Paradise Historical Society

Christmas in Paradise
2023-12-16 18:00 - 20:00 (America/Halifax) | Paradise Heritage Centre, 10307 Highway #1, Paradise, Nova Scotia, Canada
CHRISTMAS IN PARADISE
Visit the Christmas Train at 10252 Hwy 1 for some great photos.
Join us at the Paradise Heritage Centre (10307 Hwy 1) for a bonfire with seasonal music by the Paradise Brass and hot chocolate and cider.
Please bring a chair and blanket.
This is a free event but please RSVP by December 14th by completing the form below or calling 825-9270 so we can ensure treats for all.
Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.Contact Name *Email *EmailConfirm EmailNumber of People Attending In Your Group *Would You Like to Sign Up For the Paradise Historical Society Email List? *Yes, please sign me up!No, please use my email address for notifications about this event only.Please check the 'YES' box if you'd like to sign up to our general email list to receive notifications about news, updates, and notifications for future events.Questions? Please feel free to let us know if you have any questions about the event and we'll respond to the email address you provided ASAP. Submit

North Mountain Christmas Concert
2023-12-20 19:00 - 21:00 | Clarence Church, 2659 Clarence Road, Clarence, Nova Scotia
Please join us and the community of Clarence for an unforgettable Christmas Concert.
Date and Time: Wednesday, December 20th, from 7:00 – 9:00 pm
Location: The historic North Mountain Meeting House (Clarence Church) at 2659 Clarence Road in Clarence.
The concert will feature seasonal music by Permanent Resonance, Michael Baily, and John Montgomery.
Immerse yourself in the festive spirit and enjoy a Christmas message by Barbara Bishop.
All proceeds will benefit the communities of Paradise and Clarence. Your free-will donation makes a difference.
Let’s celebrate the season together and support our communities.
For more information please visit the Clarence Nova Scotia Facebook page or call 824-3181.

Rug Hooking Workshop 2024
2024-04-06 10:00 - 15:00 | Paradise Heritage Centre, 10307 Highway #1, Paradise, Nova Scotia, Canada
BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND!
The Paradise Historical Society will be hosting a third Rug Hooking Workshop.
A comprehensive, hands-on, beginner rug hooking course will be held at the Paradise Heritage Centre at 10307 Highway #1 in Paradise.
From drawing your pattern to finishing the edges, you will learn everything needed to complete your first rug hooking project.
Fee: $55.00 – Includes materials and instructions. Learn either yarn or wool hooking.
Four talented instructors will be available to give you personal attention. Many thanks to Monica Bailey, Linda Hankinson, Jackie Holborn, and Stephanie Duggan-Haggan.
We will have frames, hooks, and scissors for you to use while you are here.
Please bring your own lunch.
Workshop capacity of 12 adults.
To reserve your spot, please contact Barbara at 825-9198 or send her a direct/private message on the Paradise Historical Society Facebook page.

Keep Safe Online Community Presentation
2024-04-16 19:00 - 20:00 | Paradise Heritage Centre, 10307 Highway #1, Paradise, Nova Scotia, Canada
Join us April 16 at 7:00 pm for a presentation to learn great tips about keeping safe online.
There are things we all need to know. Some things we feel confident about, others not so much.
Feel free to bring your questions to this community presentation being offered by Lee Hopkins.
The event is free, but please register by emailing info@paradisehistoricalsociety.ca so we can know how many people to expect.
Everyone is welcome!
The presentation will be held at the Paradise Heritage Centre at 10307 Highway 1 in Paradise.

Basket Making Workshop
2024-05-04 09:00 - 16:30 | Paradise Heritage Centre, 10307 Highway #1, Paradise, Nova Scotia, Canada
The Paradise Historical Society is hosting a basket-making workshop.
Learn how to weave your own basket and take it home with you!
This basket is not just decorative, you will use it many times.
Date & Time: Saturday May 4th, 2024 from 9:00 am to 4:30 pm
Location: Paradise Heritage Centre at 10307 Highway #1 in Paradise.
Cost: $55.00 which includes all the materials
Instructor: Linda Hankinson
Please bring a lunch.
There are 12 spots available.
To reserve your spot, please contact Barbara at 825-9198 or send her a direct/private message on the Paradise Historical Society Facebook page.
UPDATE MARCH 7th: All spots are booked, but please contact us if you’d like to be added to the waiting list.

