Berwick, Nova Scotia

Next Station East: Waterville
Next Station West: Aylesford

Facilities & Features

Berwick Station
Passing track, 1728 feet long, just east of town

Commerce & Industry

M. W. Graves Food Processing
Berwick Bakery
Berwick Evaporator
S. B. Chute Mill Street apple warehouse
S. B. Chute Front Street apple warehouse
Pleasant Valley apple warehouse
P. L. Morse apple warehouse
F. B. Parker apple warehouse
Berwick Fruit apple warehouse
Brazilian Fruit apple warehouse
Imperial Oil Bulk Fuels
Lloyd Steam Mill lumber mill
Kenneth barrel and stave mill
Cooperage

Description & History

Located on a fertile height of land between the headwaters of the Cornwallis and Annapolis Rivers, Berwick was settled about 1810 when Benjamin Congdon built a farm on store at a crossroads near a bridge over the upper Cornwallis River. The community was known progressively as the "Congdon Settlement", "Curry's Corner", and "Davison's Corner" after various prominent families. Residents voted in 1851 to chose the name Berwick after the English town of Berwick-upon-Tweed.^[1]

Berwick became a station on the Windsor & Annapolis Railway in 1869. The station was built a mile south of the village of Berwick with the stop at first known officially as "Berwick Station". However the railway soon transformed the village. The centre of business moved south away from the original Main Street by the Cornwallis River as businesses moved and opened along Commercial Street which led to the Berwick Station. Behind the station, a series of mills opened along Mill Street which grew on the north side of the tracks. The railway created a large export market for apples led by ambitious growers such as S. B. Chute, F. B. Parker and several apple co-operatives such as Berwick Fruit, all of whom built warehouses around the station, several along Front Street which was built to service the warehouses on the south side of the tracks. The railway also attracted spin-off industries such as the Berwick Evaporator, the fruit processor M.W. Graves and the Berwick Bakery. Berwick became a town in 1923.^[2] Berwick had rail service until Canadian Pacific abandoned the Dominion Atlantic tracks in March 1990. Today the DAR tracks are a popular multi-use recreational trail.

Operations & Orders

Gallery

Berwick railyard looking west with warehouse and station, May 1931.
Sharper image of the Berwick Yard, July 1931.
Berwick looking north along Commercial Street, 1931.
Berwick Fire Insurance Map, 1938.
H. W. Graves Plant, Berwick. c. 1940.
Topographic map from Berwick to Kentville circa 1956.
Berwick 1975.
A digital model screen shot of Berwick circa 1975 on the Microsoft Train Simulator DAR Route authored by Paul Charland
D.A.R. trackage in Berwick, 1977.
Dayliner at Berwick in August of 1977.
Eastbound dayliner arriving 1979.
D.A.R. trackage in Berwick, 1987.
Article about the Berwick Evaporator, 2006