Staff from the City of Kingston and the Pump House Steam Museum had plenty to celebrate Thursday evening, as they cut the ribbon on a new addition to the rear of the steam museum building on Ontario Street.
“We had the opportunity and the need, really, to put in an accessible washroom so that we could better work with the public and make sure that everybody could be accommodated,” Kingston’s Manager of Cultural Heritage Jennifer Campbell said.
The addition to the building features a new accessible bathroom, as well as an entrance for school groups, and new office space. Those two items were thrown in as planning for the washroom progressed.
“When we started to think about the effort and the labour that would be required to build that accessible washroom space there was the opportunity to expand a little bit the footprint of the museum,” Campbell said.
The renovations also led to the creation of a green space near the new entrance.
However, the evening wasn’t all about new renovations.
A new exhibit featuring works of art owned by the city was unveiled. Many of the paintings, done mostly by Ontario and Quebec artists, have been locked in storage for years.