The Randall House Museum, located at 259 Main Street in Wolfville, Nova Scotia.
The Wolfville Historical Society is a registered charity that owns and maintains the Randall House Museum in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. This building dates from c.1812 and is operated as a seasonal museum, open to the public from June to September. The society collects, conserves, exhibits and stores artifacts and documents from the local area, and interprets the house, rooms, contents and the garden. Archives of documents and photographs are available to the public.[1] The Society also supports the publication of books written about Wolfville's history.
The Wolfville Historical Society was founded in 1941 by a group of citizens who rented the DeWolf house to save it from demolition and turned it into a museum. In 1946, the owners, the Wolfville Fruit Company, wanted to use the site and the museum opened at the Randall House in 1949.
Collections and programs
The museum's library holds a number of local history books, genealogical records and deeds.[2] Other materials are held in joint custody with the Esther Clark Wright Archives at Acadia University. This collection contains a wide range of letters, photographs and printed materials mainly from the 20th century. It also holds some audio and video recordings.[3] Many artifacts are on view throughout the house. One set of chairs was brought to Nova Scotia by a New England Planters in 1760.[4]
It also has in storage a collection of domestic garments, some dating from the 18th century, and including clothing from the family of prime minister Robert Borden.[5]
The Randall House
Randall House is a wooden 2+1⁄2-storey Georgian style farmhouse dating from the late eighteenth century. The front of the house has a symmetrical five bay façade with a pedimented gable porch on Doric columns. The front door has a transom window with sidelights. The house has a steep-pitched gable roof and the walls are sided with clapboard with wide corner boards. The house is built over a dry stone wall with earthen floor. There are seven fireplaces in the house.[6]
While the date of construction is unknown, the first recorded owner of the house was Aaron Cleveland, a tradesman living in Wolfville around 1805.[7] On 14 November 1812, Cleveland sold the property to a carpenter by the name of Charles Randall. Upon his death in 1856, the property passed to his son, Charles Dennison Randall, listed as a prosperous English-descended Baptist magistrate. When he died in 1893, his will stated that the property was to be split between his daughters, Elizabeth and Annie. Eardley Randall spent most of his time caring for "sister" Annie, who was an invalid and never left the house. Eardley Randall's initials are still carved into the attic's staircase. Under Eardley's ownership, the property gained a reputation of neglect, and often was regarded as a spooky place by the town children. In 1927, Eardley and Elizabeth sold the land to a merchant, William C.B. Harris, who in turn sold it to the retired farmer, Charles Patriquin. Over the course of his retirement, C.A. Patriquin spent time and money to brighten up the area of Wolfville now known as Willow Park, next to the Randall House. Until then, it had been a swampy area and an eyesore. He passed the land on to his son, Graham, in 1932. Graham Patriquin sold the Randall House in 1947, and the Wolfville Historical Society now leases the property for one dollar a year. The Randall House Museum was opened up in 1949. It won status as a Nova Scotia Provincial Heritage Property in 1987.[6] For the past four years,[when?] the Wolfville Historical Society has been following a program to renovate the Randall House Museum, paid for by the donations of its members and the support of the municipal and provincial governments.
Acadia University is a public, predominantly undergraduate university located in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada, with some graduate programs at the master's level and one at the doctoral level. The enabling legislation consists of the Acadia University Act and the Amended Acadia University Act 2000.
The Annapolis Valley is a valley and region in the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. 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.
Wolfville is a Canadian town in the Annapolis Valley, Kings County, Nova Scotia, located about 100 kilometres (62 mi) northwest of the provincial capital, Halifax. The town is home to Acadia University and Landmark East School.
The Acadia Divinity College (ADC) is Baptist theological institute located in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada. It is affiliated with the Canadian Baptists of Atlantic Canada. It is governed by a board of trustees with members appointed by the Convention and the Board of Governors of Acadia University. The college is also the Faculty of Theology of Acadia University.
Kings County is a county in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. With a population of 62,914 in the 2021 Census, Kings County is the third most populous county in the province. It is located in central Nova Scotia on the shore of the Bay of Fundy, with its northeastern part forming the western shore of the Minas Basin.
Andrew Randall Cobb, ARCA, FRIBA was a Canadian-American architect based in Nova Scotia.
The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic is a maritime museum located in downtown Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Tatamagouche is a village in Colchester County, Nova Scotia, Canada.
David Alexander Colville, LL. D. was a Canadian painter and printmaker.
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.
Grand-Pré National Historic Site is a park set aside to commemorate the Grand-Pré area of Nova Scotia as a centre of Acadian settlement from 1682 to 1755, and the British deportation of the Acadians that happened during the French and Indian War. The original village of Grand Pré extended four kilometres along the ridge between present-day Wolfville and Hortonville. Grand-Pré is listed as a World Heritage Site and is the main component of two National Historic Sites of Canada.
The New England Planters were settlers from the New England colonies who responded to invitations by the lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia, Charles Lawrence, to settle lands left vacant by the Bay of Fundy Campaign (1755) of the Acadian Expulsion.
The Cornwallis River is in Kings County, Nova Scotia, Canada. It has a meander length of approximately 48 kilometres (30 mi) through eastern Kings County, from its source on the North Mountain at Grafton to its mouth near Wolfville on the Minas Basin. The lower portion of the river beginning at Kentville is tidal and there are extensive tidal marshes in the lower reaches. In its upper watershed at Berwick, the river draws on the Caribou Bog while a longer branch continues to the official source, a stream on the North Mountain at Grafton.
Esther Isabelle Clark Wright, was a notable Atlantic Canadian historian who at the end of her life received the Order of Canada for her lifetime contributions to Canadian scholarship. She published many works in relation to her historic and genealogical research and was best known for her pioneer and genealogy studies of Nova Scotia & New Brunswick, Canada.
Leslie Raymond Fairn was a Canadian architect whose career is notable for its longevity and for the range of styles it encompassed, including Beaux Arts and Modernism. Most of his work was completed in the Maritimes.
Paul Eric Kinsman, was a Canadian physician and politician in the province of Nova Scotia. He served in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly as a MLA for the constituencies of West Kings (1963–1967) and Kings South (1984). He was also Mayor of Wolfville, Nova Scotia from 1974 to 1976.
William Pearly Oliver worked at the Cornwallis Street Baptist Church for twenty-five years (1937–1962) and was instrumental in developing the four leading organizations to support Black Nova Scotians in the 20th century: Nova Scotia Association for the Advancement of Colored People (1945), the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission (1967), the Black United Front (1969) and the Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia (1983). He was instrumental in supporting the case of Viola Desmond. Oliver was awarded the Order of Canada in 1984.
Nova Scotia has two major national parks, Cape Breton Highlands National Park and Kejimkujik National Park. Nova Scotia is also home to three UNESCO world heritage sites. The two cultural and one natural site are the town of Old Lunenberg, the Grand-Pré National Historic Site, and the Joggins fossil cliffs. Nova Scotia is also famous for its numerous historical sites, museums, and natural areas.
William Henry Chase was an entrepreneur and philanthropist in Nova Scotia, Canada. He was known as "the apple king of Nova Scotia".
Helen Dorothy Beals was a Canadian artist and educator. She is known for her involvement with the Maritime Art Association and the publication "Maritime Art Magazine".
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