Blockhouse, Nova Scotia

Blockhouse in Nova Scotia

Blockhouse is a community in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located in the Lunenburg Municipal District in Lunenburg County .

Blockhouse is home to the oldest Waldorf-focused School in the Atlantic provinces. An independent school, it is based on theoretical foundations laid down by Rudolf Steiner and adheres to the principle that any child desiring a Steiner education (referred to as Waldorf education in North America) should receive one. It offered K-6 education 2002-2012 and in fall 2013 began offering 7th grade.

A sustainability project was launched in Blockhouse in 2012: The Blockhouse School Project. This a non-profit, sustainability and community integration project. Working under the conditions of a lease granted by Lunenburg County Council, volunteers work to show how an abandoned 16,000 sq foot municipal building can be transformed into a community hub: creating recreation space for families, working towards a community kitchen, presenting traditional methods in growing and preserving foods, incubating small, local businesses and dedicated to permaculture ideals and processes. Work has already occurred with straw baling, earthen plasters, use of surplus books in walls and floors for insulation, and experiments with solar showers. This visionary project has gained members across Canada and attention from around the world. It has also received less support from immediate neighbors and the future of the project is far from certain. The intent to transform a 1962-built school into a model of sustainable energy and materials use is a work in progress and continues to need volunteers of many skills to succeed.

On Tuesdays during May-September, the Blockhouse School Project hosts the Mahone Bay Area Farmers Market. 10 am - 2 pm, the market hosts local venders and crafters.

Blockhouse is home to the Hinchinbrook Farm Society. This is a non profit charitable organization and provides programs in therapeutic riding and Horse Boy Methods. Year round equine assisted learning and activities for children with disabilities or with autism.

Blockhouse hosts the Happy Cooker Restaurant and service station, just off route 103; a new tourist center and a surprising number of local businesses.

Blockhouse also hosts a private airstrip advertised locally as Blockhouse International, on the old Lunenburg Road, renamed by the owner of the airstrip, as Balcomb Road.


History

During the French and Indian War, a British and their native allies fought against the French, Acadians and Mi'kmaq. Following the 1756 raid on Lunenburg, Governor Lawrence sought to protect the area by establishing blockhouses at the LaHave River, Mush-a-Mush (present day Mahone Bay) and at the Northwest Range (present day Blockhouse, Nova Scotia).[1] Despite the protection of these blockhouses, the Mi'kmaq and Acadians continued raiding the area, executing eight such raids over the next three years.[2] A total of 32 people from Lunenburg were killed in the raids with more being taken prisoner.[3]

There were two Mi'kmaq raids on Blockhouse in 1758. In March there was a raid on the Lunenburg Peninsula at the Northwest Range (present-day Blockhouse, Nova Scotia) when five people were killed from the Ochs and Roder families.[4] The second raid was on 11 September and a child was killed on the Northwest Range.[5] Mi'kmaq casualties are unrecorded, as are events leading up to the raids.

The final blockhouse in the community burned down in 1874.[6]

Endnotes

  1. ↑ Bell, W. Foreign Protestants, p.507.
  2. ↑ The "Foreign Protestants" and the Settlement of Nova Scotia by Dr Winthrop Bell. pp. 504-513
  3. ↑ Bell. Foreign Protestants. p. 515
  4. ↑ Bell, p. 509
  5. ↑ Bell, p. 512
  6. ↑ https://archive.org/stream/placenamesofprov00browuoft#page/20/mode/2up

Coordinates: 44°27′10.44″N 64°25′11.57″W / 44.4529000°N 64.4198806°W

References