On Saturday, May 13th, 1899, Karl rode about 40km north from Oxford and stopped that night at the Terrace Hotel in Amherst. “I arrived at Amherst at 12 o’clock in good time for dinner at the Terrace Hotel. I found Amherst a lively little town and I put in a fine time there. I ran across McGregor Patterson, manager of the Electric Light Plant who called and took me to his church Sunday morning.” (Truro Daily News Volume 9, number 132 Friday May 26 1899)
It was on this hotel’s stationary — advertising a central location, hot & cold baths, electric lights & bells — where Karl wrote that first letter to younger sister Mattie describing what he had packed for his journey (Letters to Mattie-Post #6). In addition to his personal belongings, Karl packed a small, leather-bound book to get stamped by the postmaster to verify his travels. The first stamp in the book was from the town of Amherst.
The Amherst post office occupied space in the building located at 50 East Victoria Street. The post office building is one of the finest examples in Nova Scotia of the 19th Century Architect, Thomas Fuller, who also designed the Ottawa Parliament Buildings and 66 other post offices in small urban centres. Although the old post office no longer exists, the building, with its red and grey sandstone, is still prominent in Amherst and is now a commercial space.
The red sandstone used for the Amherst post office building was locally quarried and representative of Amherst’s construction in the 1800s. Although Karl doesn’t specify the name of the church, nor Mr. McGregor Patterson’s faith, based on my research, I believe that Karl went to the First Baptist Church on 90 Victoria Street on that Sunday morning.
Constructed in 1895, the First Baptist Church built in the Richardson Romanesque architectural style defined by the central tower rising 100 feet, establishing it as a landmark in Amherst. The original interior of the Church had the capacity for 700 people, and in 1907 a balcony was added to accommodate an additional 400 parishioners. Its history indicates that many of Amherst’s most influential citizens were members of the congregation. Most notably was one of the Fathers of Confederation, Sir Charles Tupper, who donated one of the stained glass windows of the Church. Over the years, this window over the main entrance known as the “Peace Window” has been featured in stained glass publications worldwide.
It was something for me to sit on the old oak pews in the church admiring the “Peace Window” and think that Karl would have that same view in 1899. I suspect that many of the buildings that I’ll visit along Karl’s journey will no longer be present or will have changed significantly. Still, this church, albeit for the balcony’s addition, is essentially the same as when Mr. Patterson took Karl there in 1899.
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