As someone who likes to walk down memory lane at times, museums and archives are a great resource to have at your fingertips – especially locally.
Last week, council made the decision to not move forward with the proposed relocation of the North Huron Museum to the former Wingham train station. There are many reasons for this, some that have been made public and surely others that haven’t, however the news of this project crashing off the rails (pun intended) is not good news for the Township of North Huron.
For those who are unaware of the situation, the museum has been closed since 2018 and was situated at the old post office building on Josephine Street in Wingham. In late 2017, council received a Facility Condition Assessment Report stating the old post office building would need $3.8 million (in 2017 dollars) in repairs and renovations to meet the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 requirements and public museum standards.
Just for giggles, according to the Bank of Canada’s inflation calculator, that $3.8 million price tag would be the equivalent of $4.44 million today.
Since the closure, a local group of volunteers have been working to reopen the museum, with Wingham resident Doug Kuyvenhoven offering to donate the former train station, which he owns, as a new location.
Fast forward to January 2023, and the museum remains closed.
To paraphrase the events of last Monday evening, Kuyvenhoven et al wanted a commitment from council to staff the museum with a township employee, not a third-party operator. Council would not make that commitment, as they are in the midst of trying to keep the tax increase on the 2023 budget reasonable and want to review services.
And with one swift motion and a 5-2 vote, council decided it no longer wanted to be in the museum business.
I am not going to point fingers at any one party in particular, but instead issue a blanket statement: it’s a disappointing decision.
North Huron is a township rich in history, and that history needs to be preserved for future generations.
I will give this council some credit; they were asked to make a decision, and that’s what they did. And I will give the North Huron Museum fundraising committee some credit; it has been five years since any real progress had been made on the project, and they asked council to make a commitment.
It may not have been the answer some residents wanted, but it was an answer.
With council’s decision last week, what I and surely others are curious about is what happens to all of the items currently in the North Huron Museum’s care?
Some items, such as Alice Munro’s Nobel Prize for Literature, are rare and should be properly displayed and honoured.
Ideally, I would like to think these items, unless claimed by their originally donators/owners, will be relocated to the Huron County Museum and Historic Gaol for proper preservation and display.
While this may not be the ideal result, it may be the best thing that could happen to the North Huron Museum’s collection.
The Huron County Museum already has the infrastructure, staffing and processes to properly preserve and curate North Huron’s collection. North Huron, as we’ve already covered, does not.
Perhaps we are looking at preserving North Huron’s history in the wrong way. Instead of finding a new space for a local museum, maybe an agreement with the Huron County Museum to curate an exhibit at the arena in Blyth or Wingham on a rotating basis could be explored? Or perhaps a rotating display at Town Hall in Wingham?
I believe there is a future for a museum in North Huron; what it looks like remains to be seen.
Hopefully all parties involved can work together moving forward to keep North Huron’s history in the township.
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Mike Wilson is the editor of the Wingham Advance Times. Comments and feedback are welcome at mwilson@midwesternnewspapers.com.
