In 1956, the Windermere District Board of Trade created a historical committee to organize activities for the sesquicentennial (150 anniversary) of David Thompson’s arrival in the area. That committee, recognizing the value and depth of local history, separated from the Board of Trade in 1957, and in 1958 the Windermere District Historical Society (WDHS) was founded.
The first museum building – what is now the Pioneer Cabin – was acquired in 1964, and moved to Pot Hole Park in Invermere across from AG Valley Foods. It opened in 1965: the same year that the WDHS was incorporated. A second building – the Legion building – was added to the site in 1970.
The museum’s main building, built in 1923 by the Canadian Pacific Railway as the Lake Windermere Station, was closed in April 1970, eight years after passenger service was discontinued. Five years after that a coal train derailed and crashed into the station, damaging it extensively. The WDHS campaigned to ‘save’ the damaged building, and were able to purchase it from the CPR for one dollar. Through a series of community contributions, the building was moved to its present site up the hill and restoration began.
In 1979 the two original museum buildings were relocated from Pot Hole Park to join the station building, and that June the three buildings opened as the new Windermere Valley Museum. Other buildings from around the valley have been added over the years, and in 1998 the name was changed to the Windermere Valley Museum and Archives.