Though warm and sunny, Grandson and I went to Halliburton House on Monday to look at the third historic landmark open to the public in Windsor.
Thomas Chandler Halliburton was born in Windsor in 1796. He attended Kings College in Windsor and became a lawyer, judge and politician before the Confederation of Canada.
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| Kings College in the early 1800's |
He spent a bit of time in England and married his first wife while there. They returned to Nova Scotia where he resided and worked in Annapolis Royal. He was also a writer the Nova Scotian paper published his articles weekly under the name of Sam Slick.
From there, his stories made there way to England where they were published by another person.
The house was originally called Clifton after the town where his wife was born.
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| Painting of Halliburton House when first built |
Halliburton purchased the land in 1832 and had the house built between 1835 and 1837. At first it was only the depth of the front rooms and a wide hall. The width was as wide as seen in the photo as it housed two wings for bedroom (adult and children wings) and the kitchen in the basement.
As you enter the house, there is a lady's parlor to the right. This gorgeous chandelier was hanging in there and makes one wonder if it had candles or gas bulbs in it when it was first installed in the house. And when was it installed?
A beautiful gramophone that had tin records. It still plays and is lovely. Also in the room was a small piano, a regular and fainting couch, a china cabinet and a table with 2 chairs. Most of the furniture is not original to the house as Judge Halliburton sold it off in 1856.
To the right of the entry way was the main parlor. It is somewhat larger than the lady's parlor and was sparsely furnished. I took no pictures of it.
Next to the main parlor was the library. It was beautiful. The desk was Judge Halliburtons and had a secret compartment.
And the light on the desk was unique.
The china cabinets were filled with old pottery some of which belonged to the Acadian.
And there was a book case filled with antique books.
Beside the book case was a prayer chair that was used by Mrs. Halliburton. No photo of it unfortunately.
Across the hall was more room that were built on starting the year after the Halliburtons moved in. One room was a gorgeous dining room. The dining room and one other room had sky lights making those room bright and airy feeling.
Beside the dining room was the judge's office. Down the hall from the office and library was the children's wing. It housed their bedrooms. On the landing these items were displayed.
It would be interesting if Mrs. Halliburton used items similar to these or not.
The bedrooms were small and 4 children slept in the bedrooms in this wing.
This larger room probably housed several of the children. There was also a long room that housed some toys but I suspect it was another bedroom.
One climbed stairs to another area that probably was for storage and then up to a look out that was added in later years. Downstairs is the kitchen.
This kitchen was not what I expected but it was extremely interesting. I did not see any place for a wood cook stove so wondered if everything was cooked on the fire and in the bread oven. Who really knows.
The many items found in the basement were to the period and quite interesting.
Spinning, weaving items interested me.
Wooden bowls .......
Glass and crockery..............
Butter churn and crock which held milk..........
Cast iron dishes and flat irons........
Dishes galore with all of them from one set.
The basement is one large room but research states it was several room due to construction.
In 1856, after his children were grown and on their own, Judge Halliburton sold his home and furniture and moved to England. There he married and lived in Gordon House until his death.
In 1939, the province of Nova Scotia bought Halliburton's house in Windsor as it is an important piece of Nova Scotia's history. There are discrepancies to the history of the house; what you are told and what has been found out is part of the charm of this place.
Hockey's Birthplace
Windsor's claims the fame to being Hockey's birthplace.
It was first called hurley and was mentioned in Judge Halliburton's book.
In the house, the other end of the long hall was the adult sleeping area. The four rooms in that wing have been converted to the Hockey museum.
One of the first hockey sticks used to play hurley. The Mi'kmaq people designed hockey sticks as they look today.
And, believe it or not, the first pucks were made from wood.
The predecessor to the Stanley cup lives here. It was won three times by Moncton and that team got to keep it. The shield in the front replaced the trophy.
Hockey was played in Windsor in this rink.
And it still stands today next to the swimming pool. I had wondered about the history of that "barn".
The first Maple Leaf team was in Windsor.
Some hockey players from Nova Scotia who played NHL hockey.
One of the older hockey teams from Windsor
And a lady's team. Ladies could not play hockey for many years after hockey was founded.
We went outside so Grandson could play frisbee and we got to see a sundial which told us it was near noon.
We had a fabulous time and have two more museums to visit in the next two weeks.
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