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Heritage and Culture

Over the past sixteen years, the Heritage Department of Victoria County has accomplished a great deal of important work with regard to the compiling of an inventory of heritage buildings in the County. In 1988, Victoria County became active in a project to carry out an inventory, and work completed during the years has resulted in hundreds of residences, churches, and public buildings being added to this inventory. Initially, funding was available through the Nova Scotia Heritage Unit, however, for the past six years, the project has been funded entirely by Victoria County.

The majority of buildings south of Cape Smokey dating from 1914 and earlier have been recorded in the inventory. These heritage site forms are stored in the Archives in the Court House in Baddeck. An example of a typical site form is shown here. It is the "Old Post Office" which was built in 1885 and is located on Chebucto Street in the Village of Baddeck. Please note that this site form is saved in pdf format - you will require Acrobat Reader to open the file.

In 2004, the inventory of buildings in the north of Cape Smokey areas will be undertaken. The inventory completed up to June, 2003 has been digitized, and will soon be available for viewing on the County's website.

ARCHIVES - The year 2001 marked the 150th anniversary of Victoria County. Prior to 1851, what comprises our county today was part of Cape Breton County. By a special act in the legislature, with the final reading and subsequent passing the bill in April of 1851, Victoria County was created.

In order to mark this significant milestone in the County's history, the Municipal Council decided to establish an archives so that all the surviving Municipal records would be preserved for the future. Work commenced in the summer of 2001 with the collecting, identifying, cleaning, and re-housing of the minute books and other related materials. In early January of 2002, a room was made available in the Court House, and an archives was established. The creation of the archives meant that there was access to the materials by the public. The archives is open two days per week - Tuesday's and Thursday's. The hours of operation on those two days are: 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. ( closed during the lunch hour from 12 noon to 1:00 p.m.)