motto “Leading while Remembering” and show that our site’s future can be part of the healing between cultures and nations.
We are building a “walk-in” HippoCampus, a healing place for nature and people on the shores of the St. Lawrence River . We are rooted in the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving address. We are at the intersection of nature, science, art, history, culture, food, recreation, adventure, health and more.
We say no to bulldozing the past and yet another waterfront estate. We say YES to bringing the tower into the future. YES to leading while remembering. YES to reconnecting with the village of Maitland. YES to a healthy future for community and nature.
To quote a dear friend of mine who passed last year – Richard Dumbrille, let’s make Maitland “A Very Neat Village Indeed”, ( the title of his book) for all of us…and for Richard.
It not happen overnight. And for it to happen at all, it will take the passion of many people and organizations to bring the Maitland Tower Hippocampus to life – Join with us.
about
our place
We are located on thirteen acres on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River in the Village of Maitland, in eastern Ontario, between Brockville and Prescott.
Home to a landmark stone windmill tower and other stone buildings from the early 1800s, remains of a stone wharf, 4 acres of forest, a creek, fields, and almost a kilometer of shoreline. It is a unique intersection of history and nature – one which we are bringing back to life together, as a community.
It’s a destination that you’ll come to when you’re ready for an immersive experience and to participate, to play your role, passionately, in creating an inspiring future for nature and humanity.
It will take people from all walks of life, age, background, culture, talents, hopes and dreams, to come together with open minds, surrounded by nature, to soak in the present, to internalize that we are in the middle of incredible change, to imagine how to navigate it, and to build the future with one foot immersed in technology, and the other outside it.
Exploring questions like: How can Artificial Intelligence benefit community and nature?
A place to share, explore, learn, create, imagine, relax, connect, regenerate, heal, celebrate life, and health.
Educators, artists and scientists, entrepreneurs, technologists, builders, designers, foodies, adventurers, musicians, culture, food, recreation, adventure, spirit, birding, surfing and yes, even to watch to boats go by and soak it all in – literally since we are on the Seaway. And yes, also a healing place for scars from industrial and colonial settlement.
We are in the perfect place, a rural setting – the land in between as it has been called, not wilderness but definitely not a city. A place where people and nature rub shoulders, a place where we are freer to explore what is possible, here on the St. Lawrence River.
The Tower and The St. Lawrence — Facing East
We are creating a hub where people come from all walks of life to participate in creating a brighter future through a connection to nature and the St. Lawrence River . It’s a heritage rich and complex; as one of the first colonies of both the French and the English, it’s connected with the entrepreneurship and community building of Upper Canadian first settlers.
Our site is where the flour mill built in 1828 was the hub of the development of the village of Maitland. This iconic windmill tower still stands as a reminder of times past. As restoration efforts bring the site back to life, we stand on the shoulders of generations of the Dumbrille and Webster families. Whose love for Maitland can be seen in the care for the stone buildings still standing after 200 years. We will build on that legacy through our motto “Leading while Remembering” and show that our site’s future can be part of the healing between cultures and nations.
We are building a “walk-in” HippoCampus, a healing place for nature and people on the shores of the St. Lawrence River . We are rooted in the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving address. We are at the intersection of nature, science, art, history, culture, food, recreation, adventure, health and more.
about
We feel the key is to honor the past while creating a new and relevant commercial purpose , for today , and for the future. In this way, this amazing place that started as Pointe-au-Baril so long ago, with an iconic tower, can lead the way for the next 200 years. – P.L
Philip Ling
Philip is a licensed professional engineer (electrical), LEED AP. In 1996, he co-founded Powersmiths International Corp. where he is VP of Technology. Powersmiths is a clean-tech company with a long history of market leadership in ultra-high efficiency low voltage dry-type transformers, internet data center power distribution systems, advanced metering and Sustainability Management.
Philip has written and presented dozens of technical papers over the past 25 years covering efficiency and power quality, and received a national award for technological leadership in energy efficiency from Natural Resources Canada. He also sits on multiple professional and community advisory committees.
He volunteers on several committees in his community including Markham Environmental Advisory Committee. He is committed to wildlife preservation and owns 87 acres of provincially significant wetlands, and has signed a conservation agreement for 400 acres with the Couchiching Conservancy. He has both solar hot water and solar PV systems on his home, and is on his second electric car. He believes in leading by example and making a difference.
As an environmentalist who has been on and led committees, written and presented papers, took Janine Benyus’ Biomimicry Course, and adopted solar power and electric vehicles before they were trendy, he is now using the the recent sale of his business as an opportunity to further lead in regenerative action with the purchase and transformation of the Maitland Tower site.
it all started with...
A childhood fasination with exploring the ocean ( and an adult bike ride).
The best way to keep history and its old buildings alive, is to give them active integrated roles in the community today but restored with adaptability for the Future.
– P.L
In August 2016, Philip was cycling from Markham, north of Toronto, to Acadia in New Brunswick, and passed the Maitland Tower site with a For Sale sign. He mused that this would be the next place history would get bulldozed to make way for some new development and history would forget about this place. Then he realized that he could be the one to buy it and do the opposite – bring it back to life, honoring the past and taking it into the future. So by the time he reached the Atlantic ocean, he had bought the Maitland Tower property….
