OUTLOOK - An interesting, thought-provoking idea from the Outlook & District Heritage Museum wants to shine a spotlight on the history of local businesses in the riverside community.
Museum manager Kate King says she is looking for volunteers to help bring her vision of a 'history walk' to life. The walk would be designed to show how businesses along Outlook's main street corridors of Franklin Street and Saskatchewan Avenue have changed over the course of a century, beginning in 1909 and ending in 2025.
Seen as a fun and knowledgeable way to learn more about the community's past and get involved, interested volunteers would be helping with research and collecting information to help make the project become a reality.
"There are many communities that have done this sort of research - it's a great way to show the history of businesses in communities," said Kate. "Our museum committee is always striving to preserve the history of our community. This is a great way to showcase this history of our community, and we actually have many community members that have already started the research on a couple of businesses."
The museum has what King calls a vision board, as well as a research area in which people can come and look through pictures, newspapers, microfilm and history books, and then combine their findings together. Anyone can take part in such an activity, and it's ideal for groups, individuals, and even businesses.
She says that it was the recent demolition of a once-popular coffeehouse and eatery that spurred her inspiration for the history walk project.
"My real inspiration came from when the Engage Eatery was being torn down, seeing the old coming in with the new and the history of that space," said Kate. "It's always exciting to see new businesses coming to Outlook. I reached out to Megan Kasper to see if it was okay for me to document the demo and such, and then it just morphed into researching that building."
For anyone who may be interested in this project and would like to help out, whether they're local residents, business owners or even school groups, they can contact Kate by email at [email protected].
