JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2024
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OUR PEOPLE, OUR COMMUNITIES, OUR STORIES
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 2
Q&A: Annick Butland
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Home cooking never goes out of style
07
Winter is not going anywhere
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A living museum with the power to Inspire “W
e have a responsibility to preserve these buildings, and our artefacts. They are a vital part of our heritage, and we are their stewards.” When Janet Clouston, Managing Director of the Albert County Museum and R.B. Bennett Commemorative Centre, and Dawne McLean, President of the Albert County Historical Society, talk about the built heritage and firsthand experience of history on display at
in the world today (and two of which are in Canada). The 10.5 cm Kanone 14 gun was won by the people of Albert County in a Victory Loans competition in 1919. The county more than tripled its fundraising goal of $110,000, raising $347,000, to win the gun as a “war trophy.” Today, the K14 is positioned at the entrance to the museum grounds, along with a 7.7 cm Feldkanone war trophy, also awarded to Albert County.
You cannot feel prouder than to know that a young person has been inspired by what we are doing.” the museum, their passion is unmistakeable. “We are extraordinarily proud of the work we are doing, to preserve the buildings and the history, but also of welcoming people here. We want everyone who comes here, whether for the history but including too those who may come for a concert or a wedding, to feel very involved and very included,” says Clouston. The museum and society are governed by a dedicated volunteer board of directors. The museum consists of six historic buildings, a seventh built in the 1980s to store and display artefacts, and two captured World War One German field guns, one gun being extremely rare, with only seven of its type existing
The heritage buildings are: the Silver Jubilee Library, dating from 1935 and funded by a donation from Prime Minister R.B. Bennett, himself a native of Hopewell Cape; the 1845 tax office; the county records office, dating from Hopewell Cape’s days as the shire town of what was then the new municipality of Albert County, also dating from 1845; a community hall that dates from circa 1870; the 1845 “gaol” (reflecting the Victorian-era spelling of jail); and the 1904 courthouse that replaced the original 1845 courthouse, which burned down in 1903. When the museum opened in 1962 it had 200 artefacts. That collection has grown to more than ten thousand today, notes Clouston. An average Continued on page 3
The 1904 courthouse, designed by Watson Elkinah Reid, is a centrepiece of the Albert County Museum and R.B. Bennett Centre.