Dominion Atlantic Railway Digital Preservation Initiative - Wiki
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Cambridge
Cambridge, Nova Scotia
Subdivision Kentville, Mile 7.0
- Next Station East: Coldbrook
- Next Station West: Waterville
Facilities & Features
- Cambridge Station
- Tracks in 1873: 160 foot spur[1]
- Tracks in 1969: 1332 foot, 26 car siding, south side mainline
- Cattle chutes, south side by John Fox warehouse
- Livestock pen, north side by station
Commerce & Industry
Cambridge contained several fruit warehouses including one of the first apple warehouses built on the DAR as well as, for a short time, a large apple evaporator on the south side of the tracks across from the station.
In 1927, the three apple warehouses were, east to west:[2]
- John Fox warehouse, 10,000 barrel capy.
- John Durno warehouse, 10,000 barrel capy.
- Herbert Oyler warehouse, 10,000 barrel capy.
Description & History
Named after Cambridge, England the community first appears on maps in 1795 with a large estate by the Marshall Family along the old post road (later Highway No. 1) to the south of the station area. The rich farmland and the crossroads setting led to a settlement and the first school in 1867, followed by successively larger schools including on of the province's first first consolidated rural high schools, Central Kings Rural High in 1952. The arrival of the Windsor & Annapolis Railway in 1869 stimulated trade and farming. A separate part of the village grew up around the railway known as "Cambridge Station"[3] Local resident F.R. Ratchford helped lay the original tracks.[4] The first apple warehouse was built in 1885, one of the first in Nova Scotia, joined by two others and an apple evaporator and canning plant. A Mi'kmaw reserve was founded just north of the station in 1880 and is today known as the Annapolis Valley First Nation.[5] The Cambridge Station was destroyed by fire in 1890 and 1934 but rebuilt each time. Passenger service remained until June 1980.[6] Freight service ended in January 1990 and the tracks were removed in March 1990.[7]
Gallery
A photographic postcard of a westbound train pulling into Cambridge Station, circa 1895.
Cambridge Station and evaporator 1915. Thanks to Dorothy Barkhouse-Rafuse for the family picture.
C.P.R. track profile drawing for Cambridge showing locations of apple warehouses, stock pen, cattle chute and the Cambridge Station, Mar. 18, 1918.
Topographic map from Berwick to Kentville circa 1956.
Cambridge Station sign from the flag stop era, November 18, 1962.
1977 aerial photo.
References & Footnotes
- ↑ *Alexander MacNab, Windsor and Annapolis Railway, Report of Alexander MacNab Nov 1, 1873, p. 23
- ↑ Dominion Atlantic Railway, DAR Chart of Apple and Produce Warehouses, February 23, 1927
- ↑ "Cambridge, Kings County", C. Bruce Fergusson,Place-Names and Places of Nova Scotia (1967), p. 98
- ↑ "60 Years Ago: Housewarming is Held", Berwick Register, Dec. 21, 1994
- ↑ Annapolis Valley First Nation
- ↑ Scotian Railroad Society News April 1980
- ↑ Halifax Chronicle Herald, Abandonment of the Kentville Subdivision and Yamouth Subdivision with the lifting of track underway west of Coldbrook, March 28, 1990
