MUSEUM STATUS: Open Seasonally • Tue–Sun 10am–5pm
Preserving Caledonia & North Queens History Since 1854
(902) 682-2989 25 West Caledonia Rd Email Us Facebook

Exhibits & Archives

Almost everything in the house was given by a North Queens family. Here is what they have trusted us to keep.

6 Permanent Collections Research the Archive North Queens Remembers
The Caledonia Citizens Band Featured
Musical & Civic Heritage

The Caledonia Citizens Band

For the first half of the twentieth century, no parade, picnic or exhibition in Queens County was complete without the Caledonia Citizens Band.

The collection brings together the band's antique brass horns, its drums - including the big parade bass drum lettered "Caledonia Band" - original uniform coats, concert programmes, hand-copied sheet music and the handwritten minute books that begin in 1919.

  • Brass instruments and the parade bass drum
  • Original uniform coats
  • Minute books from 1919
  • Concert programmes and hand-copied music
The Caledonia Band ready to march Horns and drums on display A band uniform coat A Caledonia Citizens Band concert programme The band's handwritten minute book Hand-copied band music
The Tent Dwellers: Photographs by Paul Yates On loan from Kejimkujik
Photography, 1908–1923

The Tent Dwellers: Photographs by Paul Yates

Taken during the sporting lodge and wilderness guide era, these remarkable images capture the landscape - and the visitors - of the Kejimkujik country before it became a National Park and National Historic Site.

Paul Yates photographed the lodges, the canoe expeditions and the local guides who led sportsmen through the lakes and rivers of North Queens. The Society is grateful to Kejimkujik for loaning the photographs to the Heritage House.

  • Kedgemakooge Lodge and its club house
  • Guides, canoes and camp life
  • Lakes and rivers before the Park
  • Portrait of photographer Paul Yates
Kedgemakooge Lodge Inside the Kedgemakooge club house A log camp in the woods Guide Laurie Mitchell with his canoe Waves on a Kejimkujik lake Fishing the river
Dr. Elizabeth Lee Ross & North Queens Pioneers People
Notable Figures

Dr. Elizabeth Lee Ross & North Queens Pioneers

North Queens has produced more than its share of remarkable people. Dr. Elizabeth "Betty" Lee Ross, a pioneering paediatric cardiologist, was born in this very house in 1927.

Alongside her, the exhibit honours the activist and writer Grace Dean McLeod Rogers and community historian Clara Leone Smith, and the settlers - from William Burke to the eight founding families of Caledonia - whose names are on our family tree wall.

  • Dr. Elizabeth "Betty" Lee Ross
  • Grace Dean McLeod Rogers
  • Clara Leone Smith
  • The North Queens settlers' family tree
Milton Foster Douglas Medical instruments in the pioneers display Medical bag and bottles The family tree wall - "Home of William Burke, North Queens First Settler"
Military Tribute

North Queens Remembers

In honour of the service members from North Queens who died in the First World War, the Second World War and the Korean War.

Service records, photographs, medals and the memorial banners that hang along Route 8 each November are kept here. In 2025, with the North Queens Remembrance Day Committee and veteran Chris Charlton, the Society published North Queens: We Will Remember Them, profiling each of the fallen.

Visit the Memorial Site About the Booklet
North Queens Remembers memorial banner
Cover of the We Will Remember Them booklet
Soldiers of the 242nd Canadian Forestry Battalion
Research & Archives

Looking for Someone From North Queens?

The Heritage House is the research centre for genealogy in the northern half of Queens County.

Volunteers work from original registers, land grants, obituaries, cemetery transcriptions and a photograph collection that grows every season. Write to us with a name, a community and roughly a decade, and we will tell you honestly what we hold.

  1. Send an enquiryUse the contact form and choose "Genealogy & Family Archives".
  2. We search the recordsA volunteer checks what we hold - replies can take a little longer off-season.
  3. Visit or receive copiesBook a research visit, or we send scans. Donations toward research are appreciated.
Start a Research Enquiry

School Registers

Northfield, Pine Grove and other district school registers.

Maps & Land Grants

The 1886 survey of Caledonia and early land-grant plans.

Store Ledgers

N.F. Douglas and Company ledgers and records.

Newspapers & Clippings

Local papers, obituaries and scrapbooks.

Cemetery Records

Transcriptions from North Queens burial grounds.

Photographs

Family, community and industry photographs - and growing.

Northfield school registers 1886 survey of Caledonia Land grant plan Queens County Exhibition first prize card Pine Grove School Vintage catalogues and prize lists

Have Something From North Queens?

Photographs, letters, ledgers, tools or keepsakes - please talk to us before you clear out the attic. We can also scan items and return the originals to you.

Offer a Donation