A yearlong grassroots campaign to keep the birth home of the Dionne quintuplets in a northeastern Ontario city will come to fruition this weekend as the house-turned-museum is uprooted and transported to another location in the community — the second move for the historic log cabin.
The home, whose fate had been in limbo since it closed to the public two years ago, is set to be hauled from its current spot by the highway in North Bay, Ont., to a waterfront park in the city on Sunday.
A spokesman for the two surviving quintuplets, Cecile and Annette Dionne, says the women are proud that a key monument of their childhood — and of Canadian history — is being preserved.
Carlo Tarini says the 83-year-old sisters, who live in Montreal, are grateful to those who rallied to save the home and its legacy.
A proposal to have the log cabin moved to a nearby community and the related artifacts handed over to museums or universities sparked public outcry last fall, with the sisters among those opposing the plan.
City officials decided in April to sell the land the home is on and use the money, an estimated $150,000, to move the building roughly two kilometres downtown.