Archives Awareness Week 2021: Plan of Rat Portage Water Works System (1899)

by Marcus Jeffrey

April 9th is Cherish an Antique Day – a day that celebrates the history and story behind antiques.

As you can imagine, we have plenty of antiques at The Muse, but we thought we would tell you about a prominent antique with an interesting story: our boardroom table at the Lake of the Woods Museum.

If you look through the stained glass window on the Lake of the Woods Museum’s lower level, you will see the boardroom. The room is furnished with the Machin family’s dining room suite.

When the Museum was built in 1985 the plan was to use this table in the boardroom. Once the building was complete, however, they discovered the table wouldn’t fit through the room’s entrance! The solution? A hole was cut in the wall for the table, and a beautiful stained glass window was commissioned.