Philip MacKenzie and Clyde Macdonald are continuing to share their love of history and historical photos.
Recently they presented photos to Dr. James MacLachlan, chief of staff at the Aberdeen Hospital and another to MLA Pat Dunn at his constituency office.
The photo given to the Aberdeen Hospital is from 1909 and shows the graduation of six nurses in front of the old Aberdeen Hospital, which was located on Stellarton Road in New Glasgow. A horse and buggy tethered to an iron hitching post can be seen in the front. Numerous black and white parasols can also be seen. Two large red and granite pillars can be seen at the entrance to the stairway in the front hall of the building. Above the pillars it reads “1896 Aberdeen Hospital 1905.”
The hospital was built on two acres of land purchased from George Forrest McKay for $660. The land faced Stellarton Road and ran up Hospital Avenue.
The hospital was named for John Campbell Hamilton-Gordon, seventh Earl of Aberdeen. He was serving in Ottawa in 1895 at the time when the old Aberdeen Hospital was founded in the same year.
The hospital was formally opened on March 25, 1897, and the first patient was admitted on April 10 that year.
When the old hospital was demolished, the pillars were purchased by an anonymous donor and later presented to Robert Thompson, chairman of the Aberdeen Hospital Commission, for incorporation in the 1980 extension of the new Aberdeen Hospital on East River Road, New Glasgow. The pillars can be viewed now near the elevators on the ground level of the hospital.
The photo presented to Dunn, shows the New Glasgow town hall and fire station in 1939.
The wooden three-storey building was reported to be built in 1875 after an earlier building was destroyed by a big fire in New Glasgow on April 19, 1874.
The building was located on the corner of Dalhousie and Archimedes streets in New Glasgow and overlooked what was known as Market Square. Beginning in 1915, the building was the location of the New Glasgow town hall.
On Sunday morning, March 3, 1957, a fire broke out in the building and destroyed it. At the time it also housed the Pictou County Regional Library. After the fire, the library temporarily moved its headquarters to the Westville town hall. It was reported that the New Glasgow headquarters was destroyed and “some $10,000 insurance was carried on the library property which is believed to have been a total loss… One copy of Patterson’s History of Pictou County was saved and three copies of the old Pictou County Atlas were removed, sopping wet.”
The destruction of the town hall building prompted the Town of New Glasgow in 1962 to purchase the former Post Office and Customs House building on Provost Street, New Glasgow. The building was renovated and used as town hall, as it is today.
Macdonald and MacKenzie have now presented 128 plaque board photos.
Historical information provided by Clyde Macdonald with thanks to Dr. Ritchie Douglas.
