Paying homage to history
Apple Blossom Festival office moves into Cornwallis Inn property
Consider it a homecoming of sorts for the Annapolis Valley Apple Blossom Festival.
The festival office recently moved from its Belcher Street location to the historic Cornwallis Inn building on Main Street.
Festival president Alxys Chamberlain, a former Queen Annapolisa, said the new office space feels like home. Festival committee members felt that moving the office to the former Cornwallis Inn was fitting for a number of reasons, including paying homage to history.
“There’s a lot of history in this place and we’re just really lucky to be part of that and the changes that are happening to this building, to the festival and just amalgamating all of that together,” Chamberlain said.
The building, now known as the Cornwallis Business Centre, is currently being renovated and had available space. The building is currently experiencing a bit of a renaissance with numerous businesses Apple Blossom Festival president Alxys Chamberlain says their new office space in the Cornwallis Inn building feels like home. Moving the office there pays homage to the history of the building and the festival itself.
moving there.
“We were looking for an alternative location to where we were on Belcher Street and it was just fate, I think,” she said. “This building has so much significance to the area and it’s really nice to see some rejuvenation happening.”
Chamberlain said many people closely associate the festival with the Cornwallis Inn. For example, the princesses used to stay there
during the festival and the Queen’s Ball used to be held in the inn’s ballroom. She said it’s time to begin bringing back some of the original, signature events. The festival committee is looking to re-establish the ball in future years.
The theme of this year’s festival, the 86th annual, is ‘Honoured By History, Inspired By Change.’ Chamberlain said that although the festival has evolved and grown Conservator Ann Shaftel was brought in to uncover an extensive mural under the wallpaper in an upstairs room at Annapolis Royal’s Sinclair Inn Museum in the summer of 2016. West Nova MP toured the museum and even helped Shaftel gently scrape away the moistened wallpaper using a scalpel. He was planning to go back on May 15 for the Painted Room’s official opening.
in many ways over the years, organizers are looking to get back to its roots. Moving the office to the Cornwallis Inn building fits nicely with this initiative.
One event that will be held in the Cornwallis Inn ballroom this year is the Blossom Market, being organized in partnership with Fusion Annapolis Valley. It takes place on May 26 and 27 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and will feature a
The Annapolis Heritage Society held the official opening of its Painted Room at the Sinclair Inn Museum May 15.
West Nova MP Colin Fraser spoke at the opening. He was at the museum in July of 2016 and helped conservator Ann Shaftel scrape away some of the old wallpaper that covered up a mural that is almost 200 years old.
The Painted Room is located on the second floor of the Sinclair Inn Museum. The mural was discovered by accident in the 1960s when some wallpaper started peeling and there seemed to be painted images underneath.
Thanks to funding from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, the Department of Canadian Heritage’s Canada Cultural Spaces Fund, the Nova Scotia Department of Communities, Culture, and Heritage, Patricia Townsend and the Nicholson Foundation, the murals were carefully revealed.
National Historic Site
The Sinclair Inn is the earliest surviving Acadian building in Canada and is a National Historic Site within the National Historic District of Annapolis Royal.
In the early 1700s, the Sinclair A large press corps used to be present for Apple Blossom Festival events and a suite was set aside in the Cornwallis Inn as a working area for the newsmen. In 1945, James Fitzpatrick, whose newsreels were syndicated as Voice of the Globe and sold around the world, was on hand with a crew of cameramen, scriptwriters and makeup artists for the filming of the coronation. For this occasion, the coronation took place in a Port Williams orchard.
wide variety of vendors.
Chamberlain said the new office would serve as the perfect hub for the children’s and Grand Street parades and organizers are very excited about that.
She said the current property manager, Safe Guard, has done a great job with the renovations. The festival office has actually moved twice in recent months, first to a smaller office space in the Cornwallis Inn and then to the current, larger space. Chamberlain said renovations to the larger space were completed within a couple of weeks. Inn became an important centre of activity, not only as a tavern and a place to rent a bed, but also the location where the first Masonic lodge in Canada held its meetings and the site of court-ordered property auctions carried out by the high sheriff of Annapolis County. This activity would continue well into the early 1800s.
In the early 1980s, a major redevelopment of the Annapolis Royal downtown area took place. The historical importance of the Sinclair Inn became evident, and in 1981 the Heritage Canada Foundation purchased the building, eventually passing it into the hands of the Annapolis Heritage Society. A substantial amount of work was done on the building to stabilize it. About the same time, it was designated as a Provincial Heritage building.