Heritage Property Inventory – Municipality of Argyle

The Heritage Property Inventory in the Municipality of Argyle was begun in 1985. This program was initiated and funded by the NS Provincial Department of Culture, Recreation and Fitness. At that time the goal was to inventory all of the pre 1914 buildings in the Province of Nova Scotia. This was a very ambitious project and a number of towns and municipalities came forward to take part in this program. When it became clear before the end of 1986 that the funding would only support a limited number of such projects the Provincial Government decided to continue funding inventories in progress rather than begin new ones.

The Municipality of Argyle was one the first municipal units to take on an inventory of its pre 1914 buildings. In March of 1985 Peter Crowell was hired as the Heritage Property Inventory Coordinator to carry out this work. Funding from the Provincial Government, with some incidental expenses covered by the Municipality, was sufficient to employ the coordinator for about 8 months of each year. Crowell continued work on the inventory until 1989. During this period funding diminished to the point where it covered only 6 months employment.

In 1990 Peter Crowell became employed full-time as the Municipal Archivist for the Municipality of Argyle, and Doreen A. Anderson was hired as the new Heritage Property Inventory Coordinator. She was employed intermittently on this project for various periods of time until about 1993 when official funding for the inventory program came to an end.

During this period of time the Provincial Department which supplied funding underwent various changes and became the Department of Tourism and Culture, and then the Department of Municipal Affairs. Each of these departments was responsible for the administration of the Heritage Property Act. This is currently handled by the Department of Housing and Municipal Affairs. The Heritage Unit within this department has, from time to time, continued to issue specific contracts for completing the Inventory for specific communities within the Municipality of Argyle. This has been possible simply because there is a full-time staff member at the Argyle Township Court House Archives prepared to supervise and oversee the work.

In 1995 further inventory work was carried out under such a contract by Doreen A. Anderson, Jerry Titus, Susan Young, and Glenda Boudreau. This contract was also matched by funding obtained through a Canada Employment Section 25 Grant.