Architecture
Sharkey Pump Factory
The "pump factory" at the museum is housed in a structure built circa 1900. It was the residence of the Somerville and Winter families before being used as a storage shed.
It now houses the machine for making wooden pumps that was developed by John Sharkey in Cumberland in the 1890's. The device was used to bore a hole through straight tamarack logs and to create joints for connecting the sections of wooden pipe. As the twentieth century progressed, locally wooden pumps were replaced by mass produced metal pumps and, eventually, electric pumps that could draw water from deeper wells.
Bibliography:
Sharkey Pump Factory. Ottawa: Cumberland Heritage Village Museum, 2015. Interpretive Panel.
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