Heritage Centre Summer Open Mornings
2024-05-08 09:00 - 12:00, 2024-05-15 09:00 - 12:00, 2024-05-22 09:00 - 12:00, 2024-05-29 09:00 - 12:00 | Paradise Heritage Centre, 10307 Highway #1, Paradise, Nova Scotia, Canada
Paradise Heritage Centre Open Mornings
You are invited to visit our Heritage Centre this summer.
We will be open Wednesday mornings starting May 8, 2024 from 9 am – 12 noon. Coffee, muffins, and free WiFi will be available.
We have a reference library of local books and reference material you can leaf through or use to take notes for your own research.
The famous “Paradise Gazette” a 1935-36 student-crafted yearbook with fascinating pictures, bios of the students of the day, and insights into the curriculum of the time is also available. Thank you to Dave Whitman for this donation. It is amazing what students in a two-room school actually learned.
Or just drop in with a friend or two for a quiet place to have some morning conversation over a cuppa in our comfy chairs. On nice days, you can also enjoy the gardens with tables and benches outside.
Please look for our OPEN flag and stop in and say hello!

Open House and Paradise Historical Society AGM
2024-05-21 18:30 - 20:00 | Paradise Heritage Centre, 10307 Highway #1, Paradise, Nova Scotia, Canada
You are invited to an Open House and the Annual General Meeting of the Paradise Historical Society
Date & Time: Tuesday, May 21 at 6:30 pm.
Location: Paradise Heritage Centre at 10307 Highway #1 in Paradise
There will be refreshments, displays, and reports on all of our progress.
You can hear about our plans for the future of the Heritage Centre and its place in our community.
This year’s raffle offerings will be set up for you to admire; each of the three items- quilt, painting, and hooked rug- represent the gifts of our artists and crafters and the beauty of this part of the world we call home.

Hidden Histories of Annapolis County
2024-05-24 - 2024-05-25 | Paradise Heritage Centre, 10307 Highway #1, Paradise, Nova Scotia, Canada
Please join us for a spring conference about the Hidden Histories of Annapolis County.
The keynote speaker will be Brenda J. Thompson, author of A Wholesome Horror – Poor Houses in Nova Scotia.
Guest presenters will be Laura Churchill Duke, Warden Alex Morrison, and Heather Leblanc of Mapannapolis.
DATE: Friday, May 24th in the evening and Saturday, May 25th all day.
COST: $60 / Early Bird Registration Fee of $50 only available before May 1, 2024
Cost includes lunch (sandwich and salad) provided by Perky Loaf and coffee/tea and dessert provided by Paradise Historical Society.
Event Schedule
Friday Evening
7:00 – 7:30: Registration Check-In
7:30: Hidden History as a Quilt with Brenda Thompson [Keynote Speaker and Discussion]
Saturday
9:00: Good Morning Coffee/Tea
9:30 – 10:45: Footsteps in the Snow and Discussion with Laura Churchill Duke
10:45 – 11:15: Break
11:15 – 12:30: The Forgotten Scots with Warden Alex Morrison
12:30 – 1:30: Lunch
1:30-2:45: Mapannapolis with Heather LeBlanc
2:45: Plenary Session – What next?
3:30: Closing
The conference is full. Thank you to all who registered. We look forward to seeing you!
Our Presenters

KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Brenda J. Thompson

Brenda brings unique gifts to the task of finding our Hidden Histories. She has a Master’s degree in Sociology from Acadia University, life experience as a ‘welfare mother’ and low-wage earner, a passion for local history AND a natural talent for cogent and compelling writing.

She is well-equipped to help us clear the mists of nostalgia from the realities of our ancestors’ world.

Sometimes her writing is touching and almost light-hearted, as in her monologue play based on the memoirs of Lester Beeler of West Dalhousie (side note: this was performed to the delight of all in the Paradise Community Hall once).

