Museum jam-packed with Virden’s history

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This article was published 31/05/2018 (2670 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

VIRDEN — The white painted door of the Virden Pioneer Home Museum creaks when it’s opened, allowing visitors to cross the barrier between the present sunny day outside and the past.

Outside the house could be mistaken for a more modern structure, with its salmon pink brick and large windows.

But inside, welcome back to the 1880s, with flowery wallpaper, creaky floorboards, and creaky doors. The museum was a former residence built for James F. Frame, who lived and worked in Virden at a hardware store. In fact, a photo of his wife is still on display in the building.

Today, although no longer a home, there are many interesting artifacts in the Pioneer Home Museum that visitors can view any day of the week during the summer months, when they’re open every day. It houses a very old piano that can still be played, as well as an Edison Phonograph — a music player named after Thomas Edison that still works.

It’s the only museum in Virden, and it’s bursting with more than 6,000 artifacts that have all been received from local donors.

The house that now holds the Pioneer Home Museum was built in 1888, two years after the town was founded. It’s more than 125 years old.

One of the interesting things about the house is the floors, which were designed to show high status and importance. The luxurious maple wood that adorns the entryway is a prime example.

“This was designed to kind of wow people,”said Brett Bambridge, the museum co-ordinator. “At the time this house was built, there was no maple trees nearby, so this would have been shipped at great expense along the rail line.”

The inside of the house is done up in a mix of eras from the late 1880s through to before the First World War.

Another interesting artifact in the museum is a Virden baseball jersey worn by Charles Hitchens. It looks quite modern, with the words “Virden” across the chest, identical to a baseball jersey you might see today, but it’s actually closing in on 100 years old.

It was worn when Hitchens played for Virden way back in 1927. Hitchens would later play with the Brandon Greys and the Dokey Tigers.

Team sports started to increase in popularity in Virden as the railway made it easier to transport sports equipment necessary for participation, including baseball bats.

“The rise of team sports and things like baseball very much come out of the Victorian era,” Bambridge said.

Baseball was one of those sports that really took flight.

“As time went on, popular sports in Britain like cricket faded in popularity compared to baseball,” he said.

It gained popularity specifically in the small community of Virden.

“Virden has been very big into baseball — southwest Manitoba was, really — up into the 1980s,” he said.

Museum visitors are interested in coming in and viewing the sports artifacts for different reasons.

“I think a lot of people have connection to the local sports teams, and they want to see the history of it preserved,” he said.

Besides the baseball jersey upstairs, down on the lower levels there’s a large photo album collection of many sports teams that have existed in Virden throughout the years.

“Lots of people come in to check (them),” he said.

A lot of them are searching for family members who have played on the team years ago.

“It’s the nature of a local museum like this,” he said.

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