News Release Archive

HOUSING/MUNICIPAL AFFAIRS--REGISTERING HERITAGE PROPERTY
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"The past belongs to everyone: the need to return home, to recall
the view, to refresh a memory, to retrace a heritage, is
universal and essential." - David Lowenthal, Historian

Edmund Power Flynn, Richmond County's first coroner, would take
pride in knowing his New England-style Colonial remains a fixture
in Arichat over 130 years after he built it.

A Gothic-inspired carriage-making shop in Antigonish County has
been keeping watch over Lochaber Lake since the 1860s.

And, a church with the distinctive roof stylings of the 11th
century Rhineland continues to add a touch of the medieval to
rural Baddeck.

Historical sites and buildings spark the imagination, are a
reminder of a simpler time, educate people to the ways of the
past and inspire with their beauty.

The Manson House in North Lochaber, Antigonish County,
Flynn-Cutler-Robichaud House in Arichat and The Church of Saint
Peter and Saint John in Baddeck are no exception. These are just
some of the many provincially-registered properties across Nova
Scotia, designated under the Heritage Property Act.

The act, proclaimed in 1980 and administered by the Department of
Housing and Municipal Affairs, provides for the designation,
preservation, protection, and in some cases, rehabilitation of
built heritage in Nova Scotia.

Although private homes make up the largest category, the term can
also be applied to churches, train stations, barns, industrial
sites, schools, historic gardens, bridges and lighthouses.

Some better-known provincial heritage sites include Province
House, Government House and the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in
Halifax. But rural Nova Scotia also boasts some of the finest
examples of historically significant properties in the province,
from the oldest documented house in english-speaking Canada in
Annapolis County, to the oldest standing courthouse in Canada, in
Tusket, Yarmouth County.

"It's important that a society protects and preserves its
architectural monuments because they remind us of who we were,
who we are and who we might become," said Housing and Municipal
Affairs Minister Sandy Jolly. "Architectural monuments, whether
historic Province House in Halifax or a small village church,
establish and maintain our identity as a community and a
society."


Eight members of the minister's Advisory Council on Heritage
Property, along with provincial heritage staff, will tour
Antigonish, Inverness, Victoria and Richmond Counties in June,
visiting local property registered under the Heritage Act.

The Council is appointed to advise the minister on the
registration of heritage properties. Members include historian
Dr. Neil Boucher; superintendent of the Fortress of Louisbourg
Bill O'Shea; former municipal heritage committee chair Janice
Gill; lawyer Diane Thompson-Sheppard, retired Technical
University of Nova Scotia architecture professor Kent Hurley,
municipal heritage workers Laurent D'Entrement and Ann
Trask-Fulde, and Rev. Hazen Parent.

A heritage property can be registered by the province, the
municipality, or sometimes both. Since 1980, 206 heritage
properties have been provincially registered. Fifty
municipalities have adopted by-laws and collectively registered
nearly 1000 sites of regional significance.

Age alone is not a determining factor for provincial
registration. In many cases, registration may depend on a
property's association with people, places, events or activities
that play a role in shaping Nova Scotia's history or culture.

Preserving a community's built heritage can bring a variety of
benefits to the area. Besides the imaginative or spiritual value
a property may provide, there are practical reasons for
protecting old buildings. "In Nova Scotia, our heritage and
culture, as illustrated by historic sites, continues to be a
major tourist draw. These buildings are valuable not only as a
backdrop, or scenery, but in their functionality as restaurants,
bars, inns, shops and offices," said Ms. Jolly.

Anyone who thinks they may own a historically significant
property, may contact the Department of Housing and Municipal
Affairs, PO Box 216, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3J 2M4. Properties
are assessed on history and culture, architecture, context,
landmark and integrity. The province may provide financial
assistance to owners of both provincially and municipally
registered heritage properties.

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Contact: Wayde Brown  902-424-5647

trp                   May 29, 1996 - 11:35 a.m.