Heritage NL gives heritage status to historic Port au Port rectory

A window-filled historic museum on the Port au Port Peninsula has been given heritage status by Heritage NL as a Registered Heritage Structure. 

The Our Lady of Mercy Museum was constructed in 1952 as the rectory for the parish priest of the Our Lady of Mercy Roman Catholic Church (also a Registered Heritage Structure) located next door.  Over the years, the building served as a priest’s rectory, office, and family home. 

Still recognized by some as “Father Green's House,” the building now serves as a popular museum, gift shop, and tea room. 

Its most distinct architectural feature is the sun porch with diamond-shape window panes, which wraps around two sides of the structure. Local students would visit the building in the 1950s and ‘60s to see their exam marks posted in the sunroom windows. 

“Heritage NL is proud to showcase the special architecture and history of Western Newfoundland,” says Dr. Lisa Daly, chair of Heritage NL. “The designation of the Rectory celebrates its continued heritage as a community-centred space, and is timely given that this year is the centennial anniversary of the church.” 

In addition to the designation, Heritage NL will be working with the Our Lady of Mercy Committee to provide training around the conservation of historic wooden sashes, an important skill to have for a structure with so many windows. 

Heritage NL was established in 1984 to preserve one of the most visible dimensions of Newfoundland and Labrador culture - its architectural heritage. Heritage NL designates buildings and other structures as Registered Heritage Structures and may provide grants for the purpose of preservation and restoration of such structures.

 

The City of St. John's Heritage Awards

 Heritage Awards

The City of St. John's Heritage Awards recognize commercial and residential property owners for their work in rehabilitating, restoring and celebrating our rich built heritage.

Who can submit a nomination?

Residents can nominate a designated Heritage Building or a building in a Heritage Area; property owners can nominate their own property.

 

Award categories

Nominations are accepted annually in the following categories:

• preserving or restoring the original character of a heritage building or any building in a Heritage Area
• rehabilitating an older building, including successfully integrating modern elements
• respecting the character of a modern building in a Heritage Area
• infill developments that blend into a neighborhood in a Heritage Area
• stewardship and long-term preservation of a heritage building or any building in a Heritage Area.

 

Application and Deadlines

The deadline for applications is Friday, February 28 at 5 p.m. To submit a nomination, complete and submit the Heritage Awards Nomination Form.

 

Contact us

For more information, please contact Planning. 

Learn more here: City of St. John’s Applause Awards Website

MANL Midday Museums- Heritage Mentorship Program Launch

Join the Museum Association of Newfoundland and Labrador on Tuesday, February 25, 2025 as they celebrate the first anniversary of Midday Museums and introduce the launch of their brand new Heritage Mentorship program!

In celebration of our first anniversary of Midday Museums, MANL is launching a brand-new resource designed for their members.

• Do you have questions on which funding applications would best suit your needs?

• Have you struggled to engage volunteers, particularly youth, with your organization?

• When you hire students every summer, are you comfortable with student payroll and other HR duties?

• Is your computer too old to install the software you need for your collections archiving?

MANL is here to help!

Please join the conversation on February 25 to hear about our heritage mentorship program and how it can help your organization. This initiative grew from our recent heritage conference, held at The Rooms this fall.

In Newfoundland and Labrador, there is no shortage of passionate, hard-working heritage employees and volunteers, with many years of experience, knowledge, skill and ingenuity. Our people are our best resource! It makes sense that we build on that expertise by sharing it with our peers in our communities throughout the province.

One aim of our Heritage Mentorship Program is to connect experienced professionals and volunteers with everyone in the heritage sector who need help, including emerging professionals, youth, students, and volunteers of all ages. Interested in engaging and mentoring youth within your organization? Juliet Lanphear, from Heritage NL will be joining us to announce an upcoming opportunity to bring together emerging professionals to network, become involved in the heritage sector, and share their insights into engaging youth in heritage.

So, please join MANL on Tuesday, February 25, 2025 at noon on Zoom. Registration is free and everyone is welcome to participate. To register, simply fill out THIS FORM by noon, NST on Monday, February 24. 

For more information and to register, please click here.

Instructor Spotlight: Susan Furneaux

Work and photo credit: https://www.instagram.com/marynterraart/
Created when they were a student in Susan Furneaux's class.

Susan Furneaux is a teacher, artist, craft consultant, and mentor. She specializes in natural dye and fibre techniques, learning, teaching, and exhibiting throughout Newfoundland and Labrador, nationally and internationally. Susan has won multiple awards for her embroidery, natural dye and innovative use of natural materials including the 2022 VANL CARFAC’s ‘Endurance Award’.

