Lunenburg, Nova Scotia in the 19th and Twenty-first Centuries (RECORDING)

This is a recording of a talk called Lunenburg, Nova Scotia in the 19th and Twenty-first Century recorded on 6th February 2024

This talk is part of the Online Winter Talk Series 2024 called Victorian and Edwardian Architecture in the Wider British World. Follow this link to book all of the talks.

Although the sun has long-since set on the British Empire, its architecture still casts a long shadow. For the 2024 Winter Talk series the Victorian Society will be visiting Australia, Canada, India, South Africa, Malaysia and New Zealand, with a number of the lectures coming from those countries themselves. A range of themes or positions will be discussed, for the architecture of the colonisers to the legacy they left behind to the manner in which the foreign architecture was adapted and adopted by the indigenous peoples who understood the nature of the climate and materials of their own countries. The lecture series ends with an overview and analysis of Edwardian Baroque architecture in ‘Greater Britain’. On 24 January there is an introductory lecture on nineteenth-century Glasgow, the Second City of the Empire.

"In touch with our modern civilization": Lunenburg in the Nineteenth and Twenty-first Centuries by Hilary Grant and Peter Coffman The town of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, is renowned for its colourful and beautifully crafted vernacular architecture, its perfectly preserved eighteenth-century colonial plan, and for embodying traditional maritime lifestyles and livelihoods. These are the reasons why Lunenburg received designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995. This presentation will explore Lunenburg’s Victorian and Edwardian architecture, as well as the importance and the challenges of keeping that architecture viable in the present day. Although the town’s layout is unchanged since its founding in 1753, much of its distinct architectural character dates from its period of greatest prosperity - the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The quotation in our title comes from W.A. Letson's souvenir booklet Lunenburg by the Sea, written around 1896, near the peak of that prosperity. It portrays Lunenburg as a town steeped in history yet also a modern town with thriving commerce and advanced infrastructure. It is a snapshot of late-Victorian society and attitudes towards past and present that resonate with the dilemma faced by Lunenburg today: how to remain faithful to the past and its architectural legacy while meeting the needs of a twenty-first-century community.

Hilary Grant is Senior Planner and Heritage Officer for the Town of Lunenburg. She has worked in the heritage field at the national and provincial levels in Canada and has published on heritage policy and practice. She has a B.A. from Carleton University and an M.Phil. from the University of Cambridge and is in the final stages of her Ph.D. at Carleton's Cultural Mediations program.

Peter Coffman is an Associate Professor in Carleton University’s History & Theory of Architecture program. He is the author of Newfoundland Gothic as well as numerous articles on architecture in nineteenth-century Canada and medieval England. He is also Past President of the Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada.

After booking a ticket, you will be given access to the recording of the event. Please ignore the event date in the listings.

This event helps raise funds for The Victorian Society - the only charity dedicated to fighting for our Victorian and Edwardian heritage. Join us today and safeguard our unique cultural heritage for future generations! For further information, click here.

The Victorian Society is an IHBC recognised CPD provider​.