One of the books written on the historic town of Annapolis Royal was
A Short History of Annapolis Royal: The Port Royal of the French, from Its Settlement in 1604 to the Withdrawal of the British Troops in 1854, and is today considered an important reference work for those researching the history and/or genealogy of Annapolis Royal. Written by By W. M. MacVicar, the book was originally published by Copp, Clarke Company in 1897 and reprinted at least twice, by Global Heritage Press in 2008 and by Kessinger Publishing on September 10, 2010. The 2010 reprint of the 136 page book, with maps and illustrations, is presently available in both hardcover and paperback.
First established in 1605 by French settlers, Annapolis Royal has been continuously occupied by either the French or the English ever since. A wonderfully "old" place to visit, the town is home to a number of superlatives, such as the
FIRST Canadian National Historic Site, Fort Anne, first the location of Charles Fort, settled in 1629-32 by Scottish settlers. Acadian settlers began to arrive in the area in 1636, and the site came under French rule from successive forts on the site until 1710. From 1713 to 1749, the British governed Nova Scotia from the fort, renamed Annapolis Royal. During its history under the French, the fort was captured by the British in 1654, 1690 and, for the final time, in 1710. The expulsion of the French from Nova Scotia, known as the "Grand Derangement", in 1755, was organized from the site, as were the importation and settlement of New England Planters and United Empire Loyalists.
In 1917 Fort Anne was declared a Dominion Park, Canada’s first administered national historic park. In 1920 it was designated Canada's first National Historic Site under the new National Historic Sites program which replaced the previous National Historic Parks program.
Then there's the
OLDEST Courthouse Still In Use In Canada. As well as being the oldest courthouse in Canada, it is both a Canadian National Historic Site and a Nova Scotia Provincial Heritage Property.
Somewhat unusually, this courthouse building was designed, not by architects, but by magistrates of the County’s Grand Jury, to be built by master craftsman Francis LeCain. The building's cost of 2500 pounds sterling was possibly justified when it was described in the media of the day as “expensive and magnificent” and “probably the best in the province” after its completion.
The town's and county's original wooden courthouse, built on this site about 1791, burned on April 9, 1836. This, its replacement, was built in 1837 with granite blocks two-and-a-half feet thick on the first floor to house jail cells and vaults.
In Annapolis Royal one will find the
OLDEST Wooden Building in Nova Scotia. Dated as having been built in 1708, the de Gannes house is the oldest documented wooden building in Nova Scotia and is the oldest known remaining Acadian structure in Canada. Built by Major Louis-Joseph de Gannes de Falaise in 1708, this house replaced an earlier one, dated to 1693, which was burned in the unsuccessful siege of the town in 1707. As would be expected of a building of this vintage, it has known a succession of owners (16 in total) and occupants, including soldiers, sailors, surgeons and rectors.
Another interesting superlative, though not one of antiquity, is the
ONLY Tidal Generating Station in North America, on the northern edge of Annapolis Royal. The Bay of Fundy, which lies between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, experiences the highest tides in the world, making it an ideal tidal hydro generation site.
The first tidal generating station in North America, this station opened in 1984, after four years of construction. It is one of only three such generating stations in the world.
The station uses sluice gates in a long, low dam across the mouth of the Annapolis river to fill a reservoir in the river during high tide, then when the tide becomes sufficiently low, closes the sluice gates and empties the reservoir into the bay, channelling the water past low head turbines which drive alternators, generating electricity. The turbines require a head of only 1.6 metres to begin producing power.
Just a few miles outside of Annapolis Royal, in the little community of Upper Clements, is the
OLDEST Baptist Church in Nova Scotia. Built circa 1810, the rather common appearing church is the oldest Baptist Church in Nova Scotia and possibly the oldest in Canada. It came to be as a result of the "New Light Movement" and the New Light revival of 1810.
With an Anglican Church dating to 1822, many nineteenth century buildings and a handful of eighteenth century buildings, Annapolis Royal is a historian's dream town, All told, if one is the least bit interested in the history of civilization in North America they should make an attempt to visit Annapolis Royal at least once in their lifetime.