The Canadian Women in Film Museum, formerly the Marie Dressler Museum, is located in Cobourg, Ontario, inside the charming heritage house in which Marie Dressler was born in 1868. The house itself was built in 1833, and was of simple design: two rooms off each side of a central hallway. Yet it contained embellishments suited to a family of means: high ceilings, large windows, impressive mouldings
and an elaborate front door. Marie's family, the Koerbers, rented the house from the owner, John Field, for $8 / month. Marie left her Cobourg home at the age of 14 to pursue her dream of becoming a stage performer, and her family eventually moved to the United States shortly after. By the time of Marie's death in 1934, the Field family had taken up residence in the house. In the years to come, Dressler house remained an integral part of the Cobourg community. By 1937, the Field family had transformed their home into a restaurant in response to Marie's many loyal fans who begged the chance to see the house. The restaurant flourished and drew tourists to Cobourg for years, until a severely damaging fire broke out in the restaurant kitchen in 1989. To cover the house's restoration costs after the fire, a huge fundraising campaign was led by District Chamber of Commerce Director Bill Patchett with major support from the Marie Dressler Foundation Board. The fundraising campaign was a huge success and the house was restored, becoming the Chamber of Commerce Office in the early 1990's. The MDM reimagined the house's previously existing Marie Dressler memorabilia display and installed a permanent museum exhibit. Created by the students of the Master of Museum Studies program at the University of Toronto, the exhibit is called: From Cobourg To Hollywood: the Story of Marie Dressler. The permanent exhibit occupied one half of the house, while, at the time, the town of Cobourg Visitor Information Office occupied the remaining half. In 2020, students of the Master of Museum Studies program at the University of Toronto designed a plan to expand the Marie Dressler Museum and transform it into the Canadian Women in Film Museum, while maintaining the original structure of the house, as well as the Marie Dressler permanent exhibit. The new museum will have three new exhibits, two depicting the lives of Mary Pickford and Norma Shearer and the third a History of Hollywood. The new museum will also have a brand-new 1930’s style front entrance, made to look like an old-fashioned movie theatre.
