In 1936, the recently widowed Flora Marsh (nee MacQuarrie) and her family of four teenaged children moved from Sydney, Cape Breton, to Halifax. The children grew up in a household rich with music, their mother a talented pianist from a musical…

In April 2001, the Canada Parks and Monuments Board declared Edith Archibald a "person of national historic significance" for her role in the first wave of feminism in Canada. A reformer and woman of influence, Archibald was instrumental in the…

Built in 1787, Cossit House is one of the oldest surviving houses in Sydney. It was built by Anglican minister, Reverend Ranna Cossit, a loyalist from New Hampshire who settled in Sydney in 1786. When Cossit agreed to the post, the…

In 1901, Sydney was a town in the midst of a remarkable transformation. Just a decade earlier, it had been what one historian has generously called a "sleepy colonial town." At the end of the 18th century, though, the coming of the steel…

On the northern boundary of Sydney, adjacent to the steel plant property, is Whitney Pier, a community that has traditionally been home to plant workers. Whitney Pier is known for being a remarkably diverse community, the product of an early-20th…

Just off Route 239, overlooking the south arm of Sydney Harbour, you can pull off the road and enjoy and picnic and a hike in Petersfield Provincial Park. The park gets its name from the Petersfield estate, the grand home built by industrialist and…

August 13, 1955: with thousands of spectators watching and participating, one hundred bagpipers led a parade across the Canso Causeway, officially opening the road connection between Cape Breton Island and mainland Nova Scotia. Ninety-nine of those…