The Cultural Heritage Society was first formed in 1969 under the name of the Red Deer International Folk Festival Society. Originally it was formed to produce the Canada Day festivities on July 1, which have now become a Red Deer and area tradition.
Later on, in 1996, the Red Deer International Folk Festival Society changed their name to what it is called now, as the name Cultural Heritage Society better defined their role in the community.
Over the years the Society has produced and taken part in a wide variety of cultural activities: from Hockey Day in Canada to the visit of Polissyanka, a Ukrainian dance troop which visited Red Deer during our Canada Day celebration in 1988.
In 1976, the society was given the opportunity and took on the challenge of rescuing the now famous Cronquist House from demolition. By relocating the house from its former resting place in what is now West Park to its present site overlooking the picturesque Bower Ponds, the Society created on of the first multicultural sites in Alberta.
In 1992, the Society acquired Festival Hall, which until then had functioned as a gymnasium for Lindsay Thurber Comprehensive High School and had once been a part of the Armoury, in order to provide a facility for cultural events and ethnic celebrations.