Laurie Sanford Apple Warehouse

Laurie Sanford/British Canadian Fruit Association Apple Warehouse Hantsport

Mile 38.5 on the Halifax Subdivision at Hantsport

Wooden construction
7,200 barrel capacity^[1]

Laurie Sanford, a large apple grower from Mount Denson owned three warehouses in Hantsport, the largest being his trackside apple warehouse on Station Street, located just behind the Hantsport Station. This warehouse made history in 1927 when Sanford used the warehouse to host a large apple blossom dance. This included selection of an apple blossom queen and princesses. The event grew into an annual event until 1932 when it became too large for Hantsport to host, so the event was transferred to Kentville, where it became the annual Apple Blossom Festival which continues today. Sanford sold his warehouse to the British Canadian Fruit Association in the 1920s.^[2] It was purchased by Roy Jodrey after WW II for the Annapolis Valley Canneries juice factory and combined with the adjacent Hantsport Fruit Company warehouse. Both warehouses were demolished about 2005.

Gallery

Hantsport viewed looking east from boxcar on the Hantsport team track with the Hantsport Station, the G.H. Yeaton Warehouse and the Sandford apple warehouse, circa 1895.
Interior of the Sanfords apple warehouse in Hantsport, circa 1900.
Recruits of the 85th Battalion at the Hantsport Station with the Sandford apple warehouse in background, circa 1915-16.
Hantsport Station east end, with the Sandford apple warehouse, July 1959.
Hantsport Station and the Hantsport Railyard with the Sandford apple warehouse and the Hantsport Fruit Company warehouse, July 1959.
Hantsport Station with the Sandford apple warehouse and Hantsport Fruit Company warehouse, August 1961.