The Georgina Historical Society, as a not-for-profit organization, collects, preserves, promotes and interprets the rich history and heritage of all communities now known as the Town of Georgina.

History of Georgina Historical Society

The history of the Georgina Historical Society and the Georgina Village Museum and Archives have been closely linked.  Nena Marsden, a local woman, identified the need for an historic site in this community in 1968.  Nena and a group of like-minded community members formed the Lake Simcoe South Shore Historical Society; this group later changed their name to the Georgina Historical Society in 1974. If you want to read about the people who were present at the first meeting of the Georgina Historical Society, you can read the minutes of the first meeting here.

In order to raise money to purchase artifacts and historical buildings, a number of fundraising campaigns were mounted by the society. In 1975, they managed to raise enough money to purchase the first two buildings – the Smallwood Log Cabin and the Baldwin Free Methodist Church. After petitioning the town to provide land on which to place these buildings, the municipal government decided to set aside 10 acres of land for the historical society to use as a community museum. After this bylaw was enacted, the local First Nations chief, Lorenzo Big Canoe, officially opened the Georgina Pioneer Village & Archives to the public on Thanksgiving weekend of 1975.
Over the years, the Georgina Pioneer Village grew in size. This was due to the efforts of the Georgina Historical Society, who were instrumental in moving all of the buildings that currently populate the property of the Village Museum. These buildings include: a general store, church, blacksmith shop, barn, train station, one-room schoolhouse, a doctor’s house, a middle-class dwelling, a post office, log cabin and a reproduction trapper’s cabin.  There are also two radial railway shelters and two tourist cabins.  Since there are so many buildings on the Village Museum property, objects that were collected by members of the Georgina Historical Society over a fifty- year period now furnish each of the houses on the property of the Georgina Village Museum & Archives.

News

Attendance at Georgina Farmers Market

We will have a booth at the Georgina Farmers Market on Sunday June 8, 2025 and Sunday July 13, 2025.  We'll be sharing some historical photographs and artifacts.  Volunteers to help out at the booth are welcome!  Or just drop by for a visit - we'd love to see you. 

Mann Cemetery Signage Update

We have received the preliminary draft of the new signage for the Mann Cemetery.  There will be two plaques explaining the history of the cemetery and the layout of burial plots.  Courntey Rennie of the Town of Georgina has been working through the steps needed to...

Pioneer Village Museum – Rebrand

New signage will be replacing the Georgina Pioneer Village signs to read Georgina Village Museum to reflect its newer mandate.  A new logo has been designed, shown below, that features the Noble House. 

Newsletters

Newsletter #5, Volume 8, May 2025

President’s Message Another summer season is upon us, but we haven’t seen many of those lovely warm spring mornings that we like so much. On the other hand, I’m sure that it won’t be too long before we are complaining that it’s too hot and sunny, could we please have...

Newsletter #4, Volume 8, April 2025

President’s Message Spring has finally sprung, but Mother Nature is reluctant to let us enjoy the warmth that usually comes with the change of season. As I am writing this, a week after the big ice storm, some people are still struggling with no power and continue to...

Newsletter #3, Volume 8, March 2025

President’s Message As the snowiest, coldest winter in recent memory draws to a close, brighter days are coming and we will soon replace snow shovels with gardening tools. As far as world events are concerned, events spinning both close to home and around the world...

Furthermore, the Georgina Historical Society has been instrumental in the management and operation of the Georgina Pioneer Village & Archives. We still maintain a close partnership with the Town of Georgina, who currently maintains the Village on a day-to-day basis. We also participate in historical events of all kinds around Georgina, such as Georgina Farmers Market, Festival on High and the Sutton Fair and Horse Show. We also strive to educate the public through our general meetings, held on a monthly basis, in the sharing and dissemination of topics of historical interest relating to the communities that make up the Township of Georgina. Most recently, we have been engaged in drawing public awareness of the need to preserve many aspects of our local heritage, such as cemeteries, heritage houses and other topics of historic interest. One of our most recent projects was to refurbish the old railway caboose which resides onsite at the Georgina Village Museum & Archives.

Finally, we recognize that we would not be where we are today without the heroic efforts of Nena Marsden to establish the society in the first place. Sadly, she passed away at the age of 92 years. A stone commemorating Nena Marsden, in honor of the founder of the Georgina Historical Society, was laid in the village in the front gardens of the Noble House after her passing in 2018. Additionally, the Georgina Historical Society offers a bursary on an annual basis, named after her as the “Nena Marsden Memorial Bursary”.  This $500 bursary is given to a graduating high school student pursuing a post-secondary education who has demonstrated critical thinking skills by writing an essay on a topic set by the Georgina Historical Society.
Lastly, we would encourage anyone with an interest in history to contribute to the Georgina Historical Society’s newsletter, thereby adding to the body of local knowledge about the history of Georgina