Sometimes it is enlightening, as in Finding Fortune: Documenting and Imagining the Life of Rose Fortune.

It can be searing, as in Vol 2 of A Wholesome Horror, the story of Poor Houses in Nova Scotia.

And it can be unflinching, as in her newest work, Enslavers of the Maritimes.

In 2019, Brenda established Moose House Publications to provide an outlet for writers in, and of, rural Nova Scotia. A browse through the Moose House website shows how many of us love to write and have much to offer. This company is a huge promoter of Nova Scotian history, arts and culture.

Brenda lives in Perotte Settlement, near Annapolis Royal.

GUEST SPEAKER: Laura Churchill Duke

Laura is an Annapolis Valley journalist and the award-winning author of Two Crows Sorrow and Rooted in Deception. These true crime novels take us to an Annapolis Valley we have forgotten or never knew- rural life in the valley at the turn of the last century.

She is not only a writer; she is a communication and public relations specialist who uses her creative and organizational skills to benefit others. It is she who organizes the signature event for Campaign for Kids each year- you know it as Burger Wars!

And she is a team member of the successful local business, Your Last Resort, helping people to clear the clutter when they need to and make positive changes in their lives.

Laura lives in Kentville with her husband, David, and her two sons, Daniel and Thomas, and several rescue animals.

Laura's Presentation: Footsteps in the Snow

On an early January morning in 1896, 15-year-old Annie Kempton is found murdered in her own home in Bear River, Nova Scotia. Within the next few hours, Peter Wheeler, a come-from-away of dubious origin, is blamed for the murder and subsequently arrested. The community right away focuses all their attention on this outsider.

Laura will talk about the specific complications of jurisdiction and legal procedures in that time and place- e.g. Bear River lies in two counties - Annapolis and Digby- but also about the social fabric which was the setting for the events.

We will be given access to her methods and thought processes as she researches and writes. Reviews of her books speak of them as “chair-gripping” and “visceral”. We may learn from Laura how it is that we can both recover a story that matters, one lost in time, and feel that story as if we were there.

Footprints in the Snow is slated to be published in early fall 2024 with Moose House Publications.

GUEST SPEAKER: Warden Alex Morrison

Alex Morrison is currently the Warden of Annapolis County and has been a member of County Council for twelve years.

He served over 40 years as a career Canadian Army officer, including with Canada’s North American Treaty Organization forces in Germany during the Cold War, Headquarters of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus, and six years as a member of the diplomatic staff of the Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York. He has taught at Canadian and American universities and at Japanese security institutions.

Alex is the Founding President of the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre. Also, he is the author, co-author, editor, co-editor of over 30 books on various aspects of Canadian military history, and on international security affairs. Two titles are The Voice of Defence: the History of the Conference of Defence Associations, and, with Ted Slaney, The Breed of Manly Men: the History of the Cape Breton Highlanders.

Warden Morrison's Presentation: The Forgotten Scots of Nova Scotia: Time for a Renaissance

Alex Morrison contends that the contributions of Sir William Alexander to the development of Nova Scotia have been unappreciated and that the time has come recognize them.

Until relatively recently, the location of the Scottish fort, “Charles Fort”, had not been firmly established. After much historical and anthropological “detective” work, the site is now well established and suitably marked. Learn more about why this matters, and how this person and this time have been so important to our province. .

GUEST SPEAKER: Heather LeBlanc

Heather LeBlanc is the principal of HAL Consulting Incorporated, established in 1997. Her interest in people and their communities has translated into ideas and action in rural economic development, community planning, education, culture and heritage.

She has served as Executive Director of several boards and committees of non-profit organizations. She was instrumental in the creation and development of Mapannapolis, and has been project manager since its inception in 2012.

This community legacy project, designed by the community itself, reflects her deep interest in the County’s cultural and heritage importance to the Province and Canada.

Mapannapolis

In 2011 a small group of seniors started talking about mapping Annapolis County assets. The consensus: the maps would have to be created from scratch.

