I know it’s hard to read, but we are getting closer to the end of summer. On the bright side, this means hodgepodge and blueberry grunt. If you’ve been living here for a while, though, you also know that most local museums inevitably shut their doors on September 1.
If you had grand plans to visit a local museum, but then the summer just got away from you (like it did from me), don’t despair! Here are three great museums in the County that are staying open through September:
- Parkdale-Maplewood Community Museum
3005 Barss Corner Rd, Maplewood
Open: Tuesday – Friday 9 a.m.-5 p.m. until Sept. 26
By donation
This is a local history museum focusing on the Barss Corner-Maplewood area. The collection was started in the 1930s by Thomas Spidell of Parkdale, a missionary and religious publisher who travelled widely across North America and England. Straw hats, butter churns, eel pots, historical local businesses, hooked rugs, and some of the best examples of the well-known Lunenburg County fundraising quilts. Also features a small display on the Mi’kmaw history of the area.
Stock up on Rex and Bonnie Veinot’s famous Maplewood Maple Syrup while you’re there.
- Wishing Stones Studio & Gallery
151 SE Cove Rd, Big Tancook (just by the Southeast Cove beach!)
Opens at 11 a.m. daily until the end of September, except for hurricane days and occasional trips to the mainland (follow their FB page for updates)
Free
Not your typical museum, Hillary Dionne’s gallery is a quirky and cozy space overflowing with treasures housed in the island’s old general store. Hillary grew up on Tancook and still lives there full-time. In Wishing Stones, she stocks folk art, local preserves, soaps, syrups, rope mats, and every year a different selection of hooked rugs by well-known local artist Verta Rodenhiser. In addition to the gallery, the building also houses a small-but-mighty local history museum and library, which may or may not be accessible because of ongoing renovations.
Take advantage of the last few months of the old (and free!) passenger ferry running directly from Chester Harbour to Tancook and visit Hillary.
- Wile Carding Mill
242 Victoria Rd, Bridgewater
Open: Tuesday – Sunday 10 a.m.-5p.m. until Sept. 27
$3.50/adult, children free
Re-opened this summer after being damaged by a flood in 2023, this water-powered mill carded wool for the residents of Lunenburg County for more than a century, between 1860 and 1968! In the second half of the nineteenth century, this area around Sandy Brook was known as Sebastopol and was the centre of Bridgewater’s industry.
Come learn about wool processing, women’s work, and the industrial heritage of Bridgewater.
Jay Lalonde is a local resident and a historian.
