And Surrounding Area.
"Memory Lane"
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AND I WILL GLADLY POST YOUR MEMORIES.
I have many memories of growing up in Sydney Mines. From our Sunday's visiting churches and graveyards. We would start off at the Catholic Graveyard in Sydney Mines and keep going, sometimes right around the Cabot Trail. My Mom always had handerchiefs in the glovebox of the car so us girls had something on our heads entering into each church.
One of my fondest memories of Sydney Mines was the British Canadian Co-op on Main Street. It was a huge store, two floors and again it had the central cash area hidden within the walls of the store. You would buy an item and the clerk would right a bill, take your money, place it in the
metal tubes and off it went in chutes to the central cash register. Our eyes would light up! This store was one of the more expensive places to shop so it was a real treat to buy something there.
Most times it was the Bargain Store which had a great candy counter where we would go to buy 5 or 10 cents of bridge mixture or humbugs. Woolworths was next door and often our school supplies were purchased there. And if we were really lucky, we would go off to McQuarries Restuarant on the Halfway Rd for Turkey Burgers!!!! Oh my, lots of memories! Anybody else have memories of growing up in Sydney Mines? ........Mary MacCormick
In the picture of North Sydney Jct, is Mary Christine Almon Savage with her brother. Mary Christine, who was 18 at the time, was waiting for the train heading for Boston.
I remember Jack Howley's store in Florence. I only remember going in there once or twice when I was young. At that time(early 50's) I didn't know where he lived, but I did hear about the ferry that was there before the bridge. Unfortunately I don't remember exactly where it was, though the area of Christie's wharf sounds like it might be the one...... Tom King
Funny you should ask that...I wondered where Hawley's (Howley's) Ferry was as well....I knew it was located close to Bouladarie Island because I have been researching some MacKinnon's there.
But I remember that a house on the corner of the 125 highway as you turn off to Grove's Point Road has a house owned by the Hawley family to this day.
I surmized that this was in fact the location of Hawley's ferry as the Little Brasd'or Bridge was built years later. And lo and behold, I found a reference to it in a recent government document that I will paste in....HALIFAX, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 5, 2000 STANDING COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC ACCOUNTS
MR. MACNEIL: It is really not the way that it seems. If you look at the properties along the Trans Canada Highway, they were owned, at that time, by Irving Oil, a New Brunswick firm. The piece of land registered to Theresa Howley, who is a senior citizen who is about 76 years old and that land has been in the Howley family probably for a couple of hundred years.
They actually ran a ferry before the Bras d'Or Bridge was installed there. So, there are questions surrounding who actually does own that small parcel of property but it still remains that it is in the Howley family, so it is private property nonetheless. It is really up to the Howley family themselves to decide actually who owns the property but it is in care of Theresa Howley; she had been paying the taxes before the boardwalk was built and she continues to pay the taxes today..... Donna Mac Kinnon
Sounds like Christies Wharf where we use to do a lot of swimming. Also I believe that the United Church had and may still have a site there.Mentioned yesterday (forgot to send to the list) that Jack Howley, who had a corner store in Florence for years lived in the Howley house just after you cross over the bridge in Bras D'or. He had a son Doug who was a police office in Halifax and then I think went into insurance and also a daughter who was a nurse..... Snowseeker
At Bras d'Or you turn left onto Church Rd. until at some point it is called Georges River Rd., then it becomes Scotch Lake Rd, this is the point where you make a right at the Ice Cream Store ( George Hacketts) & it is now Long Island Rd. Strange how one road can have so many names. Thanks to Candace Boudreau we were able to find out where this property is located.
Part of the land is still owned by Almonds. Bob Almond had a travel trailer there on the Almond property. Bob's brother & sister (Almonds) still live in the family home. Close to it has been sold for private cottages. There is still a candy store , now an ice cream store at the intersection where you would either go to Scotch Lake or Long Island. There is no longer a station house. The Almon Farm was on a hill overlooking the railroad, which can be seen slightly, in one of the pictures in George's River. ............. Karen Mullen
Also other photos were obtained from the Images Canada website
Copyright by the National Library of Canada.
The Beaton Institute has given permission to use the older photos of Sydney on this page sent to me by Karen Mullen.
© Copyright All Rights Reserved. Mar. 11, 2003