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Nova Scotia Agricultural College Grounds 1892-1968
Written by Gordon B. Kinsman, November 1996
- 1888
- Four lots of land, totalling 104.5 acres, were bought from Rev.
Dr. McCulloch, Charles P. Blanchard, Lucius Crowe and Edward P. Blanchard.
This land went from the west
end of the present Bible Hill Recreation field to the east to the present
Dairy Building, south to the Salmon River and north to College Road.
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- 1892
- The first building was built at Nova Scotia Agricultural College. This
building was lost by fire on March 31, 1898. It was located where the
Bible Hill Elementary School was located; it
is the unpaved parking lot behind the paved parking lot of Chapman House.
By 1895 there was 0.5 acres of vegetable garden. In addition, they also had a small
orchard which included apples, pears, plums and cherries.
In 1894, they extended the row of ornamental trees which had been previously
started along the present College Road. These trees were presented by Col.
William Blair,
Superintendent, Experimental Farm, Nappan, N.S., at no cost to NSAC. The statement
was made by an eminent agriculturist not long since that this was a time when
it paid the farmer to
take an interest in the road adjoining his farm.
- 1893
- Four and a half acres were purchased west of the 1888 purchase. The Judging
Pavilion (rear parking lot of Cumming Hall), an artesian well, and the principal's
house (built 1909; present site
of Jenkins Hall) were built on this land.
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- 1909
- The present Dairy Building was built.
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- 1912
- The horse barn was built(present site of heating plant).
- 1913
- The horticulture building was built (this is the Collins Building).
I believe the small header house and greenhouse were also built in 1913(?)
Dick Morton and Leslie Blackburn,
landscape advisors, were stationed in this building. The fertilizer,
used by the horticulture section, used to be stored and mixed in the basement
of the header house until the 1960s.
The present greenhouse on the Collins Building was erected in 1939 to replace
the one built in 1913. The greenhouse, attached to the header house, where
Morton-Blackburn worked, was updated in 1962 with a
new heat system, bar caps, etc. The Collins Building greenhouse was updated
with a new heat system, bar caps, etc., in late 1960s.
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- 1913
- NSAC bought a 30-acre plot east of the university, south of College
Road, to be used for horticulture work. It was called the Plumdale Farm.
A lot of the horticulture
work was done on this plot until the late 1930's. It is the present site
of the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources office and NSAC Plant
Science department field work.
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- 1915
- The Science Building was built, 120'x50', a three-storey building. First
two floors were chemistry, entomology, biology and the third floor was for the Women's Institute
office plus a large auditorium - seated 300.
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- 1925
- The Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources was organized
1925-1929. The principal, Dr. Mel Cumming, reported to the Minister of that
Department through the deputy minister, Hon. John. A. Walker. The Department
of Agriculture and Marketing staff used to do the marketing in forestry,
fisheries and agriculture.
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- 1926
- The first extension service, under the Department of Agriculture, was established.
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- 1928
- Dr. Loran DeWolfe, through his work with the Rural Science
Program, Nova Scotia Department of Education, became very interested in
encouraging a greater appreciation and also to stimulate interest,
on the part of rural school teachers and school children, in the beautifying
of school grounds; an agreement had been entered into by the Department
of Natural Resources, horticulture section, and the Nova Scotia Department
of Education whereby ornamental shrubs were grown on NSAC college grounds
and later distributed to the various schools throughout the province.
Advice and instructions were given as to the planting and care of the different ornamental shrubs to
those in charge of the school grounds.
It was thought that, with this assistance, many schools will be encouraged to make a beginning in
beautifying the grounds surrounding the school buildings and that it will lead to a greater appreciation
on the part of the school teachers and students of the advantage and value of attractive school grounds
from the educative standpoint, as well as the pride and satisfaction of well-kept and properly arranged
ornamental plants on the school grounds. This was the beginning of Arbor Day.
My mother was one of Dr. DeWolfe's rural science teachers in 1918 and
1919 in Lunenburg County. I knew Dr. DeWolfe well as his home was across
College Road from the horticulture building. He used to
come into the horticulture building quite often after he retired, particularly
in the spring, where he would be growing his seedlings and transplants.
- 1930
- Charlie A. Good, horticulturist, and then A. D. Pickett, entomologist,
were in charge of horticulture. Mr. Good was interested in vegetables in
the early 1930s and Mr. Pickett was interested in entomology. Mr.
Pickett left in 1937 to join the federal Department of Agriculture.
