Pickering Museum Village

Type: Museum

A collection of nineteen restored heritage buildings comprising a pioneer village, this museum collects, preserves, and interprets the history of nineteenth-century Pickering and environs.

Programming:

Conservation / Preservation:

Architecture

The village is comprised of many structures dating as far back as the 1820s, including log (round and squared timber), vertical plank, stacked plank, post-and-beam, and balloon construction styles. Most recently acquired building was a mail-order house from Aladdin House Company, Toronto. Architecture primarily Ontario vernacular.

Artefacts

Artefact holdings total over 10,000 artefacts, many in storage and not on exhibit in buildings. Contextual artefact exhibits in heritage buildings illustrate daily life in set time periods throughout Pickering’s development from early settlement to 1910.

Public Programming:

Educational Programming

For a fee, this institution offers full day and half day education tours and outreach programs for classrooms/meeting groups for grades preschool to high school that concentrate on daily life in Pickering from the early-nineteenth century to the present.

  • Full day tours include visits to the site’s restored buildings dating from 1810, where students grind grain, haul water, work in the blacksmith shop, make soap, bake bread, and experience lessons in a nineteenth century schoolhouse.
  • Multi-day tours (two – five school days) offer extended visits to each building where students participate in the full day activities and benefit from additional heritage programming.
  • Tailored particularly to home schooled children, a nine week Pioneer Immersion  program offers children the opportunity to fully immerse themselves in nineteenth century life.
  • Heritage to Go! program sends an instructor in nineteenth century dress to teach curriculum-based programs on a wide range of themes.

Exhibitions

Exhibits are held in a temporary gallery sapce in the administrative building twice per year.

Workshops and other public programming

Summer Day Camp

  • Full day camp on heritage inspired themes for campers ages 5 – 12 years.

Public Workshops on a wide range of themes and topics including:

  • Themed tea workshops
  • Cooking workshops
  • Victorian Dance workshops
  • Guest Speaker Presentations (off or on-site presentations on themes such as the Temperance Movement, Heritage Gardening, Tea, Victorian Funeral Traditions

Special Events

  • Mother’s Day Tea
  • Summer Solstice Suppers
  • Teddy Bear Picnic
  • Museum Minecraft
  • A Spirit Walk: Call to Rebellion (theatrical performance about the 1837 Rebellion)
  • Christmas in the Village, Winter in the Woods

Volunteer/Internship/Placement Opportunities:

This museum accepts volunteers. Volunteers engage in gardening and research heritage flaura; make historical reproduction costumes and act as historical interpreters; work with wood to support building repairs and to make retail merchandise; practice and perform heritage dance forms, practice and sing heritage songs; volunteer theatre company; participate in fund-raising initiatives for the Pickering Museum Village Foundation; participate on the Pickering Museum Village Advisory Committee, appointed by the Mayor and Council of the City of Pickering.

Interns are always welcome to research and assist with programs, special events and exhibit development; assist with artefact data entry, records alignment, artefact conservation; and to more deeply research and understand Pickering’s past in the context of Ontario and Canada’s history.

Address & Contact Information:

c/o The City of Pickering
One The Esplanade
Pickering, ON
L1V 6K7

Phone: 905-683-8401
Email: museum@cityofpickering.com
Website: http://www.cityofpickering.com/museum/

Hours of Operation:

July until Labour Day
Wednesday to Saturday: 10:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (last admission 3:30 p.m.)
Sunday: Noon to 4:30 p.m. (last admission 3:30 p.m.)

June & September
Saturday: 10:00 am to 4:30 p.m. (last admission 3:30 p.m.)
Sunday: Noon to 4:30 p.m. (last admission 3:30 p.m.)

The Pickering Museum Village is open for private and school tours from April to December. To book a tour, please call 905.683.8401.

Key Words: pioneer, settlement