Cullen Miniature Village finds new home in Niagara

The Cullen Miniature Village, which has delighted hundreds of thousands of visitors at its former location in Ontario’s Durham Region, has found a new home in The Niagara Parks Commission’s (NPC) Botanical Gardens. “Our Botanical Gardens will be the perfect site for the Miniature Village,”says NPC chair Janice Thomson. “The village was originally developed for a botanical setting and they were intended to be viewed by audiences of all ages; our Botanical Gardens, with the Butterfly Conservatory right next door, will be the perfect home for this collection.”The village is made up of 182 separate items, including the main village, cottage country, a train system, fairground, Santa Claus parade, and miniature accessories. The City of Oshawa purchased the village for $239,000 following the closure of Cullen Gardens. It has remained in storage ever since. NPC will pay the City of Oshawa $20,000 a year, over a five-year period for the collection, starting in 2013. Once the village is refurbished and reassembled by NPC it will be put on public display in 2013. (http://www.niagaraparks.com)