CAN-ORANGE-L Archives

From: "Brian McConnell" <>
Subject: LOL No. 1648 - Jeddore Oyster Ponds
Date: Fri, 27 Aug 1999 19:47:38 -0300

I recently came upon the following information prepared in 1990 by
Peter Morris of the Nova Scotia Museum on the Loyal Orange Lodge in
Jeddore Oyster Ponds.

THE ORANGE HALL AT JEDDORE OYSTER PONDS

The Lodge at Jeddore Oyster Ponds was organized on April 27, 1894,
pursuant to an application made 16 days earlier by James Jennex and
others. Dr. E.D. McLean of Musquodoboit Harbour became Master. Named
Atlantic Loyal Orange Lodge No. 1648 it was in 1900 the largest
"isolated" lodge in the province with 63 members. By 1905 it had come
under the jurisdiction of Halifax West District No. 1. In 1922 a new
district lodge was formed at Jeddore when officers of Dunnett Loyal
Orange Lodge No. 1627, Dartmouth, Star of the East Lodge No. 1970,
Upper Musquodoboit and Atlantic Loyal Lodge formed a new District.

By the early 1930s, popularity of the Order along the Eastern shore of
Nova Scotia had waned. It was reported in 1933 that Atlantic Lodge
No. 1648 had not submitted annual returns to the Grand Lodge "for some
time", despite periodic claims that it had been revived. In 1934 the
Atlantic Loyal Orange Lodge was declared dormant.

The Orange Hall in Jeddore was likely constructed in 1899. Certainly
it was completed by August of that year when the Truro Daily News
reported the celebration of an all-day "monster picnic", with the
objective of finishing the interior of the building. A pleasure was
thus made of necessity. The tables were "loaded with good things" for
the men and women from the Jeddore region and Middle Settlement who
participated.

The building was erected on land which had been sold to the local
lodge by John George Mitchell. The property deeded was "all that
certain lot and parcel of land situate lying and being at Jeddore...on
the east of the East Jeddore road bounded as follows: Beginning at a
cross mark chiseled on a large granite rock on the east side of the
East Jeddore road running east sixty feet, thence north fifty feet,
thence west sixty feet, thence south fifty feet to place of
beginning".

The original Orange Hall still stands and is a two-storey wooden
structure with shingle-clad exterior, symmetrical side windows and a
shallow-sloped, almost flat, roof. In its general plainness of
appearance it conforms to norms of rural Orange Hall architecture.
>From the standpoint of size, however, it is more distinctive.
Measuring 50' lengthwise and 28' in width, the Hall considerably
exceeds average dimensions for Orange Halls in Canada and is an
indication of the prominence of the Order in the community. In
exterior aspect, it appears today much as it did when it was built,
with the exception of relocated side entrances, a new porch, and an
addition to the rear in the 1950s.

Down through the years the Hall was the venue for a wide range of
activities not directly related to Orange Lodge business. It was used
both as an election polling station and a meeting hall where the
platforms of candidates for political office were declaimed. It
hosted the so-called "speech festivals" involving local students, bean
suppers, and on occasion the regular meeting of the local chapter of
the Temperance Society. More recently, in the 1950s and 60s after it
had become the church hall for St. John's Anglican Church, it even
accomodated a bowling alley.

The Orange Lodge at Jeddore Oyster Ponds ceased activities as such
before World War II and the activities of the provincial Order itself
no longer match those of its earlier halcyon days. But the Hall at
Jeddore Oyster Ponds is a continuing reminder of the convictions and
community spirit of its founders.

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The author of this article, Peter Morris, also notes that among those
historic Orange Halls in Nova Scotia still standing in the summer of
1990 and which were visited were: Advocate Harbour, Apple River,
Eureka ( in active use ), Glace Bay, Lattie's Brook ( in active use ),
Jeddor Oyster Ponds ( now a Church Hall ), River Hebert (slated for
demolition ), and Springhill ( now used as a store ).

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• LOL No. 1648 - Jeddore Oyster Ponds by "Brian McConnell" <>