Heritage Trust of Nova Scotia board member Beth Keech of Grand Pré said she was shocked to see the Planter-era house near Highway 101 had disappeared.
“You do what can you do,” Keech said of the destruction of the house, which occurred without any fanfare earlier this summer.
Another trust board member, Kings County Museum curator Bria Stokesbury, says, “We’re just not able to save every heritage property.”
She notes that museums like the one in Kentville appreciate notice of a demolition in order to make a photographic record.
That kind of recording of a historic house took place recently in Billtown because it faces an uncertain future, she added.
Nearby, the Reid house in Avonport, which has had a national designation since 2007, currently sits empty. The two-and-a-half storey wooden house, with two wooden outbuildings, was built during the 1760s and was lived in by four generations of the Reid family. It is currently owned, along with three parcels of land, by Nanco Developments of Halifax.
The house has heritage value for its use as a tavern, stagecoach stop, courtroom, post office and election polling station while continuing to be a well-known farm, according to Janice Hattie’s history.
From 1851, the house was a regular stop on the stagecoach route through to Annapolis Royal. As a Justice of the Peace, Joshua Reid used to hold court in the northwest taproom. The taproom also became, from 1872 to 1940, the post office for Avonport. As late as the 1950s, it served as a polling station for elections.
The late Margaret Reid, who moved to the house around the turn of the 20th century, fought expropriation and demolition when Highway 101 went through. Through two marriages, she remained in the house for close to 80 years. The Avonport overpass cut off the house, main barn and an outbuilding from the farmland, making the property’s proximity to the highway a visual oddity to passing motorists.
Now, without an advocate, its fate remains uncertain.
The house is notable for its chimney structure, which incorporates a large cooking fireplace and beehive oven. For most of its history, the Reid house was the centre of a farm of more than 200 acres.
No municipal heritage designations in Kentville
Kentville lost many heritage buildings in the postwar period. Today, it is one of the few towns in Nova Scotia without any municipally designated heritage buildings. However, the Wickwire house did win a provincial award in 1996 and the Terry Young House also has a provincial designation.
Major losses have included the large railway station, one of the most historic in Canada, which was demolished in 1990.
In 2007, the town demolished the last railway structure in town, the Dominion Atlantic Railway roundhouse, despite protests. Fortunately, Stokesbury says, it was photographed before its demolition and a number of artifacts were saved. The museum has the images.
The following year, the town earned a place on the Heritage Canada Foundation’s ‘worst list.’
There are also those who mourned the loss of the old Kings County Academy last year. The cornerstones of the former school were taken to the museum.
Currently, the town has a planning strategy underway and planning director Bev Gentleman says council may decide to add a built heritage bylaw.
A success story
The two-storey, wood frame Jeremiah Calkin House in Grand Pré has heritage value because it is one of the oldest known buildings erected by the New England Planters. It is said to be the earliest surviving house in Horton Township.
The house was slated for demolition in the 1980s on its original site near Melanson. An agreement allowed it to be moved to the Old Post Road in 1988, where it was painstakingly restored. The work later won an award from the Heritage Trust of Nova Scotia.
Other awarding-winning properties celebrated by the trust were the Planters Barracks in Starr’s Point (1992), now a bed and breakfast, and the Rayski house in Grand Pré (2012).
The Grand Pré Heritage Conservation District was set apart under the Nova Scotia Heritage Property Act in 1995. It encompasses the landscape in and around the village, as well as the national historic site.
In Kings County, there are approximately 20 properties with a heritage designation from other levels of government. The county has only designated one home, the modest McElvy house, in Port Williams.
Kings County last designated McMaster Mill Park in South Tremont as a heritage property in 2013.
Stokesbury said there was a group of dedicated community volunteers who worked in conjunction with the Municipality of the County of Kings to bring about its new status, much like the Medford Cemetery.
The Kings County Museum currently has an exhibit, entitled Our Buildings Your Legacy, on display. It delves into built heritage, preservation and documentation.
Uncertain future for Wolfville’s Christie House
The Wolfville Memorial Library and Kent Lodge have both been award-winning heritage properties. The town began developing its list of heritage properties in the early 1980s; there are now 26 registered.
One of these properties now faces an uncertain future. Acadia applied two years ago to deregister the Christie house, a double house on Main Street, which is surplus to the university’s needs. The university could go ahead with a demolition three years from the application date.
At the time of the application, facilities director Marcel Falkenham said Acadia was open to selling the 160-year-old home for a $1 to someone who would move the structure.
