Kentville DAR roundhouse demolition continues

Video by Brent Fox

The Advertiser/NovaNewsNow.com

Demolition of Kentville’s historic but derelict Dominion Atlantic Railway (DAR) roundhouse continued Tuesday, July 10.

By the end of the day, little was left of this vestige of Kentville and Nova Scotia industrial and transportation history.

One historian at the scene the previous day said the situation was indicative of the apathy for heritage at the provincial and federal levels.

In a controversial move, Kentville town council ordered the demolition when it became obvious there were no financial resources readily available to preserve the railway heritage property. The structure had become an eyesore and danger to the community in recent years.

The Valley town was a railway centre since 1869, with a large percentage of the community’s residents being employees of the DAR.

The roundhouse was the locomotive maintenance facility for the DAR line for decades. It all ended the 1970s. By the early 1990s, rail service itself discontinued through the town.

Except for the Cornwallis Inn, which was constructed in the early 1930s as a Canadian Pacific hotel, there are no remaining reminders of Kentville’s once vibrant railway heritage.