Situated in a very rural area, with only a few scattered houses nearby, St. Mary’s stands at the top of a small hill, overlooking the forested countryside, Harrigan Cove, one kilometre to the east, and Engelhutts Cove, less than a half kilometre to the southeast.
Surrounding the church and running down the hill to Shiers Road is the
church's cemetery which, as of August, 2012 held 151 grave markers. The earliest dated headstone here is that of infant Annie Pamelia, daughter of John Alfred and Lucinda Johanna Shiers, born July 24, 1854, died February 19, 1859. Given that there is only one other pre 1909 headstone in the cemetery, we suspect that she was buried elsewhere in 1859 and either her remains were moved here or this marker later erected in her memory. Note that the church stands alongside Shiers Road.
The church itself is a simple little country church, almost rectangular save for a small extension to the uphill side of the building which runs about three quarters of its length. On the opposite side of the building is a full length extension, interrupted part way down by what becomes an alcove.
On this same side of the building is the bell tower, situated at the far western corner of the nave and serving as the main entrance. The tower proper ends in an overhanging mansard roof, atop which stands an open belfry, its sides forming rounded arched openings and supporting the spire - tall, octagonal and having a wooden cross above and flared eaves below.
Inside, the church is finished with an abundance of narrow tongue and groove boards, vertical above wainscoting and chair rails on the walls and in a diamond and triangle pattern on the segmented arch ceiling. Only the windows at each end of the nave have stained glass while all others are plain glass.
Following is a thumbnail history of Harrigan Cove.
HARRIGAN COVE, Halifax County
A settlement situated about twenty miles northeast of Sheet harbour on the eastern shore being named after an early settler. A plan of lots dated in 1827 shows much of the land belonged to Simon and Alexander Fraser and Thomas Currey.
St. Mary's Anglican Church was consecrated on September 25, 1909.
A school-house was erected about 1880.
A Postal Way Office was established in 1864. Gold was discovered in this district in 1868. but it was not until the last of the century that mining operation became active for a few years.
In 1883 Burnham and Morrill of Portland, Maine operated a lobster processing factory here, and fishing has been a major industry.
The population in 1956 was 127.
From the Nova Scotia Archives