McDougall Mill Museum - Town of Renfrew — Attraction in Renfrew

Mixed impression… The museum has a lot of artifacts, but they are not telling any story. Nor are they organized chronologically.

It would be interesting to know the story if Renfrew, from the first settlers up to modern times, but the museum is silent on that. There is a photo of O’Brien and his family members, but there is no explanation who he was and what he did to the city (and he did A LOT!). Likewise, they exposed a biography of Robertson Davies, but didn’t mention that he was one of the greatest Canadian novelists of the 20th century, that he spent a huge part of his childhood in Renfrew and that Renfrew inspired one of his best novels. Nor did the museum mention that Davies’ house still exists in some 20 minutes by foot from this very museum.

The museum hired 4 young people, who looked bored, but were not instructed to propose any guided tours and were not taught how to conduct them.

The whole concept of the museum should be rethought. Renfrew has a very rich history that deserves to be told to...

A Worthwhile Little Antique Museum

My son and I paid them a visit few summers ago (2019) during our camping trip to Bonnechere Park. It's more like a place where you see a bunch of antique collections dating from the late 1800's and early 1900's. It's a donations only entrance fee so you will not expect to see exhibits like in a city museum, but still worth to see. Speaking about antiques from the early 20th century, my son spotted something unusual, a computer from the 70's with actual super-large floppy disks. Something quite unusual, modern but obsolete. BTW: We liked the "Swinging Bridge" on the...

A big surprise here . Free to get in (donation suggested), and lovely museum with well-thought out displays covering the history of Renfrew, an assortment of colonial and logging equipment, tools and also household goods. Very cool automatic piano on site. The staff was really friendly and took the time to share research with us. Will be back...