Seagram Museum facts for kids
The postmodern building by Barton Myers
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| Established | 1984 |
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| Dissolved | 1997 |
| Location | 57 Erb Street West, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada |
| Type | Defunct corporate museum |
The Seagram Museum was a special place in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. It was a museum that kept the history of a famous Canadian company called Seagram alive. Seagram used to make alcoholic drinks.
The museum was located at 57 Erb Street West. It was open from May 1984 until March 1997. The building itself was very interesting. It was designed by an architect named Barton Myers. The museum cost about $4.75 million to build. Its main entrance was once an old storage building from the Seagram factory. Inside, the museum showed what daily life was like at the distillery in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Why the Museum Closed
The Seagram company closed its factory in Waterloo in 1992. Even though the factory closed, the museum stayed open for five more years. In 1993, there was a fire that destroyed the building next to the museum. Luckily, the museum building was not badly damaged.
The City of Waterloo bought the entire Seagram property in late 1997. They paid $4 million for it. The museum gave its old records and historical items to the University of Waterloo. Two old buildings where barrels were stored became new homes called condos. The museum building itself was changed into an office building. A software company called Waterloo Maple moved into the renovated building in June 1998.
New Life for the Building
In July 2002, the City of Waterloo sold the building again. The Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) bought it for $2.5 million. In September 2003, Waterloo Maple moved out, and CIGI moved in. In 2010, another group called Project Ploughshares also used the building. Later, in 2016, an e-commerce company named Shopify moved into the building.
Some of the items from the Seagram Museum's collection are now on display at the City of Waterloo Museum. This new museum opened in 2009.
Museum Connections
The Seagram Museum worked with several other groups. These included the CMA, the CHIN, and the Virtual Museum of Canada.
