I had a quick run through Renfrew. There, I said the pun. The downtown area of Renfrew is actually very pretty. The traffic is calm, people are kind, and local businesses stay local. There aren’t too many chain stores apart from fast food restaurants that populate the streets.
The blocks surrounding the town hall form the centre of town. There’s a memorial to veterans in front of the town hall directly facing a hardware store. The town’s fire station and public library are both beside the town hall to its east. According to Google Maps, there’s supposed to be a museum dedicated to the birthplace of the NHL, but all I found near the area was a post office.
Post office 
Public library 
Town hall and war memorial 
Fire house
The plaque at the town hall says Renfrew was founded based on a lumbering industry from 1830. By 1848, it sold lots in the village for settlers and a post office and church were opened by 1851. Among the many industries that opened in the area, one of the was a gristmill.
McDouglas Mill Museum 
Wooden bridge
The gristmill was called the McDougall Mill and is now preserved as the McDougall Mill Museum. It is right by the Bonnechere River and near a wooden suspension bridge. It has displays on 19th century agricultural life in the Ottawa Valley. Unfortunately, it was closed the day I visited.