Traditional Annapolis County maps didn’t show what we wanted them to show. We wanted maps of our distinctive homes; we wanted to see the churches where we worshiped our whole lives, and where our people were buried. A map of Annapolis County should show how the tides were tamed, and the saltwater marshes recovered, and planted in grain.

What were the stories of the early bridges and railway lines that tied our County together?

Where were the maps of the very earliest European settlements here, and the names of the Scots and French and English who arrived here first?

And before that, the Mi’kmaw: where were their travel-ways and settlements?

Annapolis County Seniors and students from the Centre for Geographic Sciences (COGS) teamed up, students teaching seniors, and today mapannapolis.ca hosts hand-made, home-made maps using state-of-art digital map-making tools. Using their mobile app the maps offer self-guided tours which include thousands of heritage homes and structures; churches and their graveyards complete with inventories of the buried; community walks; existing and long-gone wharves; the thought-lost Acadian grave sites and remains of the St. Jean-Baptiste Parish Church discovered in 2018 at Fort Anne National Historic Site.

Mapannapolis does not just map; it uncovers the hidden layers of our history. From the Acadian Deportation from Annapolis Royal to the first Black Loyalist settlements to the ever-evolving stories of our home communities, Mapannapolis maps our stories, helping us discover ourselves.

Mapannapolis has been recognized by the Governor General of Canada for Excellence in Community History Programming.

Register and Purchase Your Ticket
The conference is full. Thank you to all who registered. We look forward to seeing you!

Heritage Centre Summer Open Mornings
2024-06-05 09:00 - 12:00, 2024-06-12 09:00 - 12:00, 2024-06-19 09:00 - 12:00, 2024-06-26 09:00 - 12:00, 2024-07-03 09:00 - 12:00, 2024-07-10 09:00 - 12:00, 2024-07-17 09:00 - 12:00, 2024-07-24 09:00 - 12:00 and 5 more dates | Paradise Heritage Centre, 10307 Highway #1, Paradise, Nova Scotia, Canada
Paradise Heritage Centre Open Mornings
You are invited to visit our Heritage Centre this summer.
We will be open Wednesday mornings starting May 8, 2024 through November 13, 2024 from 9 am – 12 noon. Coffee, muffins, and free WiFi will be available.
We have a reference library of local books and reference material you can leaf through or use to take notes for your own research.
The famous “Paradise Gazette” a 1935-36 student-crafted yearbook with fascinating pictures, bios of the students of the day, and insights into the curriculum of the time is also available. Thank you to Dave Whitman for this donation. It is amazing what students in a two-room school actually learned.
Or just drop in with a friend or two for a quiet place to have some morning conversation over a cuppa in our comfy chairs. On nice days, you can also enjoy the gardens with tables and benches outside.
Please look for our OPEN flag and stop in and say hello!

Plants & Pies
2024-06-09 09:00 - 13:00 | Paradise Heritage Centre, 10307 Highway #1, Paradise, Nova Scotia, Canada
The Paradise Historical Society is hosting a Plants & Pies sale.
Come check out the selection of house plants, garden plants, and delicious pies.
Your purchase will help support the Paradise Historical Society and our Heritage Centre.
Date & Time: Sunday, June 9, 2024 from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm.
Location: Paradise Heritage Centre at 10307 Highway #1 in Paradise.
If you can donate a plant or ple to our sale, please contact Barbara at 825-9198.
Thank you!

Paradise 2024 Community BBQ & Corn Boil
2024-08-24 16:00 - 19:00 | Paradise Heritage Centre, 10307 Highway #1, Paradise, Nova Scotia, Canada
Paradise Historical Society would like to invite residents of Paradise to a Community BBQ and Corn Boil
We’ve had such an enjoyable time the last few years, we hope you can join us again or join us for the first time.
All food is fresh and local. Come enjoy it with your neighbours!
The event will take place on Saturday, August 24, 2024, from 4:00 – 7:00 pm at the Paradise Heritage Centre – rain or shine!
There are picnic tables but you are welcome to bring your lawn chairs or picnic blankets for seating.
Free will donations are gratefully accepted.
Please register by completing the form below or by calling 824-1138.
Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.Contact Name *Email *EmailConfirm EmailNumber of People Attending In Your Group *Would You Like to Sign Up For the Paradise Historical Society Email List? *Yes, please sign me up!No, please use my email address for notifications about this event only.Please check the 'YES' box if you'd like to sign up to our general email list to receive notifications about news, updates, and notifications for future events.Questions? Please feel free to let us know if you have any questions about the event and we'll respond to the email address you provided ASAP. Submit

