Muskoka Heritage Place is all about Huntsville\u2019s early history. On its own, it\u2019s fun to wander through the museum and village and take a ride on the Portage Flyer but you gain a new level of respect for both the property itself and the former inhabitants of its buildings when you know some of the history behind it all.<\/p>\n
Creating the Museum and Pioneer Village<\/strong><\/p>\n The Muskoka Museum\u2019s original site wasn\u2019t where it is today. It started life thanks to local Women\u2019s Institutes, who collected pioneer artifacts in the years following World War II and displayed them in the upstairs rooms of the then-arena. When the former Huntsville Public School building on Caroline Street became available, it was purchased by the Rotary Club to house the artifacts and the Muskoka Museum was born. It opened in 1958 but the location was short-lived \u2013 the building needed to be torn down to make way for a new school building.<\/p>\n Jack Laycock, the principal of Huntsville Public School at the time, envisioned a pioneer village to preserve local buildings as artifacts, too. In 1961, the town approved the purchase of 31 acres, the village\u2019s current location, and by 1964 three buildings had been moved to the site: the Hill House, the Hares House and the Darling House. It was a painstaking process. \u201cAll of the buildings had to be dismantled at their locations and reassembled onsite like a jigsaw puzzle,\u201d says Sara White, Collections Coordinator at Muskoka Heritage Place. \u201cOnly Ashworth Hall, which arrived in 1985, was moved intact by truck.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t\t