Lunenburg Academy - Lunenburg, Nova Scotia
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T0SHEA
N 44° 22.801 W 064° 18.813
20T E 395361 N 4914920
The Lunenburg Academy has been designated a Canadian National Historic Site, a Nova Scotia Heritage Property and a Town of Lunenburg Heritage Property.
Waymark Code: WM19XM0
Location: Nova Scotia, Canada
Date Posted: 05/04/2024
Views: 0
The "Then" photo is circa 1900. As you will note the building looks fairly much today.
Opened November 7, 1895, the Lunenburg Academy served the community as an educational facility until March 21, 2012, when the new Bluenose Academy opened. Built at a cost of $30,000 in 1894-95, the four floor building was in continuous use as a school for a remarkable 117 years. Perhaps equally remarkable is the fact that it is a wood frame building and has withstood the use and abuse of thousands of students through those years. A real survivor, it is the last of the academy style buildings that were built in towns throughout Nova Scotia in the nineteenth century.
Designed by well-known New Brunswick architect H.H. Mott, the building has a mansard roof topped with four towers, one of which contains a 600 pound bell, cast locally by the Lunenburg Iron Company. Standing atop "Gallows Hill," one of the highest points in the town of Lunenburg, the Academy has been a local landmark, visible for miles around, since its completion in 1895. Today it is one of the highlights of the Architectural Tour of Lunenburg, which also includes many other notable structures, many of which are also Canadian National Historic Site, as well as Nova Scotia Heritage Properties.
Recently restored at a cost of $750,000, the building is scheduled to house the Lunenburg branch of South Shore Public Libraries, the South Shore Genealogical Society, the Lunenburg Academy Foundation heritage interpretive classroom and possibly an art gallery with a café and gift shop attached to the library space. At present it houses LAMP, the Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance.