The grounds, in former days (1904-1937), were landscaped, kept neat, graveled
roads and a lot of work was done on transplants, cold frames, etc. This was
done under the NSAC professors of horticulture.
They had horticulture foremen - Mr. Galloway, etc.
- 1936
- Dr. W. A. Longley became sick in 1937 and they appointed C. M. Collins
as acting director of extension from 1936-1937.
Mr. C. M. Collins, formerly of Port Williams, Kings County, graduated from
Macdonald College in 1920 in horticulture. He returned to his family farm
where he farmed 1922-1927. In 1927 he joined a wholesale
firm for one year in Boston. In 1928, he rejoined the Nova Scotia Department
of Agriculture in 1928, where he was appointed agricultural representative
for Annapolis County, 1928-1936. He received his MSA from the
University of Toronto, 1931-1933.
Mr. C. M. Collins was appointed in September 1937 as provincial horticulturist
and professor of horticulture 1937-1962. The Nova Scotia Department
of Agriculture was reorganized into various branches
in 1946 and he became director of the Horticulture and Biology Branch
1946-1962 in the Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture and Marketing.
You have to realize that the Department of Agriculture hadn't hired many
people for 10 years (1937-1947). Mr. Collins had his Horticulture
and Biology Branch divided into specialties.
Don Craig was hired in 1947 to head up the Tree Fruit Section. He resigned
to go to the experimental farm in Kentville. His position was filled
by A. David Crowe in 1948. I filled the Small Fruit Crops
position in 1949. Frank Scammell filled the Vegetable Section in 1950
but he later left to go to the Markets Branch. Hal McLaughlin headed
the Greenhouse Section in 1951. Dr. A. E. Roland headed up the
Biology Section and M. E. Neary headed up the Entomology section. N.
V. Jankov headed the Landscape Section.
Through the years there had been horticulture foremen. NSAC had built
three staff houses - Farm Foreman and Herdsman - in between the Nova
Scotia Department of Agriculture and Marketing
Agricultural Engineering Building and the Dairy Building. The horticulture
foreman's house was built by the orchard, vegetable and apiary areas.
The horticulture foreman's house was just
taken over (1995) by the Humanities Department. These houses were built
in the 1930s, I believe.
Mr. George Coupar, head gardener and landscape advisor, resigned in 1940
to take up a private landscape business. Mr. Coupar had a son, John,
who ran the business for many years and now John's
son, Jack, runs the business. They are located on Pictou Road.
Mr. N.V. Jankov took on the work that Mr. George Cooper had.
- 1942
- Four acres were purchased from the McCulloch property, west of the present
university campus. Mr. Collins knew this presented very considerable possibilities
for future improvements in the approach and
general appearance of the university property. He thought it should provide
a suitable site for a university dormitory should that in future become feasible,
and also
a site for an athletic field, something which
the university at present lacks and could use to considerable advantage.
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- 1944
- A carry-over from the 1928 program of school grounds landscaping was carried
on in a minor way but, by 1944, C. M. Collins realized that a Rural Beautification
Project should be put in
place and N.V. Jankov was put in charge of this program. During the winter
and spring of 1944-45, a number of meetings were arranged through the co-operation
of the agricultural representatives,
Women's Institutes of Nova Scotia, home and school associations, service
clubs, etc. An effort was made to get the communities represented actually
interested
in some landscape work in their areas. If
the community was already organized, an effort was made to have a committee
appointed to actively further beautification work in the district. They
had organized 57 groups in some 13 counties and
30 were actively underway. Some 54 landscape sketches were sent out and
12 detailed plans had been ordered. Mr. Jankov had as many as three landscape
graduates in his section for several years.
C. M. Collins didn't have a grounds foreman in 1945 and he had to take a
lot of time in direct supervision of the grounds and garden work. Hugh
J. Bishop was appointed as Grounds
Superintendent and Gardener in November 1925. C. M. Collins took a considerable
portion of time in clearing up the McCulloch property bought in 1942 so
that it could become part of the
campus property. He realized that, if NSAC was to become larger,
a master plan should first be drawn up and future anticipation of new
buildings projected. Several major disasters occurred
and it was sometime in the late 1960s that C. M. Collins was hired to
develop a master plan for NSAC.
- 1946
- The science building burned on June 15, 1946. Plans were later made in
late summer to move to the nurses quarters - Camp Debert - 10 miles away.
This
move took place from 1946 to April 29,1953
when a new science building - Harlow Institute - was built. Mr. Collins
and other instructors had to take out horticulture projects to Debert, a
classroom was made, and a small greenhouse was attached.
