• About HVACR Heritage Centre Canada

President's Message

The HVACR Heritage Centre Canada is one of the few organizations preserving and studying the history and evolution of the heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration technologies that have become so central to our modern quality of life. Without these technologies there would be no refrigerated and frozen foods, air conditioning, high efficiency heating or indoor air quality. Please explore this website to find out more about the work we are doing and the technologies we showcase.

The members of the Board join me in thanking our founding partners, The Heating, Refrigeration, and Air Conditioning Institute of Canada, The Ontario Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Contractors Association, and Local 787, Refrigeration Workers of Ontario, for their public-spirited support.

We are also grateful to the Ontario Trillium Foundation for making the development of this website possible and the Virtual Museum of Canada for supporting the development of our Chilling Out exhibit.

 

Our Philosophy

The HVACR Heritage Centre Canada is founded on the philosophy of the virtual, distributed museum, operated primarily through the efforts and contributions of volunteers.

This means that:

  1. We are a new kind of heritage organization
  2. Our focus is on technology and culture
  3. our commitment is to education
  4. our mandate is for sharing
  5. we are volunteer driven
  6. we are professionally driven
  7. we serve the world via the internet
 

Our Mandate

G. Leslie Oliver BEng., Ph.D.

G. Leslie Oliver BEng., Ph.D.

The mandate of the HVACR Heritage Centre Canada is to preserve and record the history of the heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration technologies and their essential contributions to Canada's rich heritage and way of life.

The Centre carries out its mandate by

  1. holding local collections of technology artefacts and archival materials pertaining to the HVACR technologies, and
  2. developing exhibits, publications and other educational programs.

Value of the Founding Collection

A video recollection by founding curator G. Leslie Oliver BEng., Ph.D.

  1. Scope of the Collection
  2. Reflection of Culture and Societal Context
  3. Reflection of the Industry & Advancing Technologies
  4. The Goals of Safety and Reliability
  5. The Maintenance Imperative
  6. The Associated Document Archives
 

Our History

Origins of HVACR Heritage Centre Canada

The founding committee

Back Row (L to R): Edmund Athaide, Martin Vandenberg, Hart Holmstrom
Front Row (L to R): G. Leslie Oliver, Norman Fraser

The HVACR Heritage Centre Canada began as a private initiative by a group of enthusiastic volunteers.

The Centre's nuclear collection is the T. H. Oliver Collection of early 20th Century HVACR artefacts and archival documents. The Centre was incorporated as a Canadian not-for-profit in 2002 and was granted charitable status in 2003.

The Centre's three founding partner organizations are

History of the founding collection

As recounted by founding curator G. Leslie Oliver BEng., Ph.D.

  1. The First Collector: T. Howard Oliver [1888 - 1965]
  2. The Family Business in Aurora, Ontario
  3. Amateur Historian
  4. A Collection Based on Pioneer Values