It’s always hard to show up at a town and understand in the drop of a hat how that town works. It’s impossible and presumptuous to think you can sum up a town in a day and understand its history, economy and going on’s. Feeling a bit lost and overwhelmed with yet another town and the size of Wolfville, I decided I’d try something different and just stand in three spots on main street and wait for the shots to come to me. Here’s what I found in three vantage spots in an afternoon in Wolfville.
Moving day for the university students returning home after a year of study.
Moving Day
Cramming for an exam?
Enjoying a Spring Day at a Cafe
Girls enjoy the warm sun and each other’s company.
Bus Stop
Acadia Univerisity
Peeks On Main Street
Clock Tower
United Church Cemetery
Grand-Pré
Grand-Pré National Historic Site is a park set aside to commemorate the Grand-Pré area of Nova Scotia as a center of Acadian settlement from 1682 to 1755, and the deportation of the Acadians which began in 1755 and continued to 1762. The original village of Grand Pré extended four kilometres along the ridge between present-day Wolfville and Hortonville. Together with the adjacent marshland, this area was designated a Rural Historic District by the Government of Canada in 1995
Evangeline
When the poem, Evangeline, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was published in the United States in 1847, the story of the Deportation and le Grand Dérangement, the great uprooting, was told to the English-speaking world. Grand-Pré, forgotten for almost a century, became popular for American tourists who wanted to visit the birthplace of the poem’s heroine, Evangeline. But nothing remained of the original village except the dykelands and a row of old willows.
Church of Saint-Charles
Blacksmith Shop
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American educator and poet whose works include “Paul Revere’s Ride“, The Song of Hiawatha, and “Evangeline“.
Michael works at the Grand-Pre National Historic site as a grounds keeper.
Deportation Cross
In 1755 the Acadians in the Minas area had their boats and their guns confiscated. The French Fort Beauséjour was captured. Acadian delegates, in Halifax to present a petition, were imprisoned. The governor, Charles Lawrence, decided to settle the Acadian question once and for all. The Acadians were to be expelled from Nova Scotia and dispersed among the British colonies to the south, from Massachusetts to Georgia.
Lieutenant Colonel John Winslow arrived in Grand-Pré with troops on August 19, 1755 and took up headquarters in the church. The men and boys of the area were ordered there on September 5. Winslow informed them that all but their personal goods were to be forfeited to the Crown and that they and their families were to be deported as soon as ships arrived to take them away.
Before the year was over, more than 6,000 Acadians were deported, not only from the Minas Basin area but from all of Nova Scotia. Their villages were burned to the ground. Thousands more would be deported until England and France made peace in 1763.
John Bentley has owned the Grand Pre convience store for 15 years.
Cora Mae Morse has been builting a successful custom lawn furniture business from her home with her husband Doug since 1993. Their lawn furniture is shipped around the world.
Doug Morse stands by his next automotive project.
Shirley and her daughter Cora Mae take a swing on Cora Mae’s front porch.
Local character and historian “Charles” gives me a bird’s eye view tour of Grand Pre in the setting sun.
Pat and John enjoy the end of the day sun at their home in Grand Pre.
Friends Walk Along The Dyke System
Mowing a very large lawn….Surely this must be part of her fitness program?
This grave site was in an orchard. I’m not too sure what the story was, but in Nova Scotia it’s not uncommon to find family graveyards on personal properties.
A New House In Grand-Pre
Prime Minister (eighth) Robert Laird Borden House In Grand-Pre. #
# Sir Robert Borden is depicted on the Canadian $100 bill.
Covenanters Church Grand-Pre
Flag OF The Day
