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The Huron Expositor, 1988-03-02, Page 5February 29 to March 13 Allans 200 g, Solid MILK CHOCOLATE BUNNY Crest 100 mL Pump .99 1 89 299 • 199 • 21.'9 • •89 TOOTHPASTE or GEL Scope 500 mL MOUTHWASH Secret Solid, 60 g. Stick ANTIPERSPIRANT Clairol Herbal EAASPICe, 300 mL SHAMPOO Mentadent TOOTHBRUSHES Wampole Stressgard 100's VITAMINS 529 Royale 2 Roll Pkg. ®� PAPER TOWELS • Sun Life Assurance CompanyAof Canada LIFE & MORTGAGE INSURANCE PLANS DEFERRED ANNUITIES, INCOME TAX DEDUCTIBLE FLEXIBLE NO LOAD R.R.S.P. NONSMOKERS RATES AVAILABLE Rep. ARNOLD STINNISSEN 117 Goderich St. East, Seaforth Tel. 527.0410 THE HURON'EXPOSITOR, MARCH 2,1988 — 5 Water Well DRILLING W, 0. Hopper aAndS9na 4MODERNROTARY RIGS Nell, Purl Jim 527.172y. , 527-08z6 527-0775 RENOVATIONS UNDERWAY at the Huron County Pioneer Museum will make the Goderich-based facility a modern showplace of area history. The re -design, costing over $3 million, won't be totally complete until at least 1990, but Museum Director Claus Breede (shown here overlooking the new lobby entrance area, where the modern addition meets the original 1856 schoolhouse) said the museum will be open for visitors, with ex- hibits on display, for the Spring of 1988. The project should put the local museum in a class with the finest community museums in the country. Raftis photo. New -look museum to BY PATRICK RAF IS The dice, cast when a major expansion and renovation project at the Huron County Pioneer Museum was undertaken, are still rolling. While it may be several years before the final reckoning is in, Museum Director Claus Breede is predic- ting the project will come up a winner. "Huron County has taken an enormous gamble," said Breede, of the project, which has a projected total price tag of nearly $3.5 million. "However', it's one with potentially a very high degree of success," he added. Breede anticipates the renovated museum, located at 110 North Street Goderich, will attract about five times as many tourists to this area as it did in its previous form. "We have the potential to pull in 50,000 visitors a year to Goderich and area, as opposed to the 10,000 we have been get- ting," Breede estimated. Visitors taking a complete tour of the museum will also be spending a longer period of time in the area, Breede ex- pects, because of the improved exhibits and layout of the tour. "We are increasing the museum visit from one, to three hours. So, where before they came here after breakfast and left before lunch - they will now be around much longer," he explained. CONSTRUCTON IN STAGES Construction at the museum is being done in stages, with the first stage being all new construction to replace the entire structure behind the 1856 schoolhouse with a modern new building, while stage two involves a complete renovation of the schoolhouse itself. The outer structure of the new portion has been completed and the interior work is well along the way to completion at this point. "Because of incredible luck with (government funded) job -development programs, we've been able to roll it all together quite quickly," said Breede. Completion of additional storage space last year has allowed work to proceed while the museum's collection was kept on the site. Breede said this factor saved "close to two -and -half years," of con- struction time. Cutting the length of construction time is important in that it minimizes "disrup- tion to the neighborhood," said Breede. While the project will be ongoing for several years, the Museum will still be open for visitors. "We will be open in May. We will not have all the displays we are planning in place, but there will be exhibits in every room," said Breede. SELF -GUIDED APPROACH While the Museum will retain its North Street address, visitors to the refurbished facility will enter the building through a new entrance, accessible to the Bruce Street parking lot which has been design- ed to accomodate the physically han- dicapped (as has the building, which in- cludes an elevator). Their first view will be of the new lob- by, where the old schoolhouse meets the new addition giving the lobby a modern appearance, but with a sense of history. The link between the new and old por- tions of the building will be "de- emphasized," with glass -window breakers. The new lobby will include a reception counter and a gift shop. Then, the tour begins. "We will be using a self -guided ap- proach for the average visitor," said Breede. Each visitor will be given a map of the building, describing the flow pat- tern of the tour. School groups and other group visitors will be given a more guid- ed tour, Breede notes. The tour begins at a new 50 -seat theatre, with a 15 -minute presentation on Huron County and a brief history of the Pioneer Museum. Visitors will then proceed to the schoolhouse where the Pioneer Museum is featured in the first main -floor gallery on the tour. The second gallery on the main floor will contain an exhibit on Europe in the 1800s, focusing on factors which led our ancestors to emigrate to Canada, such as the Irish Potato Famine