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Paradise
Paradise, Nova Scotia
Subdivision Kentville, Mile 39.9
- Next Station East: Lawrencetown
- Next Station West: Bridgetown
Facilities & Features
- Passing Track: 1380' long
- Pile trestle, 60', over Starretts Brook, Mile 40.14
- Pile trestle, 40', over swamp and brook, Mile 41.88
Commerce & Industry
Several early fruit warehouses were built at Paradise along with a cattle pen and ramp. The Roxburg lumber mill shipped considerable amounts of lumber from the station in the 1920s.
- Paradise Fruit Company Warehouse, United Fruit Companies 16,500 barrel capacity
- Star Fruit Company Warehouse, 13,000 barrel capacity
- H.D. Starret, 10,000 barrel capacity[1]
Description & History
A fertile farming district along the Annapolis River, Paradise received its name from Acadian settlers in the 1600s as "Paradis Terrestre" (Paradise on Earth). The Windsor & Annapolis Railway began construction through the village in 1868 and railway service began in June 1869. The railway initially built a a small standard Windsor & Annapolis Railway station along with a 200' x 12' passenger platform connected to a 150' x 10' freight platform and a 340' freight siding.[2] Rail access motivated local farmers to start a co-operative cheese factory beside the tracks, one of the first in Nova Scotia, which operated from 1872 to 1885.[3] Paradise was home to two pioneers in the apple industry. Ambrose Bent became the first Nova Scotian grower to export an apple shipment to Britain, shipping them by steamer from Halifax in 1849, followed by the first large shipment to Boston in 1856. He also became the first to ship apples by steamer from Annapolis Royal in 1881 when he chartered a steamer in partnership, with fellow Paradise grower Benjamin Starrett, to ship apples to Britain directly from the valley. Another Paradise farmer, E.J. Elliot built one of the first apple warehouse in Nova Scotia (just after W.H, Chase of Port Williams built the first one in 1885.)[4] Elliot's warehouse was followed by two others in Paradise which remained longtime employers and shippers of apples. The Highway No. 1 level crossing at Paradise received one of the Annapolis Valley's first set of wigwag warning bell and signal in 1938[5] The original W&A Paradise Station was later replaced by a standard CPR branch line station. Paradise remained a flag stop until June 1980.[6] Railway service ended in 1990 when the Kentville Subdivision was abandoned, ending train service to all stations west of Coldbrook.
Gallery
Paradise Station and apple warehouses. c. 1900.
Paradise Station and platform with DAR mainline and the Paradise freight spur containing a DAR flatcar, circa 1900.
DAR Snowplow No. 907 in a snowplow special with snow clearing crew and visitors at Paradise, 1922.
Paradise Station with lumber pile and DAR train arriving, circa 1924.
Paradise Station, June 1959.
References & Footnotes
- ↑ Dominion Atlantic Railway, DAR Chart of Apple and Produce Warehouses, February 23, 1927
- ↑ *Alexander MacNab, Windsor and Annapolis Railway, Report of Alexander MacNab Nov 1, 1873, p. 24
- ↑ "The Paradise Cheese Manufacturing Company", Paradise Historical Society
- ↑ Mike Parker, End of the Line The Dominion Atlantic Railway: A Trip Back in Time, Lawrencetown NS: Pottersfield Press (2019), p. 121
- ↑ The Advertiser, Sept. 29, 1938
- ↑ Scotian Railroad Society News April 1980