The old science building debris wasn't cleaned up properly until construction
started in 1952.
- 1947
- C. Prescott Blanchard's farmstead, directly opposite the university, between
College Road and Pictou Road, was purchased consisting of about 20 acres.
A new
recreation field, not regulation size, was
built on the west side. NSAC soccer and football teams had to use Truro's
TAAC grounds before that. Parts of the farm was put in pasture and the Department
of Transport Weather Station was moved from
Debert to Vimy Road, Bible Hill. Weather station is now used by Plant Science
Department.
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- 1953
- The Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture and Marketing Engineering Building was finished.
Much speculation occurred from 1946 to 1950 whether NSAC would remain
in Bible Hill or it might be moved to another location. By 1950, it was
agreed that NSAC would remain where it was.
- 1953-
1954
- In 1953-54, the horticulture building was expanded with the addition of a classroom, food
processing lab built, more basement storage areas were made, as well as two storage rooms plus a
"minus zero" storage was built.
In line for the Rural Beautification Project, a start was made in enlarging
the university nursery for ornamentals that might later be available
for sale to groups in rural areas surveyed. The
plantings in 1945 consisted of some 900 evergreens, 2,600 deciduous shrubs
and cuttings, some 6,000 trees and some seedlings of such ornamentals
as Japanese barberry. By now, groups had been
organized in rural church grounds, cemeteries, community halls, and small
public parks.
Distribution of shrubs, trees and ornamentals started in 1947 to Rural Beautification groups and
these were made every spring until 1963.
Areas had to be developed that could grow these plants. The area west of the horticulture
building was used from the present roadway to about the old elm tree (cut down 1993), the
four acre plot west of the Principal's House (Jenkins Hall) was used for several years.
Irrigation was used on this plot. The area of the present Alumni Gardens was used.
- 1955
- The garden clubs and horticulture societies, which had built out of the
Rural Beautification Project, held their first annual meeting in Cumming
Hall auditorium. These annual meetings were held regularly up
until the past six years at NSAC. These garden clubs, horticultural
societies plus flower shows are still continuing but their annual meetings
are held elsewhere.
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- 1956
- I was made assistant director to C. M. Collins so we planned university
grounds expansion very carefully.
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- 1957
- Trueman House was built on the McCulloch property along the Salmon River bank.
1960s
- Many Nova Scotia nurseries had been started in the late 1950s and throughout
1960 as the Rural Beautification Project was starting to pay off when more
demands were made on local
nurseries for plant materials. Criticism was also heard from the nurserymen
that they couldn't compete against government-run nurseries (Nova Scotia
Department of Agriculture and Marketing).
A Nova Scotia Nursery Trade Association was formed in 1967 by local nurserymen.
They became more active and increased plant sales were occurring. Several
meetings were held between the Nova Scotia Nursery
Trade Association and the Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture and Marketing
regarding the government getting out of plant sales to garden clubs and
horticultural societies. 1962 was the last year that
Horticulture and Biology Services sold plants to the Rural Beautification
Project
- 1960
- Talk was made of further expansion of NSAC and suitable areas on campus
were looked at. Gordon Kinsman (horticulture and biology), Dave Milligan
(agricultural engineering), Win Langille
(chemistry), Stan Curtis (animal husbandry) and Clarence McNevin (agricultural
engineering) made trips to New England and New York state to get an idea
of new agricultural facilities built
in these states - ideas that might be useful to NSAC. Classrooms, lab space,
offices, storage areas, greenhouses, etc., were looked at. It was agreed
a new building would be built for diploma
and degree students on Pictou Road (now known as Cox Institute of Agricultural
Technology). This area was very wet but the contractors felt they could design
a building
considering the ground water situation. Cox Institute was finished on
May 1,1968.
It was agreed that any new building must have space around it so that
the building could be doubled in size. This has already occurred at
Cox Institute and the agricultural engineering
building.
- 1962
- C. M. Collins retired in July 1962 and I took his place as provincial
horticulturist and professor of horticulture. I had taught at NSAC since
1949. I was also placed in charge of the university grounds.
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Mr. Hugh Bishop retired as superintendent of grounds in 1963 or early
1964. I hired Klaas de Geus, landscaper, Bridgetown, in 1964 to replace
Mr. Bishop. Mr. de Geus retired in 1977.
- 1962
- University grounds paved fall 1962 at $1.50/square yard.
