History from Here: St. Catharines City Hall

Built in the midst of the Great Depression. Designed for a hopeful future of an ever-growing city. St. Catharines City Hall is a symbol of civic pride, modernism, and progress. Watch to learn the fascinating history of this municipal building.

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Museum Chat Live! E601 – Creating Where’s the Pig?

On this episode of Museum Chat Live!, we take you on a journey through the creation of the St. Catharines Museum’s Where’s the Pig? virtual adventure series and dig a little deeper into its inspiration and why this kind of museum work is so important!

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Where’s the Pig? – Episode 7: Where’s the Pig?

In the final episode of Where’s the Pig?, Sara completes the puzzle and finally tracks down the missing pig! Watch to uncover the mischievous pig’s final hiding spot, and learn a bit about downtown St. Catharines’ 19th century resort spas along the way!

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Where’s the Pig? – Episode 6: Industry on the Welland Canal

In Episode 6 of Where’s the Pig, the missing pig leads Sara to the grounds of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine & Performing Arts, where she learns about the history of the Canada Hair Cloth Company and industry on the Welland Canal.

Sara also finds the last clue to complete the puzzle, revealing the location of the mischievous pig! Do you know where the pig could be?

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Where’s the Pig? – Episode 5: Shopping Downtown

In Episode 5 of Where’s the Pig?, the missing pig leads Sara to new downtown St. Catharines location where she discovers a bit of shopping history and another surprise…

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Lego Challenge: Built Heritage Edition – Public Weigh Scales

We LOVE to build with Lego and now YOU can build along with us at home! Each week, Adrian will challenge you to build a different historic structure in St. Catharines using Lego and the photos we post as a template.

Follow along with Adrian’s daily updates and post your progress with #StCLegoChallenge! We can’t wait to see your Lego creations!

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One Hour in the Past E201 – Sidewalks

Kathleen and Adrian welcome Tisha and Carolyn from the St. Catharines Downtown Association for a discussion about sidewalks. Spoiler alert: there are approximately 500 kms of sidewalks in St. Catharines!

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Fire Insurance Plans Print Series

The plans continue to remain an important resource in my work as a public historian at the Museum today. I often find myself considering research questions by first checking the city’s business directories spanning the last 150 years, and the fire insurance plans. They aren’t perfect – they are static and only cover certain geography – but the visuals are priceless. 

And that’s why we just couldn’t keep these plans to ourselves.

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