In 2022, Susan was a mentor with Heritage NL’s Mentor-Apprentice Program. Motivated by reciprocal knowledge exchange, capacity building and the preservation of traditional skills, Furneaux shared the craft of Bark Tanning. This is a traditional method used for tanning hides into leather, or colouring materials. Bark Tanning was listed as critically endangered on Heritage NL’s 2021 Craft at Risk List.

In March Susan will be teaching Beyond Basics: An Advanced Landscape Needle Felting Workshop!

With photos for inspiration, Susan Furneaux will guide participants through creating landscapes in needle felting. Topics will include colour theory, blending, background alternatives and embellishment. This workshop requires previous needle felting experience. Participants are required to bring photos for inspiration and any wool bits and pieces they may have in their stash.

When: March 5, 12:30-4:30pm NST
Where: Heritage NL's office located on the 2nd floor of the Newman Building, 1 Springdale Street

Register here for the workshop!

Stories from Chapel's Cove by Patrick Whelan

Excerpt about Harbour Main-Chapel Cove-Lakeview from the Encyclopedia of Newfoundland and Labrador, Volume 2.

Just before the holidays we had a visit to our office from Patrick Whelen of Chapel's Cove. He was interested in dropping off two stories about the community. The first story is a true ghost story he experienced as a boy. Here is his written stories in his words:

"My friend Harold and I were walking home from Avondale one summer's night circa 1960. The time was approximately midnight. The walk home would take us about an hour to complete after accompanying our girlfriends home. The night was very bright with a full moon shining above Hickey's Mountain on the calm water of Second Pond. From the edge of the road to the water was about ten or twelve meters. There were low bushes growing in the pond and along the side with grass closest to the road. So there were no big obstructions.
I said to my friend, "Look do you see that?"
We stopped, and shouted, "Hey, hey!" at the man who kept moving and did not respond. 
He was moving outside the bushes which were growing in the water. This pond has a deep muddy bottom. The silhouette showed that he had something resting on his shoulder and he was supporting the object in his hands. It looked like a rifle. His cap had the shape of a salt and pepper cap. Along the side of the road was crushed stone. We both picked up some and threw at the figure. Then we ran for about fifty feet or so before looking back. There was no one there. Also, when the person was moving outside the bushes, the water was not disturbed. The area where this event occurred was Lakeview. We were on our way home to Chapel's Cove."

Have you ever encountered a ghost near Lakeview? Let us know your experiences!


The next story is about the old cemetery in the community and how it was demolished. Below are the words Patrick wrote about his memories of the site:

"The old cemetery in Chapel’s Cove is located in the centre of the community. No burials took place after about 1900. A new cemetery was created on Chapel’s Cove ridge.

The old cemetery had small and very large apple trees. The very large trees numbering about eight which lined the side of the road. In 1958 a hurricane topped the large trees across the road in front of the new school which we attended and watched the action. Some of the clearing crew used a large two man cross cut saw to junk up the large trees. Those trees were about 60 ft. high and approx. 30 in. diameter. Unfortunately, no one recorded the rings for age.

In 1959/60 Father Howard announced at Mass that the old Parish Hall would be torn down and a new one built. This old building served the Chapel's Cove residents as a church, school, and an entertainment hall. The location of the new hall was not yet to be decided. One Chapel’s Cove resident told Father Howard that he would give him the land to build a new hall.

Anyway one morning at Mass in Harbour Main Father Howard announced that he had permission from the bishop to build the new hall on the old cemetery approx. on the footprint of the old hall. Now the wheels are in motion the trees were all cleared and the old bldg was torn down by the local residents.

Next came the unbelievable, the excavation order to bulldoze the site, to a level property was indicated by Father Howard. Although the people of Chapel’s Cove were talking amongst themselves about this terrible atrocity, only one person, Dick Fewer, spoke openly about it. Since the R.C. Priest was the sole ruler of the community no one dared to question his motives.

A bulldozer from Holyrood was offloaded at the cemetery and began excavating. My school friends would look in awe as the bulldozer started to dig its blade into the ground and push whatever was in its path. He started to dig form Phil Whelan's property towards the river. This area was the location where Phil Whelan's two infant brothers were buried. Further over towards Murphy's fence were the remains of Dick Fewers' family. The land by Whelan's property was higher than the area towards the river, therefore he would cut off the high and fill in the low. As he was digging deeper we could see the skeleton remains and wooden boards from the coffins being pushed ahead of the dozer. The remains which were not pushed in front were crushed by the dozer going front and bak over the land. When any bones became visible we would collect and store them in a wooden container located near the site. During this excavation a dog was seen carrying a human bone in his mouth from the cemetery. 

