Canadiana Village facts for kids
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| Established | 1946 |
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| Location | Rawdon, Quebec, Canada |
| Type | heritage park |
Canadiana Village is a special heritage park located north of Montreal, near Rawdon, Quebec. Imagine stepping back in time to a 19th-century Quebec village! About 15% of this large area shows what a western town and a rural village looked like back then. The rest of the park is beautiful forest, with streams, a river, and a mountain.
Canadiana Village was created to show how people lived in a pioneer settlement in Quebec during the 1800s. It features over 40 historical buildings. More than 38 of these buildings are original and over 100 years old! You can see a church, a general store, a mill, a saloon, and many old houses. There are also old tractors and threshing machines. These items were often used as props for movie sets. Canadiana Village stopped being open to the public in 1996.
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A Look Back: How Canadiana Village Started
Canadiana Village was one of the first "Outdoor Museums" in Canada. An outdoor museum is a place where old buildings are moved and set up to show how people lived in the past. It all began as a hobby for Earle Moore. In 1946, he moved just one building to the site. Over time, more buildings were added. This helped create a picture of life in rural Quebec before big industries changed everything.
Earle Moore (born 1907, died 1990) and his wife Nora Geraldine Lehane Moore (born 1910, died 1988) were the founders. They loved collecting old buildings and furniture from the 1940s until 1990. They bought or were given these buildings to save them from being torn down. They collected everything themselves, without government help.
By 1962, the Moores had gathered a 90-year-old farmhouse, a school, a church, and a blacksmith shop. They even collected old medical books and tools from a doctor who worked in the Rawdon area from 1893 to 1943. They also had collections for veterinarians, pharmacies, and dentists.
Earle Moore was a businessman and also worked with the Boy Scouts. Many buildings were family homes moved from different parts of Quebec. One log cabin, built in 1842, was where Earle Moore's grandmother was born!
From 1946 to 1971, the Moores could only show the Village to groups by appointment. By 1971, it became a family project. Their son, daughter, and five grandchildren helped out. From the 1970s until 1996, the Village was open to everyone. It became a very popular place for school field trips. About 30,000 tourists visited each year! Guides dressed in old-fashioned costumes would show visitors how to:
- spin and dye wool
- weave fabric on homemade looms
- bake bread
- churn milk and make ice cream
By 1985, Canadiana Village had 12 restored buildings. These buildings came from different villages in Quebec. They were filled with old Canadian furniture and equipment. Some buildings at the Village are not original. They were built later for movie filming.
Earle and Nora's daughter, Geraldine Moore McDonald, and her husband took over the museum. Today, the village is not open for public visits. However, Canadiana Village still hosts special events. You can find more information on their website.
Canadiana Village in Movies and TV
This historic site has been a popular spot for filming since 1986. It's like a ready-made movie set! In 1986, a TV movie called "Barnum" was filmed here. It starred Burt Lancaster. Canadiana Village was used to show a 19th-century circus parade scene.
Canadiana Village has been featured in over 110 films! Some of these include "Cordelia" and "Les Folks de Liberty." It has also appeared in TV shows. These include Radio-Canada's "Pays d'en haut" and "I'm Not There," a movie about Bob Dylan. The Canadian TV movie "Ichabod, A Legend of Sleepy Hollow" was filmed here in 1999. The Quebec film "Chasse-galerie, La legend," released in 2016, was also shot at Canadiana Village.
Exploring the Buildings
Most of the buildings at Canadiana Village were moved there over many years. They came from different places in the Laurentian Mountains foothills. These buildings include homes of wealthy landowners and simple houses of workers. They were carefully moved, then fixed up and furnished. They even have old cribs, toys, and children's clothes inside! In 1971, a grist mill, barber shop, shoemaker shop, and doctor's office were added.
Here are some of the interesting buildings you can find:
- The Blacksmith shop and the settler's cabin where Earle Moore's grandmother was born were both built in 1842. They were moved to the Village in 1962-63.
- The oldest building is a settler's cabin built in 1815. It is fully furnished with items like apple dryers and candle molds. It even has a trundle bed with its original bedding!
- The Rowan's water grist Mill was moved to the village in 1971.
- The Covered Edward Bridge was built in 1888 in Coaticook, Quebec. It was rebuilt over the small river in the village in 1972. Local people even helped put it back together!
- The Rawdon's original presbytery of St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church was the first house moved to the site.
- The former Farm House residence of the Moores was built in 1823. It was moved in 1952. This house has ovens for baking bread, wheels for spinning wool, and vats for storing wine.
- The log Schoolhouse was built in Lakefield, Quebec in 1835 by Earle Moore's grandfather. It even had a place for the teacher to live upstairs! The classroom has desks with carved initials and a wood stove. Earle Moore bought this schoolhouse for only $50 and paid $5000 to move it in 1962.
- The General Store was built in 1884. It sold foods, shoes, books, and building tools. It also holds the original Rawdon post office and a collection of wooden cradles. It was moved to the village in 1962.
- The Barber Shop and Hat Shop were moved in 1971. They feature different fabrics, ribbons, and feathers.
- The Shoemakers Shop, where a cobbler lived and worked, was also moved in 1971.
- The Milkhouse shows how people made butter with cream churns and separators.
- The Print Shop has equipment for printing a community paper.
- The Western Saloon was built for the film "Red River."
- The Doctor's House was moved in 1971. It has a dentist chair, an infirmary, and nurses' quarters.
- The log chapel was built in 1849. It has a confessional and the original altar from St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church of Rawdon. This chapel was reproduced for the film "Les fils de la liberté."
Images for kids
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Canadiana Village showing a 19th-century western town and rural village.
