A Birdseye View

When Eddie and Hilda Michell arrived in Port Perry in 1939, they set their sights on a rugged stretch of land at the north end of Water Street. What looked like an overgrown parcel to most, held promise for the couple, who spent that first year clearing brush and levelling the uneven ground. Their ambition was straightforward but bold: a tourist park overlooking Lake Scugog at a time when leisure travel was still a modest pursuit for many families. Their determination was noted by neighbours, who watched the transformation unfold with equal parts curiosity and admiration.

By August of that same year, the Michells began work on a substantial 30-by-80-foot outdoor swimming pool, an impressive undertaking on newly tamed land. The pool opened the following summer, drawing local attention, and construction soon followed on the first of what would become nine efficiency cabins spaced along the lakeshore. Each one offered visitors a simple, comfortable retreat with the added luxury of a Scugog sunrise outside the door.

In May 1940, after successful negotiations with the Toronto Star, Eddie Michell secured the exclusive right to name the venture Birdseye Centre Cabin Park, borrowing its title from the well-loved cartoon series created by former Port Perry resident, Jimmy Frise, and his long-time collaborator Greg Clark. Their weekly comic strip was widely read across Ontario, and its name lent the new park an immediate familiarity. For the next three decades, Birdseye Centre became a cherished summer destination, drawing travellers from well beyond the township, who returned year after year to the quiet setting and the charm of the lakeside cabins.

The Michells operated the park for more than thirty years before selling it to Scugog Township in 1969. The cabins stood for only a short time after the sale; within a few years they were dismantled, and the land gradually reverted to the open public space familiar today.

The original swimming pool, built in the fall of 1939, proved far more enduring. Although it underwent occasional restoration, the structure served generations of swimmers until 2001, when it was finally removed to make way for a modern pool. In its long run, it stood as a testament to the Michells’ early vision, and the steady growth of lakeside recreation in Port Perry.