[ISL] On the end of Founder's Hall in Charlottetown

[rfmcdonald]

The National Post carries Aly Thomson's Canadian Press article noting the impending closure of Charlottetown's Founder's Hall, a museum about Confederation, for lack of visitors. Apparently there had been talk of closing it down earlier, in 2013 for instance.

I never knew of the historical museum, for whatever it's worth, even when I lived there. I just thought of it as a venue for small tourist-related business. I hope they keep the building--it's a beautiful restored brick rail house.

A museum devoted to telling the story of Canada’s birth — built blocks away from the site of the Charlottetown Conference — has shut down permanently due to lack of interest.

Founders Hall in downtown Charlottetown opened in 2001 and explained Canada’s inception, beginning with the Charlottetown Conference in 1864.

But Ron Waite, general manager of the Charlottetown Area Development Corporation, said attendance has been dwindling in recent years as the attraction struggled to keep people interested.

“It’s a beautiful facility and you hate to see it go, but the pragmatic elements of it are that it’s losing money and at some stage you have to make a decision,” said Waite, whose corporation owns the building where the exhibit is located.

Waite said when Founders Hall first opened, up to 40,000 people would visit the exhibit in a year. But only about 13,000 people walked through its doors last year, he said.