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Times-Advocate, 1982-11-24, Page 131 4 i r• -'4$) IXITIR PHAIMACY PRESENT — The Huron County Pioneer Museum as it stands today on North Street in Goderich. The two-storey structure is the former Central School in Goderich, The log cabin is formerly from Tutnberry Township and was J.H. Neill's home for- many ormany years. FUTURE?— This aerial photo shpwssctearly the three wings of t'he former telecom- munications school in Vanastra.-Between the centre wing and the one on the right is the 284 -seat theatre. The three -store building is being considered as a possi- ble site of the Huron County Pioneer Museum. November 24, 1982 Move or improve By Stephanie Levesque History is in the forefront in Huron County as the question of whether or not to move or improve the pioneer museum is before county council. The Huron County Pioneer Museum is of historical in- terest and numerous books • have been written on it. The collection itself has been own- ed wned by Huron County since 1948 - the year it was purchased from Joseph Herbett Neill. Much has been written about. this man who has traveled across Canada twice and in- to the UnitedStates collecting artifacts. This man is the beginning of the museum. Mr. Neill was A quality blend of selected seeds including sun- flower, corn and millet. Popular mixture is sure to attract a wide variety of wild birds that stay during our cold weather. Give our fine feathered friends a helping hand this year with CO-OP wild bird seed. In 25 0,- 50 r50 Pound Bags Selected Sunflower Seeds Feeding birds aids in their survival during our cold winter months. Package of selected sunflower seeds is ideal for attract- ing Cardinals, Blue -jays and Grosbeaks. 8110 Style Bird Feeder 1rJ For the bird enthusluts. Silo style feeder dIspeuses any kind of teed and holds up to 2 lbs. Lock -on top kips squir- rels out. With teed Catcher. 694 -tee Redwood BI Feeder seder An attractive feeder with a purpose. Barn -style *oder Is easy -to -fill and holds up to 6 lbs. of bird seed. Made from rustic redwood. Brass hard- ware. 6944e6 Exeter District Co.op 235-2081 PagelA Huron museum? born on June 10, 1885 in Howick Township. It is reported his interest in anti- ques started in 1935 at the Howick Fall Fair - a still flourishing event. His grow- ing collection was kept at his residence in the Gorrie area. While not collecting artifacts, Neill took his collection to fairs, plowing matches and Women's Institute meetings. In the 1940s, Neill built three huge trailers with the intent of having a traveling exhibition. It didn't work out though as the then Depart- ment of Transportation wouldn't allow the vehicles on the road. This historical buff looked around for permanent facilities and in 1948 the -Goderich Public School Board was getting rid of the two- storey Central School on North Street. Huron County purchased the school for the purpose of housing a museum. bocuments indicate- it ndicateit was not a popular move at the time. Neill's .collection was bought by the (county for $3,000 under the condition that the number of articles be in- creased. to 1,000 pieces. Neill moved into the upstairs of the school and was the museum's first curator when it opened on July '4, 1951. Accommodation on the se- cond floor of the building was a little cramped that first •year and in 1951 Huron Coun- ty purchased a log cabin for $100 from an Archie Jones. This log cabin, still located on the 1.31 acres of land on which the museum is situated, was first built in 1875 in Turnberry Township. The log cabin was dismantl- ed and the logs set on the museum site. Some Goderich residents objected to . the building.of.a log cabin and a petition opposing the struc- ture was.presented to county council. As Neill had not yet applied for a building permit, the petition was shelved. It did not resurface when the building permit was applied for and on May 26; 1952 Neill moved into the Jog cabin and lived there for 15 years. The museum was Neill's life and it is Common knowledge he worked at the museum 16 hours a day. In 1964 James Chisholm took over as curator of the museum. He stayed until the fall of 1968. The museum was without a curator until April of 1969 when the current. curator, Raymond Scot- chmer, took over. Later that year. on June 13, 1969, Neill died at Huronview at the age of 84. Scotchmer was born and raised on a farm in the Bayfield area. The county was looking for a general han- dyman to run the museum and Septchmer fit the bill as he had previously worked in the construction business, a machine shop and a welding shop. He acknowledges over the past years the job has become more administrative as he is responsible to Huron County Council's property committee for. not only the pioneer museum, but the marine Museum (which the county and the town of Goderich co - run) and the Tiger Dunlop Tomb. Over the years the collec- tion has grown from under 1,000 artifacts and specimens to a now estimated 15,000 ar tifacts and specimens. The number of visitors seeing the museum each year has also grown, from humble beginn- ings with 2,000 visitors in 1951, to an average of 14,000 to 25,000 visitors a year. Cataloguing of the collection is ongoing and one of the tasks of registrar Pat Carter. She catalogues' the day-to-day ac- quisitions and is researching, photographing and number- ing each piece: Sincethe mid-1970s each new acquisi- tion has been catalogued and at the same time the cataloguing of the original collection has been ongoing. Assistant curator Friedl Nanz has