Spring is in full swing in the village and that means that seasonal businesses, shuttered for the long winter, are now opening their doors. Golf courses, chip wagons, and The Rideau District Museum are ready for another busy summer where we welcome tourists and locals alike! The Museum will open next Thursday (June 1st) on our spring schedule (Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays from 10:00 to 4:30, and Sundays from 1:00 to 4:30) until July when we open daily. Be sure to stop by and check out our exhibits as we enter our 56th season and celebrate Canada’s 150th.

The building which housed the blacksmith shop for almost 100 years still stands on the southeast corner of Bedford and George Streets. These photos, from the spring of 1915, were taken in the yard of the shop and shows William and Elizabeth Kilpatrick and their daughter Helen. The Kilpatricks were the last family to live over the blacksmith shop, as the prosperous times that followed allowed subsequent owners to move to finer quarters in the brick house next door on Bedford Street. Photo Source: Museum Archives. Donor: Anonymous

A horse is waiting for a new set of shoes outside J.E. McCann’s blacksmith shop. Photo Source: Shirley Brousseau

Perhaps one of the last photos of the blacksmith shop before it ceased operations in the 1950s. Just a few years later, it would open its doors as The Rideau District Museum in 1961. Photo Source: Bill Steele