According to Wolfville's built heritage inventory, Christie House is valued for its association to its former owner, John L. Brown, and its architectural features.
Brown was one of Wolfville's most successful merchants of the 19th century and a member of the legislature.
The double house was named after the Christie family, who lived in the home for over 50 years. Architecturally, the house has maintained its original classic revival architectural style.
Embracing the past
Stokesbury says there was some interest in 2010 in forming a sub-committee to advise the county on built heritage concerns. That was the year the Kings Hants Heritage Connection group was formed. Part of its mandate was to work with local government and Stokesbury says the need continues despite the inactivity of that sub-committee.
“I’d be happy to volunteer,” said Keech, who is also a member of the connection group.
Looking at the positive example of Annapolis Royal, she is hopeful council will take an interest in heritage issues.
“We don’t live in the past - we nobly embrace it,” she added.
Many property owners simply don’t have the finances to take on the challenge of maintaining venerable buildings, says Stokesbury.
“Not everyone may be willing or able to do this. However, for those that can and do, they are, in a sense, giving back to the communities that they live in by saving properties which often reflect the history and spirit of the community.”
Many visitors to Kings County come to visit quaint little towns and many venerable homes can be turned to new purposes, she added.
“While we also need big box stores, people want to visit buildings with character,” she said. “It is also important to keep the core of our towns alive by saving landmark buildings, which can be repurposed and become ‘economic drivers’ in the heart of our communities. Not just economic drivers but creative cultural hubs as well.”
Stokesbury sees provincial programs, like the 1970s Little Red School House program, as positive ways to preserve community heritage.
“Developers who save heritage buildings and do sympathetic restorations should be applauded,” Stokesbury said. “Tourists come to Nova Scotia to see our lovely old towns and if we demolish all of the older buildings and replace them with identical box stores we, as a community, lose a lot of the charm, which sets us apart in the first place.”
Both advocates acknowledge that there aren’t many government supports for built heritage. In Truro, for example, there is fundraising to assist the over 50 municipally registered properties, Keech said.
The Heritage Trust of Nova Scotia, which was formed to save a venerable home in Halifax, began in 1959 to attempt to halt the random decimation of the built heritage of this province.
Heritage Trust of Nova Scotia board member Beth Keech of Grand Pré said she was shocked to see the Planter-era house near Highway 101 had disappeared.
“You do what can you do,” Keech said of the destruction of the house, which occurred without any fanfare earlier this summer.
Another trust board member, Kings County Museum curator Bria Stokesbury, says, “We’re just not able to save every heritage property.”
She notes that museums like the one in Kentville appreciate notice of a demolition in order to make a photographic record.
That kind of recording of a historic house took place recently in Billtown because it faces an uncertain future, she added.
Nearby, the Reid house in Avonport, which has had a national designation since 2007, currently sits empty. The two-and-a-half storey wooden house, with two wooden outbuildings, was built during the 1760s and was lived in by four generations of the Reid family. It is currently owned, along with three parcels of land, by Nanco Developments of Halifax.
The house has heritage value for its use as a tavern, stagecoach stop, courtroom, post office and election polling station while continuing to be a well-known farm, according to Janice Hattie’s history.
From 1851, the house was a regular stop on the stagecoach route through to Annapolis Royal. As a Justice of the Peace, Joshua Reid used to hold court in the northwest taproom. The taproom also became, from 1872 to 1940, the post office for Avonport. As late as the 1950s, it served as a polling station for elections.
The late Margaret Reid, who moved to the house around the turn of the 20th century, fought expropriation and demolition when Highway 101 went through. Through two marriages, she remained in the house for close to 80 years. The Avonport overpass cut off the house, main barn and an outbuilding from the farmland, making the property’s proximity to the highway a visual oddity to passing motorists.
Now, without an advocate, its fate remains uncertain.
The house is notable for its chimney structure, which incorporates a large cooking fireplace and beehive oven. For most of its history, the Reid house was the centre of a farm of more than 200 acres.
No municipal heritage designations in Kentville
Kentville lost many heritage buildings in the postwar period. Today, it is one of the few towns in Nova Scotia without any municipally designated heritage buildings. However, the Wickwire house did win a provincial award in 1996 and the Terry Young House also has a provincial designation.
Major losses have included the large railway station, one of the most historic in Canada, which was demolished in 1990.
