The Lucan Area Heritage & Donnelly Museum
While for many years the story of the Donnelly massacre was suppressed in the town of Lucan, in 1995 the Lucan and Area Heritage Society formed to celebrate the heritage of the Lucan area by gathering local, historical artifacts. Over the next few years, interest in the area's heritage increased within the community, and so the collection continued to grow. In 1999, the museum acquired an 1850s log cabin with a very similar floor plan to that of the Donnelly homestead, making it a dramatic setting for visitors to hear the retelling of the Donnelly story, and visualize the tragic events that occurred in the early morning hours of February 4, 1880.
The Lucan Area Heritage Society, District Lion's Club, and Township of Lucan Biddulph raised over $600,000 for the construction of a new museum building after the University of Western Ontario identified the need for a new museum to spur economic growth in the community. This building reached completion in 2008, and opened to the public in 2009. The new Lucan Area Heritage & Donnelly Museum now highlights the Ray Fazakas Donnelly Collection, rotating exhibits, the "Donnelly Log Cabin", and the Hearn barn, which displays a variety of artifacts relating to agriculture in Biddulph in the past 150 years.
Now that the story of the Black Donnellys is being retold in the town where it all began, the Lucan Area Heritage & Donnelly Museum has visitors from all over the country come to learn about the area's history, and the events that occurred on February 4, 1880.
Read more about this topic: Black Donnellys
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