The Grenfell Interpretation Centre in St. Anthony will look a little different in the new year and offer new reasons for tourists to visit.
At least that’s on the wish list for 2020, said Cynthia Randell, Grenfell Historical Society manager.
Improvements to the main entrance and a new exhibit are among several upgrades planned for the centre, completed hopefully before the start of the 2020 tourist season in June.
“We had consultants come in a couple years ago and tell us what their suggestions would be,” Randell said. “There’s more pieces of it but we picked out a couple pieces of it for now. There’s more that will come in the future hopefully.”
Consultants visited in 2016, and delivered a suggested renewal plan the following year.
In June 2019, the centre received notice it was approved for funding. This phase of the project is funded by Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA), Tourism, Culture, Industry and Innovation (TCII) and the Grenfell Historical Society.
“We are working on our next step, getting the actual work done,” Randell said.
“It has been a long time since the exhibit has been done, since 1998, so we felt, even the funding agencies, our partners that have come in, have suggested that it’s time for a change.”
Tourism operators were also suggesting it was time for something new to sell to their groups.
So change is going to come.
Early improvements include general signage, banners, café signage, way-finding maps, brochure racks, and better lighting in the front lobby to make it more inviting.
“A lot of people walk in our front entrance now and don’t even know we have an exhibit here because there’s no signage,” Randell said.
A new exhibit will detail Dr. Grenfell's experience adrift on an ice pan when he went to help a patient in Englee. It will join an interpretative panellingtelling the story when Grenfell left Easter Sunday to visit the Englee patient.
“But according to the plans you’ll hear ice cracking when the new adrift on an ice pan display goes in. It’s going to take up a fair amount of space. I think it’s going to be an awesome addition when it’s completed.”
The Grenfell Interpretation Centre currently has a gift shop, a tea room, and two floors of interpretative paneling exhibits about the life and times of Grenfell. The exhibits are meant to be self-guided, but guided tours are available as well.