and the Napoleonic War and resulting economic depression in England. The third exhibit will deal with the kind of country the immigrants came to, with sections on local history, such as the Canada Company's contribution to settl- ing the Huron Tract. The tour then moves to the second floor of the schoolhouse, for exhibits on the development of transportation and the development of urban centres in Huron County. The latter display will follow the transformation of small settlements and villages into towns and take a look at why there are no large cities in the coun- ty, even though some centres, such as Goderich, were originally envisioned as much larger communities, said Breede. Industrial development, featuring such major local operations as the Domtar salt mine in Goderich, is the focus of the final display in the one -and -a -half hour first segment of the tour. "That brings you up to 1940s Huron County from the 1800s in Europe," Breede said. The displays are planned "with a very strong," local focus," said Breede, noting that this will be a departure from the focus of many other community museums. "Most museums are too generic," he explained. "You come away from them learning virtually nothing about the com- munity around them. We want to look at why the community is where it is today and examine its hopes and aspirations," he continu REPT VISITS TARGET Visitors are now ready to Move into the new portion of the building, beginning on the second floor. The first area of the new building to be visited is a lounge area, near the public washrooms, where a small kitchenette and a relaxing at - JOHN ELLIGSEN ELECTRIC ® LTO. •House WiringFarm Wiring •Commercial Wiring *Pole Line Construction *Hydro Poles "You name it we'll wire it" PHONE: 345-2447 "2411r. Emergency Service" John Elligsen Electric Ltd. R.R.fl4,Walton, Ontario. open soon mosphere are available. "We want to make the museum visit not only a pleasant one, but one that you will want to tfepeat," explained Breede. The lounge area will also be made available to local community groups for meetings. The downstairs theatre will also be available for use by theatre, or cinema clubs, for lectures and presentations. The tour resumes with a walk through the planned Military Gallery. This should be a significant exhibit in a county which once housed five military bases, notes Breede. Next on the tour is the agricultural gallery, featuring the development of agricultural methods over the years and even some displays on modern issues, such as soil erosion. The agricultural gallery moves along into a transportation theme, featuring the progression of methods of transportation. The last gallery on the upper floor of the addition is a Domestic Gallery - "essentialy a fully -furnished turn -of -the - century apartment," said Breede. After that, a narrow staircase, emulating the kind of walk-up that might be found leading to such an apartment, takes visitors down to the History Hall. Built around the massive 1913 Canadian Pacific shunting engine (one of two an- chor points in the new construction - the other being the schoolhouse) the hall will be a simulated streetscape. "We hope to re-create two full walls of building fronts," said Breede. The storefronts along History Hall will not be imitations, Breede explained, but actual storefronts from county buildings which the museum hopes to obtain as they are torn down. The front from the Queen's Hotel in Brussels was obtained by the museum, before the building was torn down in 1986 and the museum hopes to obtain other - historic building fronts from around the county, before they are demolished, to complete the exhibit. Inside the storefronts will be re- creations of actual businesses, such as an undertaker's office, a fire hall, doctor's office, photo studio and general store. TOURING EXHIBITS In addition to the regular displays, a hall has also been set up for displays of touring exhibits from such major facilties as the Royal Ontario Museum, the On- tario Science Centre and various art galleries. Like the lounge and the Turn to page 12 • 5-fotmsted House Bed elf Breaijgst Cozy guest rooms in a distinctive older home offering you a warm welcome and comfortable accommodation. MEMBERS OFSO.V.A. andSW.O.T.A. Exclusive Private Dining Facilities for Breakfast Meetings, Dinner Parties, Luncheons, Birthdays, Rehearsal Parties, Business Meetings. Your Hosts: John & Gwen Patterso Seaforth' 527-2040 �r z RE -OPENING SALE Our renovations are over! SPRING FASHIONS are arriving! TO CELEBRATE Pr OFF our entire stock until MARCH 12 COME IN AND SEE THE NEW 30 MAIN ST. MEN'S and LADIES' WEAR SEAFORTH 527-0278 PARENTS OF STUDENTS at SEAFORTH DISTRICT HIGH SCHOOL are invited to attend PARENTS NIGHT and OPEN HOUSE being held on WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm (at the school) - Reports will be distributed to students Friday, March 4. -Interviews can be arranged by students for parents or by phoning the school (527-0380) -Babysitting will be available WE LOOK FORWARD TO YOUR VISIT loran Pallid Rdocitior Imig Ip 81 World TRIANl3 LE DISCOUNT.. A par