The Canadiana Village has been a source of pride for the Municipality of Rawdon for many years. In the early 1950s, with retirement in mind, Earl and Nora Moore purchased about 100 acres of land in the Rawdon countryside. Over the years, they acquired antiques and buildings slated for demolition or export.
Gradually, a village project took shape, and in 1980, the couple opened it to the public to offer an authentic living historical reenactment of a 19th-century village. It featured a general store, a watermill, a farmhouse, a school and more. The public was able to visit the site until the mid-1990s, and several film shoots took place there.
Starting in 1996, the Village served as a filming location for movie productions. In 2021, the village was sold, and new historically themed projects began to take shape. Starting in the summer of 2023, lodging in prospector tents became available; in 2025, the historic village section of the site reopened to the public for performances and other events.
In 2023, the Société d’histoire de Rawdon helped catalogue the book collection, and since the summer of 2025, it has been hosting at the Canadiana Village the exhibition “ The Irish Presence in Rawdon Yesterday and Today" .
Beverly Blagrave Prud’Homme, co-founder of the Rawdon History Society, aptly describes the bustling activity that took place in the Village during the 1980s, when it welcomed large numbers of visitors. Beverly explains that reenactors welcomed visitors to the various historic buildings, including Rawdon’s former Catholic rectory, dating from 1845. This building was donated to the Canadiana Village in 1970 by the Caisse populaire Desjardins.
The map at the bottom of this page shows the locations of the various buildings that visitors could tour, such as Amos Riddell’s blacksmith shop and the mill with its large waterwheel, which was once used to grind grain.
Beverly Blagrave humorously describes the collaboration of the fifty or so reenactors who provided explanations about the contents of the buildings in the Canadiana Village.
Beverly mentions that Earl Moore had served as president of the Quebec Museums Association and that Nora Moore was highly regarded by her peers in the Canadian fashion and antique furniture communities.
The Moores’ daughter, Géraldine, and her husband, John McDonald, continued the Moores’ philanthropic work while managing the numerous films that were shot there. The Canadiana Village was subsequently sold to companies for use as a film set.
Sources:
Interviews with Beverly Blagrave Prud’homme
Adam, Richard. “Rawdon : Le village Canadiana.” Continuité, numéro 43, printemps 1989, p. 12–14. (accessed February 21, 2014)
