Roundhouse reduced to rubble

BY BRENT FOX

Kings County Register

A large part of Kentville's deep railway and industrial heritage was reduced to a pile of rubble Monday morning, July 9.

As expected after the town council approved the action, a demolition crew began to take the Kentville Dominion Atlantic Railway (DAR) roundhouse.

Despite recent protests and the advocacy of an increasing number of people for more time in order to find ways to save the historical structure, only three interested individuals showed up by noon: historian Ivan Smith, Kings County Museum curator Bria Stokesbury, and an unidentified woman who asked this reporter if he was happy about the situation. They took pictures of the demolition.

Provincial apathy

Smith said “the loss of this roundhouse is merely a symptom of province-wide apathy. “This is not the fault of the mayor (Dave Corkum) or council, but of the citizens of Nova Scoria, who don't care.”

Smith said the taxpayers of Kentville should not have been left to pay for the structure; it's a structure of provincial significance. “It's up to the people of Nova Scotia.”

Smith said there appears to be a number of railway stations in the province, but the same is not true of roundhouses. Such things are being lost because of a lack of interest in heritage being instilled in young people. He contends the only way to reach young people is through the internet.

Speaking on behalf of the Kings Historical Society, Stokesbury said, “with today's demolition, the industrial footprint of the DAR in Kentville has vanished. We as a historical society… are saddened at the loss of this historical structure.”

Mayor David Corkum said later in the day, “you have to look at these things with your head, not your heart.”

The town had left time for funding and guarantees by July 1. These were not forthcoming, so the town got on with the business of demolition.

Demolition showed things were worse than anticipated in the structure, Corkum noted.

Too late to be realistic

Corkum acknowledged the time for any serious restoration was probably 20 years ago or so, when more of the fixtures were still there.

The structure opened in 1916 and constituted part of the DAR maintenance system during a time when the railway employed a large number of the town's inhabitants. It was used to maintain and repair the company's locomotives. Until the line's rolling stock maintenance was moved elsewhere in the 1970s, the structure still had a railway role. Its last use, however, was as a container warehouse for a fruit juice manufacturer.

Estimates to refurbish the structure were in the neighbourhood of $1.5 million, but funding sources for any such project were obscure.

The ramshackle wooden DAR station was demolished almost two decades ago. Railway artifacts, such as a caboose and snowplow, were destroyed because there was no interest in preserving them at the time.

The remaining major reminder of the Dominion Atlantic Railway/ CP Rail days is the privately-owned Cornwallis Inn, built as a CP hotel in the early 1930s.