Baddeck Electrical Power Plant 1928
- Jocelyn
- 29 minutes ago
- 5 min read
History from the Files
From time to time, I will be sharing some historical research materials from my own archive.
With the snow swirling and the temperatures keeping us inside, it seemed a good time to share this snippet of Baddeck history.
Some background:
Bethune’s Garage was launched in 1923 by Norman Bethune Senior. He was a 24-year-old newlywed, just married to Dolly MacIntosh (of Smelt Brook and North Sydney). Norman was an entrepreneur. He saw the potential of providing garage services as cars and travel were becoming commonplace. By the 1930’s, the small garage, located where the Visitor Information Centre is today, had expanded to fill the space between that building and Tom’s Pizza. Through the years, Bethune’s Garage sold gas, cars, home heating oil, operated the school buses and a sawmill. In 1926, Norman installed an electric generating plant that brought power to Baddeck residents for the first time.
The following is a record of a conversation from the 1980’s between Norman Bethune Senior (1899-1986) and his daughter-in-law Muriel (Carmichael) Bethune (1926-2004). I have transcribed her hand-written notes below. See the notes at the end for further discussion.
Baddeck Electrical Power Plant
In 1923 when Bethune's Garage started here there were three domestic lighting plants in Baddeck. The McKay-MacAskill store had a steam boiler to heat their premises and used the steam for lights also. Their lights were not the bulbs as we know, but were arc lights, this type was not satisfactory because the mechanism created static. The White Store had a Delco plant which lit the store. John P. McLeod & Sons had a Fairbanks-Morse lighting their store and the drug store. The third plant was owned by John. M. Campbell, Baddeck Bay.
In 1924 Norman Bethune installed a lighting plant which lit the garage, his house and his mother’s house 1.
On Labour Day Eve, 1926, a fire which started in McKay-MacAskill store burned more than 20 buildings including four stores, St. Michael's Church, some warehouses and several homes. Probably about 20 in all 2.
A month or so later Casey Baldwin suggested to Norman Bethune that he install a power plant and with the urging of a few businessmen, had a man come here from the Fairbanks-Morse Company. A meeting was held in the courthouse attended by about 50 people who were interested in becoming customers. The result was that a semi-diesel engine and 10-kilowatt generator was ordered at a cost of approximately $1900 for the engine and $850 for the generator. The cost of belt, buildings, foundations for engine and generator approximately $1800. About two miles of wire was ordered also wire holders and about forty poles. A total cost of about $6000 3.
On Christmas Eve, 1926, four homes became customers and the numbers kept adding through the winter so that by the autumn of 1927 the plant had to double its capacity (another engine and generator etc.). A year later a third engine and generator were added.
Several people were employed attending to the running of the power plant. The lights would be turned on at dusk and dimmed at 11:45 which was a warning that at midnight the power would be switched off!
People were now interested in purchasing electric washing machines, irons, hot plates, these were for sale at the garage. Monday was wash day, so electricity was provided Monday morning 7 a.m until noon.
About supper time on December 19, 1939, the lights went out. A fire which had started in one of the generators could not be controlled. It quickly engulfed the building and the garage, which contained several new cars and a complete stock of supplies that was enough to last the winter. The Public Library (which was the old congregationalist church bought by Mrs. Bell to house the home industries classes and serve the community as a library) was too close to the fire, it could not be saved. When the fire trucks arrived, coming through bad roads to get here, it was too late 4.
After an interval of about three weeks, power was restored gradually. During the winter of 1939 the garage was rebuilt.
Power rates were set by the Public Utilities Board. Minimum house charge was $3.00; most homes paid about 3.35 per month. Stores paid about $7.50-$8.00 per month. Streetlights cost $20.00 per year per 60-watt light. Wires ran about half a mile up the Shore Road and down the Bay Road. Extending out Twining and Queen streets a quarter of a mile and around Water Street. The biggest users were the hotels between $15-$20 per month. Three hotels here then 5.
In 1940 the Nova Scotia Power Commission took over, and rural electrification began in Victoria County.
Notes:
1. The garage was located across the street from Norman’s mother’s home (now the Aphrodite Gift Shop). Norman’s newly constructed house was originally built on the opposite side of the road but was moved across the street and beside his mother’s home in 1927.
2. In the early hours of Labour Day Monday, September 6, 1926, a fire started in the MacKay-MacAskill Department store (located where Chebucto Place stores are today). The fire soon spread to the buildings on either side of the store and then across the street. In all, 26 buildings between the Courthouse and the Old Post Office were lost, including St. Michael’s Church, many main street businesses and homes were lost.
3. The total cost of the power generation station, wires and poles ($6000) is the equivalent of $110,000 today. A 1925 report by the Public Utility Board of Nova Scotia stated that 23 customers had signed up for power, with 40 customers the goal. Norman Bethune had also installed nine 60-watt streetlights along the main street of Baddeck.
4. Norman Senior lost all his businesses in the fire – a well-stocked warehouse, new cars, and a sawmill located behind the garage. My own father-in-law, Normie Bethune Junior (1930-2022) was nine when the garage burnt. He recalled watching his older brother Lem (1925-2010), a voracious reader, running repeatedly into the burning library, carrying stacks of books out, in an attempt to save as many as he could. He said all their Christmas presents were lost in the fire, as his parents had hidden them in the garage. The winter of 1939 was a hard one, but rebuilding began right away. By mid-January the power was restored and later that year, Bethune’s Garage reopened.
5. The three hotels were: the Telegraph House, the Bras d’Or House, which is the building with Wong’s Restaurant today and Hotel Baddeck, which was located where MacLeod House is today, at the intersection of Chebucto and Jones Streets (and was once Charles J Campbell’s home ‘Duntulum Cottage’ see https://www.jocelynbethune.ca/post/history-of-the-old-post-office-part-i for more. Be sure to check the blog in February for a new biography of Charlie – the man behind the stone face.
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