For this edition of Collection Selections we take a look at this 1:24 scale Puntledge River Powerhouse model, made by John Henry Boffy and his son, James, in 1935. Thank you to the Cumberland Museum and Archives for donating it to the Courtenay Museum in 2021
The Puntledge River Powerhouse, completed in 1912, provided hydroelectricity to Cumberland and Courtenay and to the local mines. In 2017, the original decommissioned powerhouse structure, unused for years, was demolished as it had become a safety hazard.
Collections Assistant, Erik Duncan (above) cleaned and repaired sections of the miniature and reassembled it for display in the museum’s upstairs gallery.