Now that the site has been levelled off, the graves at the lower area of the cemetery are there to this present day which is October 2024. This cemetery had only two white headstones and one wooden cross surrounded by a white pailing fence. All the remains are buried inside the main entrance gate at St. Peter and Paul cemetery, Chapel's Cove. 

Unfortunately this is a sad but true story that the orders from one person could eradicate the first cemetery in Chapel's Cove."

Are there other older cemeteries that have been demolished? Let us know if you have one in your community!

Registration Open for Youth Heritage Forum

Heritage NL and our partners are excited to announce that the registration for the Youth Heritage Forum is now open. Interested participants can register on Eventbrite here: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/youth-heritage-forum-tickets-1204966269549?aff=oddtdtcreator

The Youth Heritage Forum is a great opportunity for students and emerging professionals to network, attend professional development seminars and workshops, and share your thoughts on being a youth in heritage. Lunch is provided!

"Applying The Halperts’ Vision to Today," event with MUN Folklore

Please join us on Tuesday, February 11th from 6:30 to 8:30 pm in Gushue Hall DH 2002 (Junior Common Room) for a “Applying The Halperts’ Vision to Today,” a roundtable discussion featuring MUN Folklore Department graduates and/or faculty who worked with or were influenced by Dr. Herbert and Violetta Halpert, the founders of Memorial's Department of Folklore, and the Folklore and Language Archive (MUNFLA).

Our panelists will discuss the Halpert's legacy in the province and beyond, reflecting on public folklore, community facing scholarship, and future applications.

Facilitated by Jillian Gould (Folklore, MUN), this event will feature Amanda Dargan (Education Director, City Lore, New York City); Michael Taft (Head of the Archive American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, retired); Crystal Braye (N.L. Public Folklorist, Octopus Consulting); Philip Hiscock (Folklore, MUN, retired); and Neil Rosenberg (Folklore, MUN, retired).

Light refreshments will be served.

Visitors may park in Lot 22 (Large lot by Business and Social Work. To cross Prince Philip, you may take the underpass from the north side of campus, by the Chapel, right to R Gushue Hall). https://www.mun.ca/cep/media/production/memorial/administrative/campus-enforcement-and- patrol/media-library/parking/Permitted-Lot-Map-2024.pdf

Heritage Funding Survey from the Museum Association of Newfoundland and Labrador

Our friends over at MANL invite you to fill out a short Heritage Funding Survey. They write,

We are gathering data about our heritage organizations so we can prepare to educate various levels of government and municipalities on the importance of the heritage sector and to advocate for a much-needed injection of funds into the CEDP program. To achieve this we need your help and that of every heritage organization in the province.

In order for our information to accurately reflect the work being performed by our heritage organizations and the value it brings to our province, we are asking everyone to please complete this short survey at your earliest convenience. Please feel free to forward this survey onto other heritage organizations within the province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

We would also like to thank everyone who took the time to engage with the CBC NL Radio program The Signal with Adam Walsh last week. If you missed the program, you can listen to it on their website. Here is a link to the news story covered by CBC, which also contains a link to the radio program:   https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/nl-heritage-sites-risk-funding-1.7431889

You can help them out by answering the Heritage Funding Survey right here.  

January 2025 edition of the Heritage Update

In the January 2025 edition of the Heritage Update:

• Heritage NL announces the return of the popular Youth Heritage Forum, happening March 22nd;
• we want your feedback for our Youth Engagement and Employment Survey;
• gearing up for the 20th Annual Heritage Places Poster Contest;
• launching the National Heritage Week 2025 Municipal Challenge;
• The NL Historic Trust's Southcott awards;
• ongoing research on the St. Joseph’s Chapel, Blackhead, One Room School and Church;
• the Celebrate 75 project is underway;
• Craft at Risk Mentor receives the Premier’s Medal for Heritage;
• A report on the Cemeteries as Community Heritage workshop in Heart's Content;
• and Flora and Folklore: a taste of Labrador Tea. 

Download the full newsletter at:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NGbVbHQRQkD1vwrj-MOzatFyBXpyHxhi/view?usp=sharing