Abandoned resort razed after sitting empty for decades
It was meant to be a beacon of luxury amid the charming fishing villages that dot Nova Scotia’s pristine South Shore.
Instead, for more than 20 years, the Aspotogan Sea Spa sat abandoned atop a coastal cliff west of Halifax, its decaying hulk earning a reputation as one of the creepiest places in Canada until the unfinished resort’s last wall came crashing down last month.
Allen Webber, a veteran local municipal politician, recalls listening to the pitch for the sprawling seaside hotel from a German physician with a mix of excitement and skepticism while serving as a councillor in Chester in the early ’90s.
“At the time we thought, ‘Well, you know, it sounds a little like a crazy idea, but I mean it’s your money,’” says Webber, 59, now the warden for the Municipality of the District of Chester.
“It was a lot of money – it was millions of dollars. It would’ve been one of the largest projects ever to take place in this municipality.”
Construction on the 175,500-square-foot, 131-room resort started shortly after that council meeting in a rugged, remote area of the Aspotogan peninsula just down the road from Chester, an exclusive village home to the multimillion-dollar vacation homes of Torontonians and Americans.
The spa’s website – which remains active – paints a tantalizing, albeit dated, picture of high living with promises of beach picnics, hikes, seawater spa treatments, “intimate dips in warm tidal pools” and an “exquisite food and beverage service.”
While beautiful, Webber says the notion of a year-round resort accessible by a private road on the foggy peninsula didn’t make much sense to locals used to the view.
“It didn’t really seem like it fit in the location and in the context of Nova Scotia, but who were we to judge?” he says. “People in Europe think differently of us than we do ourselves, I guess. If you were a local you’d think, ‘Why would anyone want to go there?’”