This little town is a gem! We thoroughly enjoyed our stay here and learned so much history. The campground, well it was almost 3rd world status, but the town was so darn cute we can overlook the campground. Lunenburg is a small port town on the South Shore of Nova Scotia. The town was founded in 1753 when the British first attempted to settle Protestants in NS. They intended on displacing the Mi’Kmaq Indians and the Acadians. In 1755 the Acadians were expelled and then the British needed someone to settle the lands. The town is set in 38 blocks. When new families came from New England they were given land grants for a plot of land, provisions for 2 years, and enough wood to build a house. A lot of the New Englanders thought this was a great deal and came over. One problem, sometimes your square of land was on a cliff or maybe your plot of land was across a stream bed. There was no guarantee as to what your plot of land might be. Also, a lot of the promises of provisions for 2 years wasn’t true either. Life was hard for the first New Englanders. I have a hard time feeling sorry for them after they kicked out the Mi’Kmaq Indians and the Acadians.
As time went on the town flourished in two areas – fishing and boat building. Fishing is still prevalent as is the tourism industry for this small town.
Zoom Zoom drove around the cove so I could get the photo of the 3 churches. Turns out I was standing on ‘Private Property’ and didn’t realize it-oops! So the dock and the other cute photos are from the private property too! 🙂
Lupin 
Sea rose 
Row,row, row your boat… 
The port towns around Nova Scotia are known for their colorful shops and houses. Well, many years ago it was said that the sailors used these colorful places as landmarks to help guide them on the ocean. None of the towns we have been in yet have had codes or regulations as to what color your house can be. If you want a purple house with pink trim – go ahead and paint it. I also thought maybe one of the paint companies might have a deal with the shops. Nope. They paint whatever they want with their favorite brand.
Green and Blue Orange and Red Red and Purple 
Blue and Orange 
Old church…now a home 
Tan and Brown 
Blue and White 
Cupcake House Pink and White 
Old Academy White and Black 
Blue and White 
Shaker Shingles and White 
White and Black 
Gray and White 
Gray and Burgundy 
Yellow and White 
Tan on Tan 
Cream and White 
Federal Blue and White 
Gray Shingles and White 
Light Green and White 
Green and White 
Light Green and White 
Red and White 
Green and White 
White on White 
Blue on Blue 
Chartreuse and White 
Purple and WHite
Green and White 
Gary on Gray 
Peach and Cream 
Blue and Cream 
Rainbow 
Green and Burgundy 
Lilac and White 
Red and White
Green and Cream 
Blue and White
I was also mesmerized by the doors on a lot of these places. We were told that if you were getting a new door, just leave the old one one the street because someone could use it. There are a few homes in town with doors from the local churches. As they got new doors the old ones did not go to waste!
Old Church…now a home 
Love the blue barn door. 
Oldest home in Lunenburg. Built with no nails! 
Recycled church doors. 
The townspeople were superstitious back in the late 1700’s to the 1800’s. When you entered a house you left through the same door you came through. A lot of homes in town have their front of their home and the back of their home a mirror image. This was done to confuse the devil. He wouldn’t know which door to come through. It was said he only came in the back door. Some people had what was called a “coffin window” put in the back of their house. Since you were deceased you couldn’t go out the front door anymore. Back in those days you held the wake at your home. Since the coffin wouldn’t fit through the door(front) and they didn’t want you going out the back (it would invite the devil) you exited through the coffin window. This house has a coffin window! Notice the window next to the back door area where the broom is. It has 4 panes of glass instead of 3 like all the other windows-that’s the coffin window.
Here’s the rest of the home!
Beautiful corbels 
No deer problem here! 
Here are some cute decorations on the poles around town!
More fun around town including a sidewalk message that states, “Aaliyah is great!”
“Aaliyah is great!” 
Seahorse corbels 
Dory (boat) molds 
Dory 
Some lady’s pretty garden. 
Here they serve “deserts” 
Now you have seen it all! 
One for me – one for Zoom Zoom 
Zoom Zoom can always dream! 
I love this folk art! 
Big dog-big poop! 
FANCY 
This is Jack the Horse 
Sea roses 
Full working gallows in the basement in case they need it! 
LGBTQIA – showing their pride!
As in most towns they have a few churches. One of them is not just a simple little church, it’s a big, elegant, impressive church. Under it there is a tomb that contains the remains of several towns people. They found them there after a fire the church had and almost took it down to the ground. Some pranksters lit 19 fires around town in trash cans on Halloween night. The sparks from one of the fires jumped to the church. The firefighters thought they had put the fire out. No, it was still smoldering under the roof of the church. By the time they got back the church was up in flames. The church has been remade to its standard including the hand painted murals on the walls and ceiling.
This is Everitt, our wagon master. He is wearing suspenders. His ancestry goes back in Lunenburg 10 generations. He gave us a brief history of how his family ended up in Nova Scotia and that his ancestors were the first murdered family (father, mother, daughter) in Lunenburg. The boys that did it were caught and hung on gallows hill. One of the brothers couldn’t keep the secret of what they had done and confessed. The monuments are memorials to the first people to come to Luneburg and the year they came. Everett’s family name is on the very first monument. Some of the name spellings are not quite correct since a lot of people back then were illiterate, some of the name had been spelled phonetically.
