100 KING STREET |
Nova Scotia Tourism Region : Cape Breton Island
Description From Owner:
- For many years this place was called Bar Town or North Bar because the harbour contained one of the largest sandbars in Cape Breton.
- Directly opposite North Bar on the side of the harbour was South Bar, which made inner Sydney Harbour a safe retreat for shipping. The first settlers, in 1780, were William Campbell and Adam Moore from Aberdeen, Scotland.
- In 1784, in anticipation of an influx of Loyalist settlers, Cape Breton became a separate colony from mainland Nova Scotia.
- The first Lt.-Gov, J. F. W. DesBarres, selected La Baye des Espagnols (Spanish Harbour), as Sydney then was called, to be the capital. Sydney, Australia, was also named for him.
- Sydney remained the capital of Cape Breton until 1820, when the colony was re-annexed to Nova Scotia. It was named 'the shiretown of Cape Breton County,' was incorporated as a town in 1886 and as a city in 1904.
- Coal mining began in the 1820s and between 1841 and 1871, the Archibald and Clarke Coal Co. built 27 ships here to carry their coal to market. In 1898 the Reid-Newfoundland Co. established a ferry service between North Sydney and Port aux Basques, NF
- In 1974 the University College of Cape Breton was founded by the campus of St. Francis Xavier University with the Nova Scotia Eastern Institute of Technology. In 1995, Sydney, Sydney Mines and North Sydney became part of the Reg. Mun. of Cape Breton.
- With permission from 'Nova Scotia Place Names' David E. Scott 2015
Address of this page: http://ns.ruralroutes.com/NorthSydney