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- 1963
- When the landscape nursery was closed out it was turned into a project
for the landscape industry and the garden clubs. It was hard to get Nova
Scotia nurseries to introduce new varieties -
"they won't be hardy," "they are too expensive," etc. It was agreed that Horticulture
and Biology would introduce new varieties into this very exposed nursery to
evaluate new introductions for three
years. Those found suitable would be placed on the campus to build our arboretum.
Garden club plantings (hedges, grass plots, etc.) would also be maintained.
Dr. D. L. Craig, Experimental Farm, Kentville, NS, had introduced new
rhododendrons and azaleas and he wondered if they would be hardy in
Truro. Three plantings were made - Dairy
Building, Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture and Marketing Agricultural
Engineering Building, plus in the new nursery. These plantings have
proven hardy.
It was agreed that Dick Morton, landscape advisor, would spend more time
with the nursery trade and also build up a lawn grass business (sod)
- "we
didn't have to import sod from Ontario."
The Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture and Marketing agreed to hire
C. M. Collins to do a landscape plan of NSAC and to lay out future buildings
and roadways. His plan was accepted and,
for the most part, has been followed (90 per cent).
I met with Public Works Director to lay out the road from Pictou Road to College Road to meet the
entrance way to Cumming Hall in 1964. This left us room to put the Athletic Centre next to the
soccer field; also, we didn't have to cut a lot of elm trees.
Dr. Bill Jenkins took over as principal of NSAC in 1964. He felt that,
with new facilities, NSAC would be better off to hire full-time staff.
Mr. D. L. Parks, deputy minister, agreed with him and
so I was told in late 1968 I would not be in charge of the university grounds.
I had finished teaching in 1964. At that time, extension personnel had
to do extension work plus teach full time at NSAC.
As director of horticulture and biology services, and later of marketing
services, I took a great interest in the NSAC. Signage was lacking for
a long time plus naming of buildings on campus.
- 1960s
- When R. L. Stanfield was premier and G. I. Smith was deputy premier we
had agreement that there would be no buildings expropriated by government,
but
when these homes became available
the government would buy these homes for NSAC expansion. Two houses,
west of DeWolfe House, were removed. Two houses east of DeWolfe House were
removed (parking lot now). Building, corner of Vimy Road and College Road,
was used for International House. House across the corner was purchased and
torn down. A house on Pictou Road was purchased. The orphanage across Pictou
Road was purchased. The Bible Hill Fire Department is on part of this NSAC
land plus Plant Science uses the other part.
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- 1964
- Meetings were held by the director of horticulture and biology about
construction of two new residences to farm a "U" shape with Trueman House.
Chapman Residence
was built May 3, 1967 and Fraser House May 6, 1970.
When the basement was dug for Chapman House, the soil was trucked across
College Road and the soccer field was extended to regulation size. Sod
from Chapman House was used to cover the extended soccer field.
Wire fences were erected the next year on College Road and Pictou Road
on the soccer field.
1964-1965
- A full-time professor of physical education was hired - Ken Marchant.
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- 1974
- Landscape nursery was turned into Alumni Gardens.
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- 1972
- Hancock Veterinary Building, May 1972, Hon. William Gillis, minister, Nova
Scotia Department of Agriculture and Marketing. This was placed in the former
horse pasture. A hockey rink was placed
in this pasture for several years before the Hancock Building was built.
The plywood hockey change rink was moved up to the Apiculture yard - just
outside - and was used by Horticulture and Biology for storage of displays,
stakes, etc. The
Hancock Veterinary Building was built on this site.
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- 1977
- Langille Athletic Centre, 1977, was opened by the Hon. John Hawkins, minister,
Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture and Marketing
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- 1979
- Jenkins Hall, 1979, was opened by Hon. Dr. Sheehy, minister, Nova Scotia
Department of Agriculture and Marketing
1987
- Animal Science Building, May 1987, Hon. Roger Bacon, minister, Nova Scotia
Department of Agriculture and Marketing. Roger Bacon broke ground for this
building by ploughing a furrow
with a team of horses. He later placed the stone for the completion of this
building. Expanded to include the Aquaculture and Continuing Ed. sections
in 2001, the building was name Haley Institute of Animal Science and Aquaculture
after former principal Les Haley in 2004.
I don't know all the details regarding grounds committee since 1968.
Earl Blades became superintendent of grounds after de Geus left.
C. M. Collins was the chief architect of NSAC. Even in 1937 he was looking at the overall
campus - fire of 1946 (Science Building), Debert, 1946-1950's indecision, his master plan in 1960.
I worked with him from 1949 until 1962 - we were close and we planned building locations but he
was the leader.
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