Our love of the automobile keeps the annual Wellington County Museum and Archives’ Antique and Classic Car Show polished and revved up and it’s quite the spectacle to see all those classic cars, muscle machines and trucks lined up across the big lawn.
Whether it is to show off you favourite vehicle or visit and explore the grounds, we welcome you to the Wellington County Museum and Archives for our annual Antique and Classic Car Show. Explore and chat with other car enthusiasts as you enjoy food, drinks, and music.
Want to celebrate some beautiful vehicles? Visit museum staff at the top of the front lawn to receive a ballot to vote on which vehicles had the Best Finish, Best Interior and Best in Show!
As the longest running regional juried art show remaining in Ontario, this exhibit will amaze and inspire. Don’t miss what is sure to be another amazing show, hosted by the Wellington County Museum.
The 42nd Insights Juried Exhibition of Fine Art runs from March 30, 2023 – June 11, 2023.
Insights encourages and honours excellence, high levels of accomplishment, and innovative approaches to artistic expression in the work of local artists. Jurors are drawn from the ranks of top art professionals, educators and curators. Collaboration with the Wellington County Museum and Archives makes it possible to present the show in beautiful surroundings and in a wonderful gallery.
Adult Halloween Fun at the Museum! Great for a Spooky Date Night!
Cemetery Tours – October 21, 22, 28 and 29 at 7pm and 9pm.
It’s that time of the year where everyone loves hearing scary stories, but real history holds some of the scariest and unnerving stories. Join us as we take a trip through the real history of the House of Industry and Refuge and explore some of the more unsettling stories of inmates and staff that called this place home.
This tour takes place outside on museum grounds and at the Poor House Cemetery where over 200 inmates were laid to rest. Please be aware there are no accessibility routes for this tour. This tour is designed for a 14+ audience.
Tours begin at 7pm and 9pm on the front steps of the Wellington County Museum.
Tickets are $15 + HST. Tickets will be available for purchase online soon!
Adult Halloween Fun at the Museum! Great for a Spooky Date Night!
Cemetery Tours – October 21, 22, 28 and 29 at 7pm and 9pm.
It’s that time of the year where everyone loves hearing scary stories, but real history holds some of the scariest and unnerving stories. Join us as we take a trip through the real history of the House of Industry and Refuge and explore some of the more unsettling stories of inmates and staff that called this place home.
This tour takes place outside on museum grounds and at the Poor House Cemetery where over 200 inmates were laid to rest. Please be aware there are no accessibility routes for this tour. This tour is designed for a 14+ audience.
Tours begin at 7pm and 9pm on the front steps of the Wellington County Museum.
Tickets are $15 + HST. Tickets will be available for purchase online soon!
Our love of the automobile keeps the annual Wellington County Museum and Archives’s Antique and Classic Car Show polished and revved up and it’s quite the spectacle to see all those classic cars, muscle machines and trucks lined up across the big lawn.
Comments Off on “Here Comes the Bride” – 150 years of Wedding Fashions
“Here Comes the Bride” – 150 years of Wedding Fashions is a new exhibit featuring wedding clothing, photographs and stories from the Wellington County Museum and Archives collection.
This exhibit opens on July 9, 2022 and will run until November 2, 2022.
Comments Off on Our museum is awesome. We’re not just saying that.
The Wellington County Museum and Archives isn’t just another landmark building – it’s one of the most stunning and historically significant buildings in our area, set high atop a hill, stoically perched in the center of Fergus and Elora.
The building itself is a testament to time. Built in 1877, the Poor House and Industrial Farm offered lodging for the homeless and poor in Wellington County. It operated until 1947. It is the oldest remaining House of Industry and Refuge in Canada, earning its status as a National Historic Site.
If genealogy is your hobby, the modern archives are a treasure trove of history from communities across Wellington County. Inside the museum, a host of exhibits, some that travel and others that proudly share the artifacts and personal mementos that tell the stories of the people who shaped this land. Explorers and pioneers. Innovators and aggravators. Those who sought refuge and those who gave it. Heroes and heroines. Legends in time.
Tour the exhibit halls, gallery space, the gift shop and step back in time, into the meticulously restored heritage barn. Wander through the fragrant blooms of the many gardens including the Victorian garden, and Butterfly Garden, Woodland and Cottage Garden, bringing the flora and fauna of the past into the present.
Walk the path into a forest that lends land to the Poor House Cemetery, a tribute that honours the almost 300 souls who were buried on the grounds of the former Poor House. If you listen, you may hear their voices in the wind. The ghost stories of this grand old building are legendary. And true. Boo! Cool, right?
This is also a great place to park the car and tour the Elora Cataract Trails, walking/cycling trails that lead you to Elora, Fergus and beyond. Be sure to experience the Aboyne Trail adjacent to the museum, leading you through the forest to the riverbanks of the Grand River, with spectacular views atop the Trestle Bridge over the Grand River. From this vantage point, you can imagine the grand structure of the former Poor House and Industrial Farm as it was stood, before the towns around it were built up to modern day. www.wellington.ca
A must-see exhibit at Wellington County Museum and Archives, ‘On the Button’ is coming this fall! Opening Saturday, October 19, this exhibit features over 900 buttons from local button collector Roger Miller, displayed alongside rarely seen garments from the Wellington County Museum’s collection.
The exhibit’s opening reception will take place on Saturday, October 19 from 1pm to 3pm at the Museum. As an added feature, Roger Miller will give a personal tour of the exhibit at 2pm. All are welcome, admission by donation.
Roger Miller’s buttons will be on display at the Museum until April 12, 2020.
