By Leslie Norman/Special to The News
Hurray – we are open.
At the Pitt Meadows Museum, we have finally re-opened to the public on a limited basis, and we are looking forward to having visitors again.
Here is almost everything you need to know about visiting us this late August and September.
Both the General Store site and the Hoffmann Machine Shop site will be open Wednesdays through Thursdays from noon to 3:30 p.m.
We will not be open on Sundays just yet, but hope to do so by October.
Our community archives remain closed to on site visits, but staff are here to help you with research requests and other history questions via email, website, and Messenger.
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We also have a host of online and exterior exhibits and programs including:
At the Virtual Museum of Canada site: “One Man’s Passion: Hans Hoffmann’s Engines” and “Buildings through Time: Harris Road Then and Now” walking tour.
At our website (at pittmeadowsmuseum.com) offers all sorts of good stuff including our interactive community history map and our memory band definitions.
On social media: our Facebook page for Memory Mondays; Out of the Box Artifacts; Museum Sunday crafts and, for the remainder of August and into September, our on-line Heritage Thursdays For Children sessions.
At YouTube: we have a host of videos on YouTube including those produced by the Museum’s Balloon Head Productions and, also, videos from ghost hunting sessions from earlier in the 2000s.
At the exterior: our volunteer maintained garden; our memory band; our farm machinery; and the newest electrical box wrap that harks back to the 1921 Struthers General Store.
This year, we are lucky to have two summer students, one funded under the government of Canada’s Canada Summer Jobs Program and working in our collections area, and the other funded by the government of Canada and the Canadian Museum’s Association’s Young Canada Works in Heritage Institutions program and working in our programs area doing online programs and posts and preparing our popular Christmas School Tour for shipping out to classrooms on outreach.
Both students are also restoring our memory band and it is looking great.
Once back in place you can access the definitions on our website at pittmeadowsmuseum.com.
Now, for the pesky but necessary rules.
Once we are open, we will allow four visitors at one time in our galleries at each site or up to six if you are visiting in a family bubble.
You will be asked and must respond honestly to the health and travel questions, and you will be required to supply contact tracing information.
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Once inside, hand sanitizing, arrow following, and physical distancing are required – and we strongly encourage the use of a mask and will insist on it if the any level of government makes it mandatory (we can supply one for a small donation).
Our staff will greet you while wearing a face shield – thank you Mike at Packright for the donation of these.
We will then ask the questions and explain the rules and hand you a “Welcome to My Shop” or “Welcome to My Store” self guided tour booklet.
After that, enjoy but remember do not touch anything.
Oh, and please note, go before you leave home as there will be no public washrooms available at our sites for the foreseeable future.
Thank you, and we hope to see you soon.
– Leslie Norman is the curator of the Pitt Meadows Museum and Archives
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