The Museum
In 1973, the Cole Harbour Rural Heritage Society was founded out of a concern for the area's natural environment and history. Cole Harbour had been targeted by the provincial government as an area that would see tremendous increase in the number of homes built in response to a housing shortage in metro. At risk was the natural and cultural history of Cole Harbour that had been settled 200 years before by "Foreign Protestants". These settlers had been enticed by the government to settle the area to farm and supply food to the City of Halifax, six miles away, across Halifax Harbour.
Almost immediately, the Society began collecting area artifacts in immediate danger of being destroyed as a result of the construction boom. When the Society opened the Cole Harbour Heritage Farm Museum in1976 they continued to develop and catalogue their collections.
The collection includes over 2000 artifacts as diverse as children's toys, musical instruments, general household items to farm machinery and even the buildings that make up the museum site.
Permanent exhibits at the Farm are continually being enhanced. In the meantime, visible storage display allows visitors to see many farm and household artifacts that span the centuries. Museum staff are available to answer any question that visitors may have about the collections.
Many of the artifacts collected by the Society were donated by local farmers. Some were hastily retrieved just before a barn or house demolition while others were delivered in person.
In 1983 Davie Settle walked from his home along the busy Cole Harbour Road to deliver his "ski-barrow." This unique tool was built by Mr. Settle in 1920 when he worked on Andrew Settle's farm. He kept the "ski-barrow" in good repair and used it for the next 60 years. The "ski-barrow" and many other artifacts in the collection help to illustrate the ingenuity and inventive spirit of rural people.
Other artifacts help interpret early commercial enterprises in Cole Harbour.
You can view some of our artifact collection online at Artefacts Canada.
The Archives
The Cole Harbour Heritage Farm Archives form part of the collections of the museum. The archives proper was formed in 1993, when archival material was withdrawn from the artifacts collection and established as a separate entity. While it is not large, the archival collection serves as an important resource for museum staff and outside researchers. Its collections reflect not only the history of the Cole Harbour community and the people who lived there, but also contains the Society's papers as well as historical material pertaining to farming and market gardening.
From its earliest days Society members scoured other heritage institutions and copied any documents found that pertained to Cole Harbour. Once organized this impressive resource, including wills, deeds and mortgages and the like, allows a researcher to access a wealth of primary information at one stop.
The archives collects genealogical information on many of the families who settled Cole Harbour. Some of the names included are Bissett, Beck, Conrad, Gammon, Giles, Morash and Settle.
Photographs also constitute a large part of the archives collections. The Family Albums of Cole Harbour Fonds alone includes over 500 images of Cole Harbour's past and covers all aspects of farm life and community. The archives also holds thousands of print and slide format images of the modern development of Cole Harbour and scrapbook collections of Society history from 1983 -1994.