Brooklyn is a Canadian rural community located in western Hants County, Nova Scotia with a population of 916 people in 2016 .
The community was Nelegakumik by the Mi'kmaq Nation (meaning "broken snowshoes"). [1] Brooklyn is unusual in that its post office is officially called Newport.
The township of Newport was established on 31 March 1761 'from the part of Falmouth east of the Pisiquid (now the Avon River) which was known as East Falmouth.' Named by Charles Morris, chief surveyor, he wrote: 'I have proposed to have it named Newport from my Lord Newport, a friend of Mr. Belcher's, and I believe that it will be agreeable to the people.' Jonathan Belcher, had served under Belcher and was in 1761 serving as Lt. Governor of Nova Scotia. [2]
Two years later, Morris reported:'The inhabitants have imported large quantities of cattle and have this year cut hay sufficient for supporting them. The river Pisiquid running through [this township] is navigable for sloops to all the settlements. The town [Avondale] is situated in the centre.' [3]
Many early settlers to the township under British rule were New England Planters from Newport, Rhode Island, which probably explains why Morris felt that residents might be agreeable to Lord Newport's name being attached to the new township. The initial grant was given to John Nutting (loyalist).
The former township of Newport incorporated all of modern-day Windsor, Nova Scotia and rural communities east of the Avon River. Although the township disappeared, many community names remained, including:
The centre of the community is located at the junction of Routes 14 and 215. Brooklyn saw increased development during the late 1800s after the Midland Railway built a line across Hants County between Windsor and Truro. Thus Brooklyn Station was created, although its post office would be called Newport (P.O.) and this was approved on 5 July 1951.
"Brooklyn Station", located 1 km north of Brooklyn on the banks of the Herbert River, became an important station on the Midland Railway when the line was completed in 1901 and the station became the site of a large sawmill and a feed mill, later becoming part of the Dominion Atlantic Railway system in 1905. The community name was shortened from Brooklyn Station to simply Brooklyn on 30 August 1966 while still maintaining its post office name of Newport. This was subsequently confirmed on 22 July 1993 and in the Nova Scotia Civic Address Review on 14 November 2005. For the purposes of clarification, the provincial government's Geographic Names Board confirmed Newport as a post office within the community of Brooklyn on 10 November 2005.
Railway service was declining through Newport during the 1960s and the line would be subsequently abandoned by the Dominion Atlantic Railway in 1986.
The economy of the Brooklyn area has historically been dominated by agriculture, logging, sawmilling, and gypsum mining, but in recent years it is becoming a bedroom community for Halifax.
West Hants Middle School (formerly Hants West Rural High School) is located in Newport. [4]
The Annapolis Valley is a valley and region in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. It is located in the western part of the Nova Scotia peninsula, formed by a trough between two parallel mountain ranges along the shore of the Bay of Fundy. Statistics Canada defines the Annapolis Valley as an economic region, composed of Annapolis County, Kings County, and Hants County.
Falmouth may refer to:
Hants County is an historical county and census division of Nova Scotia, Canada. Local government is provided by the West Hants Regional Municipality, and the Municipality of the District of East Hants.
Windsor is a community located in Hants County, Nova Scotia, Canada. It is a service centre for the western part of the county and is situated on Highway 101.
Falmouth is a village located along the Avon River in Hants County between Mount Denson and Windsor in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia.
The Dominion Atlantic Railway was a historic railway which operated in the western part of Nova Scotia in Canada, primarily through an agricultural district known as the Annapolis Valley.
The Windsor and Hantsport Railway was a 56-mile (90.1 km) railway line in Nova Scotia between Windsor Junction and New Minas with a spur at Windsor which runs several miles east, serving two gypsum quarries located at Wentworth Creek and Mantua. It suspended operations in 2011.
Hantsport is an unincorporated area in the West Hants Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia, Canada. It is at the western boundary between West Hants Regional Municipality and Kings County, along the west bank of the Avon River's tidal estuary. The community is best known for its former industries, including shipbuilding, a pulp mill, as well a marine terminal that once loaded gypsum, mined near Windsor. The community is the resting place of Victoria Cross recipient William Hall.
Ezra Churchill : Nineteenth-century industrialist, investing in shipbuilding, land, timber for domestic and foreign markets, gypsum quarries, insurance companies, hotels, etc. As a politician he held positions in the Nova Scotia legislature and was appointed a Canadian Senator for the Province of Nova Scotia. Churchill was also a Baptist lay preacher.
Port Williams is a Canadian village in Kings County, Nova Scotia. It is located on the north bank of the Cornwallis River, named after Edward Cornwallis, first governor of Nova Scotia. As of 2016, the population was 1,120.
The Annapolis Valley Regional Centre for Education (AVRCE) is the public school district responsible for the approximately 40 elementary, middle level, and high schools in Annapolis County, Kings County, and the West Hants Municipal District of Hants County in Nova Scotia, Canada. The school district was renamed following the dissolution of elected school boards and placing in Nova Scotia in March 2018.
Route 215 is collector road in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia.
A writ for the election of the 3rd General Assembly of Nova Scotia was issued on February 28, 1761. The assembly convened on July 1, 1761, held six sessions, and was dissolved on January 30, 1765.
Kennetcook is a community in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located in the Municipal District of East Hants. Also see adjacent community of Upper Kennetcook.
South Maitland is a community in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located in the Municipal District of East Hants, Hants County, Nova Scotia. The community was one of the stops on the Shubenacadie Canal system and the site of a number of 19th century shipyards including the yard that built the barque Calburga in 1890, the last large square rigger to sail under a Canadian flag. The village is best known for the historic bridge built over the Shubenacadie River, a large bridge built over challenging tidal waters by the Midland Railway, part of the Dominion Atlantic Railway in 1901. Demolished in the 1990s, a surviving abutment of the railway bridge was retrofitted in 2006 by the Fundy Tidal Interpretive Centre at South Maitland as an interpretive lookoff and walking trail showcasing the massive tides of the Shubenacadie River. A former railway caboose is also preserved beside the interpretive tail.
Scotch Village is an unincorporated community on the Kennetcook River in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located in the Municipality of West Hants. This area was part of Newport Township at the time of settlement primarily by Rhode Island Planters in the early 1760s. It was referred to as “Scotchman’s Dyke” or “Scotch Village”, due to settlement of early families of Scottish descent. Prior to the arrival of the Planters, Scotch Village had been the home of Mi'kmaq and Acadians.
Mount Denson is a small community in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located in The Municipality of the District of West Hants in Hants County. The community is named after Mount Denson; the mid-eighteenth-century estate of Henry Denny Denson.
Midland Railway was a Nova Scotian railway company formed in 1896 to build a railway through Hants County, Nova Scotia, connecting Truro to Windsor. Completed in 1901, it operated independently until 1905 when it became part of the Dominion Atlantic Railway and later the Canadian Pacific Railway, until the line closed in 1983.
The Gaspereau River is a river in Kings County, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Coordinates: 45°0′22.80″N64°0′40.10″W / 45.0063333°N 64.0111389°W