Dominion Atlantic Railway Digital Preservation Initiative - Wiki
Use of this site is subject to our Terms & Conditions.
Lawrencetown
Lawrencetown, Nova Scotia
Subdivision Kentville, Mile 37.1
Facilities & Features
- Lawrencetown Station
- 1019 foot passing track
Commerce & Industry
Lawrencetown was an early centre of commerce in the central Annapolis Valley and an importance apple shipping point during the peak years of the apple industry. Five apple warehouses and an apple evaporator were located in Lawrencetown. The evaporator was run by the M.W. Graves company but burned in February 1938.[1] The Beaver Fruit Co-operative, run by local apple farmers operated two of the warehouses and ran a general store, a flour and feed warehouse and a bulk feed operation in addition to shipping apples. At various times saw mills, a grist mill, a woolen mill, tanneries, a boot factory, a furniture factory, a butter and cheese factory, and a box factory operated in Lawrencetown.
Description & History
Settled about 1760, Lawrencetown was first named Richardson's Landing and Lunn's Mill but in 1827 received the name Lawrencetown, after Charles Lawrence, the governor of Nova Scotia from 1753 to 1760. The village the location of several early saw and woolen mills and various agricultural industries.
The Windsor and Annapolis Railway began construction through Lawrencetown on July 20,1867 when the first sod was turned at the Leonard Road crossing by the wife of Avard Longley, Commissioner of Railways in the provincial government. Lawrencetown builder John MacLeod played a major role in constructing the roadbed through and around Lawrencetown. The village and its industries grew with the arrival of the railway and rivaled Middleton until the 1890s when the Nova Scotia Central, later the Halifax and Southwestern, made Middleton their junction in hopes of development from the iron mines at Torbrook Mines.[2]
A major train wreck occurred at Lawrencetown in April 14, 1925 when the Yarmouth-bound express with 300 passengers derailed at the highway crossing a quarter mile east of the village causing locomotive 37 and baggage car to topple off the rails and other cars to derail. The locomotive fireman, Tommy Walsh was badly injured, losing a year of work before he recovered.[3] However the rest of the crew and all passengers escaped unharmed.[4]
An annual agricultural fair started in 1927 grew to become the Lawrencetown Exhibition, one of the largest agricultural fairs in Nova Scotia. A school for surveyors founded in Lawrencetown 1948 became the Nova Scotia Land Survey Institute in 1958 and today operates as the Centre of Geographic Sciences, part of the community college system in Nova Scotia. Rail traffic dwindled in the 1960s with the growth of paved highways and services and the decline of the apple industry.
Operations & Orders
Gallery
Lawrencetown Station and one of its early apple warehouses, c. 1890.
The Lawrencetown Fruit Company warehouse, an early style apple warehouse, circa 1890.
The Lawrencetown Fruit Company co-operative apple warehouse, 1910.
Weekly Monitor newspaper article on the new apple warehouse for the Lawrencetown Fruit Growers Limited, being built by the J. H. Hicks & Sons, June 11, 1924.
Engine 37 viewed from track in wreck at Lawrencetown April 14, 1925.
Engine 37 viewed from bank in wreck at Lawrencetown April 14, 1925.
Photo of No. 502 arriving at Lawrencetown Station with extended apple warehouse in background, c. 1924-26.
Lawrencetown Station, photographed by Harold Jenkins, June 1959.
VIA Rail sign and the retired 1928 Lawrencetown Station, 1986.
VIA Rail sign, 1986.
Three generations of Lawrencetown Stations in 1989: VIA Rail sign, the retired 1887 station in farmyard and the retired 1928 station on far right.
References & Footnotes
- Alexander MacNab, Windsor and Annapolis Railway, Report of Alexander MacNab Nov 1, 1873
- 1969 Memorandum of General Information, "Lawrencetown", page 12
- History of Lawrencetown, Lawrencetown Consolidated School (1977)
- Bruce Ferguson, Lawrencetown, Annapolis Country", Places and Place Names of Nova Scotia, Nova Scotia Archives, pages 348-349
- ↑ Lawrencetown Village Commission "The Early Years" Photo album
- ↑ "Railroad in Lawrencetown", History of Lawrencetown, Lawrencetown Consolidated School (1977)
- ↑ Walsh was not able to return to work until April 1, 1927, "The Dispatcher's Office: What the Railway Flks Are Doing", The Kentville Advertiser]], April 2, 1927
- ↑ "Wreck was one of the Worst on the D.A. Railway Engine Crew have Remarkable Escapes", Chronicle Herald, April 15, 1925. Carl Riff Notes
