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Cornwallis Inn
Cornwallis Inn
The Cornwallis Inn in Kentville, also rarely known as the Cornwallis Hotel, began as the Aberdeen Hotel, a wooden second empire style hotel built in 1892 behind the Kentville Station. A glacial drumlin hill was leveled to provide a site for the hotel and provide fill for the Windsor and Annapolis Railway's growing railyard. The hotel was purchased and renovated by the DAR in 1919 and renamed the Cornwallis Inn. The DAR renovated the hotel, installing more modern wiring, and plumbing and added private bathrooms.[1] The acquisition of the hotel put the DAR well-placed to serve the tourist boom of the 1920s.
However, by the end of the decade, the old wooden hotel was proving inadequate for the volume of summer traffic and the needs of special events. The old Cornwallis Inn was replaced in 1930 by a new and much grander structure at the centre of town built in the CPR "Baronial" style in 1930.[2] A grand year round hotel, it included 90 rooms, 4 luxury suites, a ballroom, dining room, lounge, meeting rooms and sample rooms for travelling salesmen. An article in the Financial Post had some details.
The railway sold the Cornwallis Inn in 1963. It was drastically remodelled by the new owners to suit automobile traffic. The gardens, ivy, and front entrance were demolished to make way for a large parking lot and retail arcade. Half the rooms were converted to apartments. The hotel closed in 1976 and all the rooms were converted to apartments.[3] The building survives today as an apartment building, retail and restaurant location and is the last surviving building in Kentville connected to the DAR.[4]
Gallery
Excavation at Kentville with Windsor and Annapolis Railway flat car No. 84, probably leveling of the hill which became the Cornwallis Inn, circa 1890.
The Aberdeen Hotel at Kentville, with DAR flat cars No. 32 and 65 and the east platform Kentville Station, circa 1895.
The Cornwallis Inn (formerly the Aberdeen Hotel) in Kentville with the BCFA Kentville Warehouse and DAR Tennis Courts to the left, circa 1920
The first Cornwallis Hotel, built as the Aberdeen Hotel, circa 1896, with the Kentville Car Shop and Kentville Station in background.
Article on the new Bridgetown Station, the start of the Midnight trains, a new Digby Station, and Aberdeen Hotel renovations, Dec 9, 1921. See article text.
The Conrwallis Inn, circa 1930.
The Cornwallis Hotel pictured in the 1946 Evangeline Land Brochure.
Modern day appearance.
References and Footnotes
(2)
External Links
- ↑ [[[The_Gazette_1921_Dec_9_DAR_Improvements_and_New_Bridgetown_Station|"DAR Improvements and_New Bridgetown Station", The Gazette, Dec. 9, 1921]]
- ↑ Marguerite Woodworth, History of the Dominion Atlantic Railway, page 145, 147-148.
- ↑ Mike Parker, Historic Annapolis Valley: Rural Life Remembered, Nimbus 2006, page 87.
- ↑ " Sara Ericsson, ‘It was the centre of everything’: The past and present of Kentville’s iconic Cornwallis Inn", Saltwire Press, May 3, 2019
