Filling both floors of the two storey brick "Dominion" building, the Ashcroft Museum is the repository of a large and eclectic collection of artefacts which accompanied the growth and development of ashcroft and area.
In the collection are artefacts depicting day to day domestic life, work life and leisure activities enjoyed by the pioneers of Ashcroft.
Over the past 35 years the collection has continued to grow, and now features displays about the McAbee Fossil Beds, First Nations baskets, Ashcroft’s Chinese heritage, mining, and much more.
The Ashcroft Museum, at the corner of 4th and Brink Streets, is one of the more recognizable buildings in Ashcroft, partly because
it is the only brick-faced building in the town (which is odd, since it was faced in wood when it was constructed in 1917; the brick was added in 1935). For many people it is probably the only Ashcroft Museum they have ever known; but it is, in fact, the fourth museum site in the town.
From the Ashcroft Cache Creek Journal
On the building's exterior is a Village of Ashcroft heritage marker bearing a short history of the building itself:
ASHCROFT MUSEUM AND ARCHIVES
Erected in 1917 as the Dominion Public Building, this was originally a wooden structure, bricked over in 1933-34. First built as the Ashcroft Post Office to replace the one burned in the 1916 fire, it also housed the telephone and telegraph offices, and for a while the customs office. The Village of Ashcroft acquired the building in 1980, for the Museum and Archives, which officially opened in 1982.
One attractive feature of the museum is "The Tour". If the museum happens not to be busy when one visits, one will receive an impromptu tour from the staff member (likely a volunteer) on duty, which includes a knowledgeable discourse on the more interesting items one passes, as well as their places in local history. Altogether, this is a very enjoyable small town museum to visit, well worth spending a bit of time in.
The "Dominion Building" is actually the fourth home of the museum, the
history of which goes back to its founding in 1935, when it was opened by
Journal editor R.D. Cumming in space above
The Journal, the local newspaper. In the early 1950s the collection was moved to the vacant Harvey Bailey warehouse on the east side of Railway Avenue, where it remained on display for several years. When that building was razed by its owner, the Canadian Pacific Railway, the collection went into storage until the opening of the new combination museum and fire hall in Cumming’s name in 1958. After that building had been overcrowded for several years, the museum was finally moved to this building in 1982.