Heritage Centre Autumn Open Mornings
2024-09-04 09:00 - 12:00, 2024-09-11 09:00 - 12:00 | Paradise Heritage Centre, 10307 Highway #1, Paradise, Nova Scotia, Canada
Paradise Heritage Centre Open Mornings
You are invited to visit our Heritage Centre this autumn.
We will be open Wednesday mornings starting May 8, 2024 through November 13, 2024 from 9 am – 12 noon. Coffee, muffins, and free WiFi will be available.
We have a reference library of local books and reference material you can leaf through or use to take notes for your own research.
The famous “Paradise Gazette” a 1935-36 student-crafted yearbook with fascinating pictures, bios of the students of the day, and insights into the curriculum of the time is also available. Thank you to Dave Whitman for this donation. It is amazing what students in a two-room school actually learned.
Or just drop in with a friend or two for a quiet place to have some morning conversation over a cuppa in our comfy chairs. On nice days, you can also enjoy the gardens with tables and benches outside.
Please look for our OPEN flag and stop in and say hello!

Basket Making Workshop
2024-09-07 10:00 - 17:00 | Paradise Heritage Centre, 10307 Highway #1, Paradise, Nova Scotia, Canada
The Paradise Historical Society is hosting a basket-making workshop.
She is back! By popular request, Linda, our basket maker, will once again share her gift with us.
Learn how to weave your own basket and take it home with you!
This basket is not just decorative, you will use it many times.
Date & Time: Saturday, September 7, 2024, from 10:00 am until your basket is finished
Location: Paradise Heritage Centre at 10307 Highway #1 in Paradise.
Cost: $60.00 which includes all the materials
Instructor: Linda Hankinson
Please bring a lunch.
UPDATE JULY 30th: All spots are booked, but please contact us if you’d like to be added to the waiting list. We hope to be able to offer another workshop in early 2025.
To request a spot on the waiting list, please message Barbara by direct/private message on the Paradise Historical Society Facebook page.

Happy basket makers at our last workshop

Nautical Rope Bowl Workshop
2024-09-14 10:00 - 14:00 | Paradise Heritage Centre, 10307 Highway #1, Paradise, Nova Scotia, Canada
The Paradise Historical Society is hosting a Nautical Rope Bowl workshop.
Nautical rope knots have been used for centuries by mariners to secure sails and rigging on ships and boats. Variations or repetitions of certain knots can create a variety of functional and decorative items, such as mats that protect decks from the rigging, to surround railings or to stand on for cushioning.
Presenter, Karen Morley, resides in Cottage Cove where she makes items from “reclaimed” lobster rope and sells them at the Clarence Market on Sundays.
Karen invites you to join her to learn this art of decorative nautical knot making.
Participants will learn how to first create a nautical thump mat which will then be turned into a bowl. This useful bowl, approximately 10 inches in diameter, can hold fruits, bread or any items you wish.
A choice of 2 colours as below of reclaimed rope from a lobster fishing boat will be provided.
Written instructions will be provided.
Date & Time: Saturday, September 14, 2024, from 10:00 am – 2:00 pm (or until your bowl is finished)
Location: Paradise Heritage Centre at 10307 Highway #1 in Paradise.
Cost: $50.00 which includes all the materials
Instructor: Karen Morley
Please bring a lunch.
UPDATE AUGUST 27TH: All spots are booked, but please contact us if you’d like to be added to the waiting list.
To request a spot on the waiting list, please send an email to Barbara or send her a direct/private message on the Paradise Historical Society Facebook page.
Please click HERE to send Barbara an email.
