Bridgetown Station

The first Bridgetown station was a standard Windsor & Annapolis Railway passenger and freight station. In 1915, the Bridgetown Board of Trade asked the DAR for a new and more modern station, perhaps influenced by the finely decorated new Annapolis Royal Station which had just been completed. A replacement opportunity arose when a fire destroyed the Bridgetown Station^[1] on November 10, 1912.^[2] An old passenger coach, DAR No. 20 served as a temporary station while replacement plans were made.^[3] The new station, built in in 1919 was a Tudor revival station based on CPR Station No. 16 plans^[4], updated by DAR engineering staff in Kentville on Feb. 11, 1919 and built by J. H. Hicks & Sons. The hip-roofed Tudor revival station contained diamond paned transoms over all the doors and windows and platform canopies on both ends. There were two waiting rooms, one for men (a smoking area) and one for women and children with washrooms and an agents office in the centre and a small baggage and freight room on the east side. The same design would later be adapted to replace the Hantsport Station in 1944.

The noted Canadian author Ernest Buckler wrote this description of the Bridgetown Station in 1949: "The railway station, of course, is the Café de la Paix of the small town. Sooner or later you see everyone there, and their missions cause the liveliest conjecture. Walk down the board platform, past the straggle of perhaps 20 people embarking and debarking . . . circle the group inspecting the packages on the express dolly (“Hank must’ve broke his mowin’ machine, ain’t that a Pittman rod fer a Deering?”); the knots of school kids dressed in the current vogue of sloppiness and speaking up-to-the-minute slang; the resolute band who come daily to wave, undismayed by lack of reciprocity in the languorous few on the observation platform . . . and get a taxi. Any one of Bridgetown’s dozen—including a spanking Hudson will take you into town for a quarter with short stopover privileges and Baedeker service accorded with twice the courtesy a friend would allot you.^[5]

About 1960,^[6] as passenger service dwindled compared to freight, a large clapboard freight shed was added to the east end, replacing the women's waiting room and baggage room with a large freight room, doubling the size of the building.^[7] The station was de-staffed on June 1, 1971 and the order board signal was removed.^[8] The waiting room was later renovated and opened by VIA Rail and served to shelter passengers until 1990 when passenger service ended and the Kentville subdivision was abandoned. In 1991 the station was considered for protected status under the Heritage Railway Stations act, but was rejected because the freight shed addition had disrupted the original design. Station grounds were piled high with railway ties as the DAR's mainline was dismantled. In June of 1994 both land and building were purchased by Joanne Acker. Seven weeks of extensive renovations generated the End of the Line Pub. In 2020, the building was purchased again by Lunn’s Mill Beer Co. and the establishment renovated and renamed "The Station" with visual references to the DAR and the sailing days in the menus and decor.^[9].