The City of Kingston announced it opened the Pumphouse Museum with a media release:
With newly instituted safety protocols in place, the PumpHouse Museum, located at 23 Ontario St., opened for pre-booked small group tours beginning on Thursday, July 2.
There will be two different tours offered (see more details further below):
- Inside the PumpHouse Museum tour the Collecting Histories exhibition, featuring items from the City’s Civic Collection.
- The Ontario Street Walking Tour is an outdoor walking tour exploring the fascinating history of Ontario Street.
To book either of these tours, visit kingstonpumphouse.ca.
“We are excited to be able to reopen our museum under Phase 2 of the Province’s reopening plan. The safety of our visitors and our staff remains our first priority. We have updated our cleaning and tour processes and though our operations will be different this year, we are excited to offer these small group tour experiences. Having a guided tour from one of our core museum staff is always something special and this year every tour will get this personalized experience,” says Jennifer Campbell, Manager, Cultural Heritage.
A tremendous amount of care and concern has gone into making the PumpHouse Museum safe for both guests and staff. Details of the following safety protocols can be found online:
- Everyone touring the inside of the museum will be required to wear a mask as ordered by KFL&A Public Health and it is recommended that masks be worn on walking tours as well.
- All tours will be in small groups of no more than nine people and tour guests must register.
- Regular handwashing and high-contact surface cleaning of the site will be conducted in between tours.
Collecting Histories Site Tour
Explore the City of Kingston’s own Civic Collection of historical and artistic objects, artifacts that inform and inspire us about our community’s fascinating past. What’s it like to work in a museum? Exciting activities for all ages challenge visitors to learn about essential museum collection skills. Here are some facts relating to Kingston’s Civic Collection.
* There are more than 15,000 objects in the Civic Collection (not including archaeological or archival items)
- The Civic Collection’s archival materials laid out along the sidewalk would stretch from City Hall to the western end of the LaSalle Causeway, approximately 500 metres
- The earliest archival records date to 1830 before Kingston was officially a town
Ontario Street Walking Tours
Join one of two museum curators for a 45-minute guided walking exploration of Ontario Street-based off our fan-favourite 2019 exhibition, Ontario Street: Brewers, Bakers & Boilermakers.
Ontario Street Tour
This tour delves into the amazing history of Ontario Street, a space that helped define and form Kingston as a City. You can expect exciting stories about intriguing, and impressive people, fires, explosions, industry, transportation, archaeology, everyday vices and much, much more. Our tours this year are capped at 9 people so make sure to book your tour early to avoid disappointment.
The City’s other two cultural heritage sites, Kingston City Hall and the MacLachlan Woodworking Museum, are not scheduled to open for tours in 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic.
The PumpHouse Museum is open Wednesday to Saturday from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. with late night offerings on Thursday. Admission is $15 + HST for groups of 1-3, and $25 +HST for groups of 4-9 people. For more information on the PumpHouse Museum, including tour booking, visit kingstonpumphouse.ca.
Photo: Google
Release: City of Kingston