In 2007, the town demolished the last railway structure in town, the Dominion Atlantic Railway roundhouse, despite protests. Fortunately, Stokesbury says, it was photographed before its demolition and a number of artifacts were saved. The museum has the images.
The following year, the town earned a place on the Heritage Canada Foundation’s ‘worst list.’
There are also those who mourned the loss of the old Kings County Academy last year. The cornerstones of the former school were taken to the museum.
Currently, the town has a planning strategy underway and planning director Bev Gentleman says council may decide to add a built heritage bylaw.
A success story
The two-storey, wood frame Jeremiah Calkin House in Grand Pré has heritage value because it is one of the oldest known buildings erected by the New England Planters. It is said to be the earliest surviving house in Horton Township.
The house was slated for demolition in the 1980s on its original site near Melanson. An agreement allowed it to be moved to the Old Post Road in 1988, where it was painstakingly restored. The work later won an award from the Heritage Trust of Nova Scotia.
Other awarding-winning properties celebrated by the trust were the Planters Barracks in Starr’s Point (1992), now a bed and breakfast, and the Rayski house in Grand Pré (2012).
The Grand Pré Heritage Conservation District was set apart under the Nova Scotia Heritage Property Act in 1995. It encompasses the landscape in and around the village, as well as the national historic site.
In Kings County, there are approximately 20 properties with a heritage designation from other levels of government. The county has only designated one home, the modest McElvy house, in Port Williams.
Kings County last designated McMaster Mill Park in South Tremont as a heritage property in 2013.
Stokesbury said there was a group of dedicated community volunteers who worked in conjunction with the Municipality of the County of Kings to bring about its new status, much like the Medford Cemetery.
The Kings County Museum currently has an exhibit, entitled Our Buildings Your Legacy, on display. It delves into built heritage, preservation and documentation.
Uncertain future for Wolfville’s Christie House
The Wolfville Memorial Library and Kent Lodge have both been award-winning heritage properties. The town began developing its list of heritage properties in the early 1980s; there are now 26 registered.
One of these properties now faces an uncertain future. Acadia applied two years ago to deregister the Christie house, a double house on Main Street, which is surplus to the university’s needs. The university could go ahead with a demolition three years from the application date.
At the time of the application, facilities director Marcel Falkenham said Acadia was open to selling the 160-year-old home for a $1 to someone who would move the structure.
According to Wolfville's built heritage inventory, Christie House is valued for its association to its former owner, John L. Brown, and its architectural features.
Brown was one of Wolfville's most successful merchants of the 19th century and a member of the legislature.
The double house was named after the Christie family, who lived in the home for over 50 years. Architecturally, the house has maintained its original classic revival architectural style.
Embracing the past
Stokesbury says there was some interest in 2010 in forming a sub-committee to advise the county on built heritage concerns. That was the year the Kings Hants Heritage Connection group was formed. Part of its mandate was to work with local government and Stokesbury says the need continues despite the inactivity of that sub-committee.
“I’d be happy to volunteer,” said Keech, who is also a member of the connection group.
Looking at the positive example of Annapolis Royal, she is hopeful council will take an interest in heritage issues.
“We don’t live in the past - we nobly embrace it,” she added.
Many property owners simply don’t have the finances to take on the challenge of maintaining venerable buildings, says Stokesbury.
“Not everyone may be willing or able to do this. However, for those that can and do, they are, in a sense, giving back to the communities that they live in by saving properties which often reflect the history and spirit of the community.”
Many visitors to Kings County come to visit quaint little towns and many venerable homes can be turned to new purposes, she added.
“While we also need big box stores, people want to visit buildings with character,” she said. “It is also important to keep the core of our towns alive by saving landmark buildings, which can be repurposed and become ‘economic drivers’ in the heart of our communities. Not just economic drivers but creative cultural hubs as well.”
Stokesbury sees provincial programs, like the 1970s Little Red School House program, as positive ways to preserve community heritage.
“Developers who save heritage buildings and do sympathetic restorations should be applauded,” Stokesbury said. “Tourists come to Nova Scotia to see our lovely old towns and if we demolish all of the older buildings and replace them with identical box stores we, as a community, lose a lot of the charm, which sets us apart in the first place.”
Both advocates acknowledge that there aren’t many government supports for built heritage. In Truro, for example, there is fundraising to assist the over 50 municipally registered properties, Keech said.
The Heritage Trust of Nova Scotia, which was formed to save a venerable home in Halifax, began in 1959 to attempt to halt the random decimation of the built heritage of this province.
