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Lawyer Sam MacDonell's family on steps of their stone house at Dungarry, Port Hood
20th Century, Circa 1910
Port Hood, Nova Scotia


Credits:
Chestico Museum
Pauline Penny

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At the turn of the 20th century, Port Hood, the Shire town (county seat) of Inverness County was quickly developing from a small fishing and farming village to an industrial and commercial centre. The steel industry which had recently been established in Sydney created a demand for coal all across Cape Breton and Port Hood was enjoying a bit of prosperity. Its own local mines were in production drawing many young men and their families to the area. Electric lighting put in by the coal company and telephone service had 'modernized' the village which was incorporated as a town in 1903. While Port Hood had long been a fishing and shipping centre on Cape Breton Island (and a "free port" for American fishermen from the days of Reciprocity in the mid 1800's), the first decade of the 20th century saw Port Hood as a small but up and coming town flush with a bit of 'hustle and bustle'.