THE HISTORY OF BIRCH HILL
Birch Hill Receiving Home on Stellarton’s Acadia Avenue opened in 1945, the same year the Second World War ended.
Some families were forever changed by the casualties of the war. Others came home to jobs that no longer existed. Many men who had toured Europe were no longer content on small farms or in small towns. Some women who had found paid employment during the war were unhappy to be sidelined while others were anxious to start families. Marriage was on the rise and housing was in short supply. The struggles of war time were over and people were eager for change.
A Maclean’s Magazine article noted that in 1945, 12,000 “illegitimate Canadian babies” were born into a world of “adoption rackets, legal tangles and shame.” The national average had one in 23 children born to an unmarried mother. Leading the provinces was Nova Scotia where one in 15 children was born outside marriage.
Pregnancy “outside wedlock” carried a tremendous stigma through the 1940s and 1950s. It was not uncommon to hear female reputations and future prospects were “ruined” by babies “born on the wrong side of the blanket.” Beyond the searing stigma, the hard economic reality was that many women lacked the financial resources to raise a child. Adoption, shrouded in secrecy as it was, was often deemed the best option.
Built in 1866 for the manager of the Acadia Coal Company, the stately Birch Hill residence stood in sharp contrast to miners’ row houses and had been the scene of premiere social gatherings for decades. After being purchased by the Pictou County Children’s Aid Society, it “received” and arranged for the adoption of many babies but it also operated as a short term refuge for children whose parents or guardians were temporarily or permanently unable to care for them. Some of these children were adopted but others went into foster care under the supervision of the CAS.
By the time Birch Hill closed in 1962, making way for the Pictou Regional Vocational School, now the Pictou campus of Nova Scotia Community College, more than 1,000 children had passed through its doors.
The Town of Stellarton recently erected a plaque board of photos and information about the receiving home. It is located in the southwest corner of Allan Park so visitors can look across the street to where the home once stood.