The Aurora Historical Society was founded in 1963 and is run by a committed number of volunteers. The Society has worked tirelessly for the last forty-five years to support and preserve local history and to provide a space for the public to learn and engage in the history of Aurora. Over the years the Society has collected and preserved over 5,000 artifacts, which have now become the nucleus of the Aurora Collection to be used at the Church Street School Cultural Centre.  

In 1981 the Society acquired Hillary House, which was designated a National Historic Site in 1973. The house was built in 1862 and is considered one of Canada’s best examples of Gothic Revival architecture. Hillary House was home to five doctors, three of which were Hillarys and the Society has preserved a significant collection of medical instruments, books, papers, household furnishings, and equipment dating from the early nineteenth to the late twentieth century and is open to the public as Hillary House, the Koffler Museum of Medicine.