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I... WHITBY FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAY, MAY 18,1988, PAGE 7 PA GE SEVEN .4' A NEW MUSEUM FOR WHITBY The issues and the players Ever since it was first established over twenty years ago, the Whitby Museum has been a political football. It began in 1967 in the Centennial Building on a temporary basis. When it got kicked out of there, it re-established itself in the Myrtle Temperance Hall until the Town decided that building was unsafe and demolished it. It moved into Lynde House in the hope that the Town could be persuaded to move that building to a secure site but at the time the Town washed its hands of it. Fourteen years later, the Town could have bought the land, but they chose to move the house instead. They bungled the planning so badly they ended up giving the-house to Cullen Gardens. And so once again the museum is looking for a home. Frankly, Whitby's politicians aren't very interested in museums or heritage but this being an election year and given the amount of flack the Lynde House move generated, they want to do something. The move of Lynde House to Cullen Gardens left the historical society with some important trump cards - an entire museum collection (most of which is in storage) and, most important, the blessing of the provincial government to operate Whitby's community museum. Which leaves the Town in a reàl conundrum - it doesn't think the historical society could manage a peanut stand let alone a museum. With some justification. The past perfor- mance of the historical society has bïen uninspiring. As a group they have displayed a disquieting propensity for internecine squabbling and an inability to agree on the time of day. I ought to know; I've had an on-again, off-again relationship with them for close. to ten years including two as President. Right now I'm on the sidelines. I'd like to see Whitby with a good museum; I'd like to see the current impasse solved; I think most people would too, including both the historical society and Town Council. But they ares, far apart. Enter Bill Little. His proposal to rebuild the old Whitby Post Office at the corner of Mary and Brock and to incor- porate a museum into it has at least got people talking again. The idea has been under private discussion with Town officials, Ministry officials, society representatives and Bill Little for aliost two months. Now Council says it wants a "whole lot more information" before it can proceed. Frankly, through the years, Council has been given reems of information, so much they simply haven't been able to read or digest it. The information which Council simply won't accept is that good museums cost a lot of money. The feasibility study that the historical society had prepared in relation to the move of Lynde House projected a capital expenditure in excess of half a million and annual operating expences of $35 - 40 thousand for a modest 5,000 sq. ft. building. The province through the Ministry of Culture and Commu- nications would put up half of the capital expence in a restored building or a third in a new building. The rest would have to come from the municipal government, corporate and private donations, and possibly some from the federal government. Bill Little's proposal, although structured as a lease arrangement is equally expensive. Politicians here and in most communities are unrealistic about museums. They view them in terms of their cost rather than their bernefits. Parks, swimming pools, arenas, community centres, band shells, libraries all cost a lot of money - why should museums be any different? No true museum has ever made money. A museum is an educational and a cultural resource - a source of community pride. It is also an tourist attraction. The Bill Littles and the Len Cullens of this world have grasped what Town Council has missed. Cullen will never make enough money from Lynde House to pay for its restoration but as an additional draw, it is priceless. If Còuncil had had Cullen's foresight, Lynde House would -still be on Dundas Street, fully restored with an additional museum facility attached drawing tourists to Whitby as a whole rather than through Whitby to be coaxed off the road as best we can. Council has referred the Post Office plan back to the planning department for further study. Why? There's certainly no more museum expertise in the planning dept. than there is on council. The people who know about museumis - the grant structures, the operational requirements, the tourist market - are out in the community. Some are in the historical society, some are not, but as a first step towards the establishment of a new museum, council should put its trust in people who have a genuine interest in its success. Council should distance itself from a subject it has fumbled so badly in the past. It should form a committee of heritage and business people to plan Whitby's new museumn wherever itnmay be. Next Week - Possible Locations ~= ~ i RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM HOOD, C. 1910 This beautiful framehouse was built for William Hood, a retired farmer, at the corner of Dunlop and Centre Streets, in 1875, and is designated under the Ontario Heritage Act. Notice the hitching post for a horse in the foreground. Whitby Archives photo 10 YEARS AGO from the Wednesday, May 17, 1978 edition of the WHITBY FREE PRESS • The Durham Region Separate School Board has agreed to public demands not to close St. Leo's School in Brooklin. • A three-year-old boy set a $10,000 fire in a house on Lupin Drive with a lightèr. • Henry Street High School hosted and won LASCO Steel's third annual machine shop competition. • Whitby Psychiatric Hospital honored 90 student volunteers at an appreciation dinner. 25 YEARS AGO from the Thursday, May 16, 1963 edition of the WHITBY WEEKLY NEWS • Harry W. Jermyn has been named a deputy magistrate for Ontario County. • A spectacular fire on the night of May 14 destroyed a wooden building at the Price Lumber Yard on Pine Street. • A Whitby branch of St. John Ambulance was organized last week through the efforts of Charles Stafford, Ron Hawkins and other interested citizens. • Godfrey Schilling is president of a new Ontario County Liberal Association. 100 YEARS AGO from the Friday May 18, 1888 edition of the WHITBY CHRONICLE • There is talk of forming a bicycle club in Brooklin. • Whitby brickmakers are manufacturing some of the 300,000 bricks needed for additions to the R.W. Williams piano factory in Oshawa. • The steamboat "Lake Ontario" ran aground at Shoal Point, three miles east of Whitby Harbor, during a fog. • J.V. Ham of Markham, an old Whitby boy, denies that he was married last week as reported in the Chronicle. He appears to have been the subject of a practical joke. mil' I....ý ý 1 1