Imagine Whitney Pier by any other name
Community was also known as Eastmount or South Sydney Harbour
What’s in a name? Welcome to the Pier Dear, that was something you’d always hear, but could you imagine Whitney Pier having a different name?
Last year, I had the pleasure of working at the Whitney Pier Historical Museum for five months as the museum curator/digital archivist. Overall, my role was to greet visitors, give tours and take photos of literally every artifact and picture in the building. Needless to say, that job alone was a huge task that wouldn’t get done in five months.
Out of those five months at the museum I gained a wealth of Whitney Pier knowledge. Some things I knew and some things were new to me.
Artifacts and albums fill the museum with so much history. As a child I can remember going there on many occasions, looking through the big brownish red albums and seeing familiar faces from my community on the museum walls.
Throughout the summer months I saw many faces, people from all over the world came to the museum from the cruise ships. We also had many walk-in visitors, even some residents of Whitney Pier who had never before stepped foot in the museum.
I don’t understand how people can live in the Pier all their lives and not step foot in such an awesome place. You’re missing out if you’ve never been there. Through the fall and winter months the museum is closed to the public, but you can call and schedule tours or school field trips.
Working at the museum you’d always hear stories from visitors, but one day two men stopped by and were talking about Whitney Pier once being called Eastmount.
I’m only 30, but in those 30 years as a Whitney Pier resident I had never heard that before and I’m sure many others haven’t as well. So, I did what most people would do and turned to the internet to do some research.
It turns out that prior to the 20th century, Whitney Pier was known as Eastmount or South Sydney Harbour.
It’s not really a shock to me, it makes perfect sense and I assume that’s where the names Eastmount School and Eastmount Graveyard came from.
I just can’t imagine the Pier being called anything else other than Whitney Pier. I knew it had to have been a community before Henry Melville Whitney came here and established the Dominion Iron & Steel Company. I just never thought about what the Pier was called before then.
In the early 1900s immigrants came to Cape Breton Island from all over the world to work at the steel plant.
At the museum there’s many albums to look through and residents of the Pier can trace their roots back to Asia, Croatia, Italy, Ireland, Scotland, Newfoundland, Poland, United States, Ukraine, the West Indies and more. Many believe the Pier was the most multi-ethnic district in the Maritimes.
I wonder how the residents of “Eastmount” felt having their community’s name changed from Eastmount to Whitney Pier. I guess we’ll never know, but the name stuck and here we are today.
Which brings me back to my original question, what’s in a name?
If you know me by Robyn or Robby, I’m still the same person. So, if you know the community by Eastmount or Whitney Pier, it’s still the same community. Regardless, Whitney Pier has a nice ring to it.