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Liverpool
—  Community  —
Liverpool's bridge at Bristol Avenue, crossing the Mersey River
Liverpool Location of Liverpool, Nova Scotia
Coordinates: 44°2′24″N 64°43′12″W / 44.04°N 64.72°W / 44.04; -64.72
Country	Canada
Province	Nova Scotia
Municipality	Region of Queens Municipality
Founded	1759
Incorporated Town	1897
Dissolved	April 19, 1996
Time zone	AST (UTC-4)
Canadian Postal code	B0T 1K0
Area code(s)	902
Telephone Exchange	350 354 356 642 646
*Median household income, 2000 ($) (all households) Part of a series about Places in Nova Scotia

Liverpool (2001 pop.: 3,295) is a Canadian community and former town located along Nova Scotia's South Shore. It is located in the Region of Queens Municipality.

History

Liverpool's harbour was long a seasonal camp of Nova Scotia's Mi'kmaq and was known as Ogomkigeak meaning "dry sandy place" and Ogukegeok, meaning "place of departure". The harbour was named Port Rossignol by Samuel de Champlain after a Capt. Rossignol who was using the harbour for fur trading.^[1] It later became the site of a small Acadian settlement known as Lingley. Following the expulsion of the Acadians, Liverpool was founded by New England Planters as a fishing port in 1759, named after Liverpool in England—which also lies on the Mersey River. The town was strengthened after the American Revolutionary War by additional arrivals from the Loyalist refugees.

Liverpool's struggle for identity during the war has been the subject of considerable study by historians.^[2] The town was at first sympathetic to the cause of the American Revolution, but after repeated attacks by American privateers on local shipping interests and one direct attack on the town itself, Liverpool citizens turned against the rebellion. During the American Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812, Liverpool financed and manned significant numbers of privateer vessels who preyed on French vessels in the West Indies and American shipping off Nova Scotia's and New England's coasts. The port was notable for such vessels as the brig Rover and the schooner Liverpool Packet as well as mariners such as Joseph Barss and merchants such as Enos Collins. An exciting eye-witness account of this turbulent period can be found in the published diaries of Simeon Perkins, an important merchant in early Liverpool.

During the nineteenth century, the town became a major seaport as the fishing and ship building industries grew. The town also became a leading exporter of timber which was floated down the Mersey River (or the Rivière Rossignol for Acadians) from the inland forests of the Lake Rossignol watershed. For a time after the War of 1812, Liverpool was second only to Halifax as the major port in the province, but was later eclipsed by ports on the north shore of the province such as Pictou and New Glasgow on the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

The mid-nineteenth century move toward steam-powered vessels which were built with steel, ruined the area's vibrant wooden-ship building industry, and the further financial dislocation caused by the collapse of the local Bank of Liverpool in 1871 combined to severely hurt the town's economy and it went into a slow decline. Liverpool's fortunes were temporarily revived in the 1920s when it became a centre for rum-runners exporting alcohol to the United States during prohibition. More significant growth took place in 1929 when the Mersey Pulp and Paper Mill was completed in the adjoining village of Brooklyn. World War II also bolstered the economy reviving the town's shipyard with repairs to naval corvettes and minesweepers.

Geography

Liverpool is situated on the Atlantic coast along Nova Scotia's South Shore. The community occupies the west bank of the mouth of the Mersey River and along its harbour front faces opposite the smaller community of Brooklyn which is situated on the east bank of the River. Beyond Liverpool, the river widens to become an estuary called Liverpool Bay, which is partially sheltered by Coffin Island, and there melds into the Atlantic Ocean.Coordinates: 44°02′N 64°43′W / 44.04°N 64.72°W / 44.04; -64.72

Climate

Economy

Liverpool's largest employer is a AbitibiBowater pulp mill in nearby Brooklyn. The Bowater-Mersey mill was established in 1929 and now produces 253,000 metric tons of newsprint per year. It is located on the Mersey River estuary and is a joint partnership between AbitibiBowater Incorporated and The Washington Post. The mill's port accommodates large ocean freighters year-round.

Tourism has become increasingly important to Liverpool and the South Shore in recent decades, particularly as tourists travel the "Lighthouse Route" a scenic drive between the ferry port at Yarmouth and Halifax. Liverpool has a large number of museums for a small town. They include the Queens County Museum and the adjacent Perkins House, the 1760s residence of Simeon Perkins, as well as the Hank Snow Museum and several private museums run by Nova Scotian photographer Sherman Hines. Facing Liverpool harbour is the Fort Point Lighthouse, the third oldest lighthouse in Nova Scotia which contains a lighthouse museum and is surrounded by a public park. Liverpool has also become a cottaging destination during the summer months for residents of Halifax.

Tourism

Tourist information can be found on the Region of Queens website at http://www.queens.ca or on Liverpool's WikiTravel listing. [1]

Government

In 1996, Liverpool disincorporated as a town and merged with the Municipality of the County of Queens to form the Queens Regional Municipality.

References

A History of Queens County (1873) James F. More