Grand-Pré, Nova Scotia
Grand-Pré | |
---|---|
B4P | |
Area code | 902 |
NTS Map | 021N08 |
GNBC Code | DALZZ |
Website | Société Promotion Grand-Pré - The National Historic Site |
Official name | Landscape of Grand Pré |
Type | Cultural |
Criteria | v, vi |
Designated | 2012 (36th session) |
Reference no. | 1404 |
Region | Europe and North America |
Grand-Pré (French:
History
Grand-Pré was founded in about 1680 by Pierre Melanson and Pierre Terriot. Pierre Melanson, an
Queen Anne's War
Raid on Grand-Pré (1704)
During Queen Anne's War, New Englander Ranger Benjamin Church, burned the village and broke some of the dykes in the Raid on Grand Pré.[4] In this raid, Church and his rangers got stuck on the mud flats of Baie Francais (Bay of Fundy), which gave the Mi'kmaq and Acadians time to position themselves to fiercely defend the village. They were eventually overwhelmed and Church burned the village and the fields.
King George's War
Battle of Grand-Pré (1747)
During King George's War, a French force led by Jean-Baptiste Nicolas Roch de Ramezay defeated a larger British force in a night raid at the Battle of Grand-Pré. This battle was the most significant and bloodiest victory for the French in Acadia. The village, however, remained in British control once the French retreated.
Father Le Loutre's War
Acadian Exodus (1749-1755)
During
Siege of Grand-Pré (1749)
The British built
French and Indian War
Bay of Fundy Campaign (1755)
During the
Acadians from Grand Pré were dispersed in many locations and some eventually returned to other parts of the Canadian Maritimes such as Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and New Brunswick. Many Acadians expelled from the Grand-Pré area eventually settled in the New England States and travelling overland to South
New England Planters
After the deportation of the Acadians, the vacant lands were resettled by New England Planters in 1760 and renamed Horton Township. A large town plot with a rectilinear street grid was laid between Grand-Pré and Horton Landing to the east, but the local farming population preferred to settle along the upland ridge in a spread out fashion, much like the previous residents of the area, the Acadians, had done. Several schools and congregations were formed at Grand-Pré including a meeting house converted into a church in the early 19th century, today known as the Covenanter Church. Over time, merchants and shop owners congregated at nearby Wolfville to the west, leaving Grand-Pré to continue as a farming community. One of the Planter descendants was Sir Robert Borden, the eighth Prime Minister of Canada, who was born in Grand-Pré in 1854. Grand-Pré continued as a rich and productive but small farming community. The Windsor and Annapolis Railway arrived in 1869, at first serving the community with a small rural station. Livestock and marsh hay became major exports, joined in the late 19th century by the Annapolis Valley's major apple exporting industry. Four large apple warehouses were built around the station to pack and ship apples. In the 1920s when the Dominion Atlantic Railway developed the Grand-Pré Memorial Park to attract tourists.[7] While agriculture remained Grand-Pré's major industry, the park made the community a tourism destination as well as a memorial to the Acadian people. The Park eventually became a National Historic Site and in 1957 was purchased by the Canadian Park Service.[8]
Economy and culture
Today, Grand-Pré is the home the Grand-Pré National Historic Site which is now a national park administered by Parks Canada to commemorate the Acadian people and their deportation. The Covenanter Church at Grand-Pré is the oldest existing Presbyterian church in Nova Scotia.[9] One of Nova Scotia's best known wineries, Domaine de Grand-Pré, is located in the community. Grand-Pré is also Canada's first designated Historic Rural District. The Just Us! coffee company headquarters is located in the village and is something of a tourist attraction. Evangeline Beach is a famous stopover for thousands of migrating shore birds and is also a fine vantage point for watching the ebb and flow of the world's highest tides.[citation needed]
Demographics
Grand-Pré has no official status; there are only specific data for subdivision D of Kings County, which includes the area between Hantsport and Wolfville, where Grand-Pré and a few other villages exist. In this area, there were 5499 inhabitants in 2006, compared to 5167 in 2001, an increase of 6.4%. The average age is 44.5, compared to 41.8 for the province. 84.8% of the population is older than 15 years, which is in the provincial average.[10]
With regard to language, 96.6% of the inhabitants are English-speaking, 1.4% are
Notable people
Grand-Pré is the birthplace of Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden.[11]
References
- ^ https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1404 UNESCO World Heritage Sites entry for Grand-Pré
- ^ Edmé Rameau de Saint-Père. Une Colonie Féodale en Amérique (L'Acadie, 1604-1610). Paris, Librairie Plan, 1889.
- ^ Stephen Bujold. Saint-Joseph de la rivière aux Canards: deuxième ou dernière pariosse fondée avant le Grand dérangement par les Acadiennes du basin des Mines (Minas Basin, NS). In Acadiensis. Université du Nouveau-Brunswick, Fredericton, 2002.
- ISBN 1-55109-479-7.
- ^ Patterson, in John Ried. (ed)Atlantic Canada Before Confederation. 1994, p. 141
- ^ Johnston, A.J.B. (2004). Grand-Pré, Heart of Acadie. Halifax, NS: Nimbus Publishing. pp. 33–69.
- ^ "Grand-Pré", Dominion Atlantic Railway Digital Preservation Initiative
- ^ Johnston, A.J.B. (2004). Grand-Pré, heart of Acadie. Halifax, NS: Nimbus Publishing. pp. 71–75.
- ^ "Heritage Trust of Nova Scotia". www.htns.ca. Archived from the original on 2011-08-27.
- ^ a b (in French) Statistique Canada - Profils des communautés de 2006 - Kings, Subd. D[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Profile - Borden, Robert Laird". Library of Parliament. Retrieved 2022-05-12.
External links
- Société Promotion Grand-Pré - The National Historic Site
- Grand-Pré National Historic Site
- Landscape of Grand Pré World Heritage Site
- Explore the Landscape of Grand Pré in the UNESCO collection on Google Arts and Culture
- Acadian Ancestral Home - a Repository for Acadian History & Genealogy including Grand-Pré