seen many changes at the museum as she has worked under all three curators: Besides the curator, assistant curator and registrar there is only one other full-time staff member - the custodian. The museum is open seven days a week from May to Oc- tober and during that time four secondary school students . fr • the county•ales i1' the county to *ork in the museum. Recently the museum has taken advantage of• the Canada -wide Katimavik program. Students under that program in the area assist with resear- ching and cataloging. As curator, Scotchmer's main concern is for the safe- ty of the collection. He also has concerns for the actual structure housing the collec- tion. About three years ago part of the roof collapsed because of a heavy snow load. A wintario grant was sought by the county at that time but it was not approved. Scot- chmer stated both Huron County Council and its pro- perty committee are "well convinced" something needs to be done to properly house the museum collection. Since September of this year the museum has been publicized through activity at Huron County council. The Township of Tuckersmith has offeer�ed the county, the former .telecom- munications school at Vanastra for$75,000. One pur- pose for this building could be to house' the Huron County Pioneer Museum.. This 155,000 square foot building wits built in 1954 in the compound of the former Air Force Base south of Clin- ton. In 1971 Vanastra, as the base is known. became part of Tuckersmith Township. About two years ago • Tuckersmith purchased the telecommunications school for back taxes: It has been noted that if the countydoes not purchase the building, it will be put on the auction block. The three -winged building has leen vacant for 10 years and a preliminary report by the Ministry of Government Services concluded it will cost $932.000 to restore the building to its original condition. The leaking roof is the major fault of the structure and has been estimate to cost about $200;1)00 t repair. in September county coun- cil authorized two studies to be done -on the red brick building at Vanastra. One was a structural engineering study and theotheran opera- tional cost study. At county council's September 30 meeting an engineer's report by Swain and Rupnow limited, con- sulting engineers, showed the former telecommunications school is structurally sound. There has been vandalism at the building leaving behind many broken windows. But there are many positive features of the building. The engineer's report has in- dicated the walls between the 105 classrooms can be taken out. One the first floor of one of the wings there are seven bays. Throughout the building there are several rooms con- taining seats making ideal lecture rooms. There is a 284 -seat Theatre and a large entranceway into the building Tuckersmith clerk - treasurer Jack McLachlan said each wing is identical ex- cept for the one wing with the bays on the first floor. He said local businesses have in- dicated a willingness to im- prove their lots if the museum is brought into Vanastra. There is also the possibility a property improvement bylaw may be passed for Tuckersmith. Each wing of the building is self-contained and as the museum only needs about 80,000 of the building's 155,000 square feet ideally one wing could house the museum. There are vaults located throughout the building which could be used for storage, something lacking.at thecur- rent museum facility. At the October session of Huron County council, two more studies were authoriz- ed. A structural study at the present museum building by B. M. Ross and Associates of Goderich is to be completed this week. The 52,000 study is being paid.for by the Town of Goderich. The second study is also to be completed this week. Museum Program, Col- laborative, a museum bnd art gallery consulting firm,will investigate the suitability. of the Vanastra building to house the museum artifacts and specimens. • It remains to be seen what will take place at county council's November session as one study, .the.operational • cost study, remains to be done. One thing that is of im- portance is the reaction of Goderich citizens to the talk of the possibly .moving the museum. •At the past two county council sessions there have been placard cartying citizens outside the county court house protesting, the Move. There• have been delegations to the county from concerned citizens and. representatives of the town. Also a petition signed_ by about 2.500 school children was presented to Huron Coun- ty Warden Harold Robinson. The museum has been praised by both government officials • and tourists alike. Scotchmer reports that several tourists have inform- ed him theywould rather see the Huron County Pioneer Museum• than the Ford Museum in Detroit. Michigan. Specficially . two couples from Michiganstated this fact to Scotchmer. The curator admits this is a small number compared to the. number of people actually. passing through the museum, but it is difficult to speak to all tourists. No studies have been done on what type of people are go- ing through the museum. There is a guest book which enables visitors to sign their name iind address. This pro- vides the curator 'with the knowledge of where some of the visitors are coming from but what remains to be known is why they come to the museum. While the future of the Please turn to page 14 A Your Gift Centre Hundreds of different quality items is a pretty good reason to make Exeter Pharmacy your . one stop Christmas shopping centre. 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