On Wednesday, April 15 the Vankleek Hill and District Historical Society held its annual general meeting, and the organization which operates the Vankleek Hill Museum continues to be very busy at highlighting and preserving local history.
According to Society President Debbie Hall, accomplishments during the previous year include the speaker series, work by the 2025 summer students, and some small changes to displays and collections. Hall said it was a successful season of community partnerships, including with the Township of Champlain with the completion of renovations to the museum, and with the Vankleek Hill Business and Merchant Association, which also uses the museum for its seasonal tourist bureau. The historical society also participated in the 2025 Christmas Home Tour, by providing volunteers and having the museum open and decorated for Christmas.
There are no changes to the Board of Directors in 2026. They are President Debbie Hall, Vice President Ben Martin, Past President Gary Barton, Secretary Mike Strong, Treasurer Jason Hall, Director Alice Higginson, Director Jean Kerr, Director David Chamberlain, and Director Harvey LeRoy.
“Currently we are updating many of our displays, as well as two new displays, one being transportation in VKH through the years, and a military display,” said Hall.
Another project the Society is working on is establishing heritage signs throughout the community and depicting the history of certain buildings throughout town.
“This will assist visitors and locals alike, to have a small history of each site when strolling through town,” Hall said.
David Chamberlain has also spearheaded Adventure Labs, which is a geocaching app that also allows individuals to search out certain historical sites through the Adventure Lab app. Ben Martin is busy building a new website for the museum, that will contain all the current content as well as audio and video files that the museum has within its collection.
Hall said five more Living History Speaker Series events are planned for this summer, which will include a talk about the building of Vankleek Hill and local municipalities, a talk about the history of Pilon’s bakery, a talk about Jack Hurley; his life during WWII and his life as our postmaster, a talk about the Fenian Raids, and also a talk about the British Home Children, the Potato Famine children, other orphans who came to this area, and the families who raised them. These talks will be posted on the Vankleek Hill and District Historical Society’s Facebook page.
