Our handsome two-storey brick Georgian or Loyalist style Museum building was erected about 1845 by shopkeeper Thomas J. Mulkins as a private residence for his family.  Mr. Mulkins succeeded Duncan Campbell, becoming Simcoe's second postmaster in 1848. 

After Mr. Mulkins died in 1856, his widow and family continued to live in the house and his son Henry succeeded his father as postmaster. Henry Mulkins married and had two daughters. This second generation lived in the house until Henry's death in 1917. 

Augustus W. Donly and his wife Eva Brook Donly purchased the house in 1924. An amateur artist, Mrs. Donly willed the house to the Town of Simcoe upon her death in 1941, stipulating it was to serve as a museum of art and antiques and to bear her name in its title.

In 1967 the Norfolk Historical Society built an addition on the back of the house, more than doubling the size of the entire building. Today the bulk of the original house is used as our artifacts exhibit area, while the elevator-equipped climate-controlled addition serves as the permanent home of Norfolk Archives. The entire complex is the Norfolk Heritage Centre.

Enlargement


Eva Brook Donly