A line from the Wizard of Oz seems apt in describing the state of the Dionne Home Museum.
The home has been divided into pieces and whisked a few kilometres from its former home, almost as if by a tornado. One could have gone to sleep with the home located at the Highway 11/17 bypass Saturday night and awoken with the home at its new site, between the Discovery North Bay Museum and Marina Point retirement community by noon on Sunday.
Like Dorothy, the Dionne Home has long been searching for a place to call home, to ascertain where it fit in the hearts and minds of locals and tourists alike.
The Dionne Quints Heritage Board Inc., plans to re-open the home, at least as a static display, before summer 2018. The manner in which the home is operated at first will depend on funding and the securing of grants. The City of North Bay has recently indicated in budget deliberations that it does not plan to grant a $35,000 funding request from the board.
What developed into a year-long battle by the Friends of the Dionne Quintuplets Home Museum to save the home from being sold to Strong Township and the artifacts perhaps being dispersed to several entities has come to a close. The home has been moved. The board has been formed. What comes next remains to be seen.
