Description of Historic Place

The New Chester Community Club is a modest, one-and–a-half storey, one-room schoolhouse that is now used as a social club. It is set back and down a slight slope from the road in a rural setting in the community of New Chester, on Nova Scotia's eastern shore. The building and property are included in the municipal designation.

Heritage Value

The New Chester Community Club is valued for its intact original architectural features and as a physical representation of the one-room schoolhouse education system of early twentieth century Nova Scotia.

Also known locally as the Little Red Schoolhouse, this building was built in 1915 to meet the educational needs of the New Chester residents. With a rather remote setting inland from Ecum Secum in Nova Scotia’s sparsely populated Eastern Shore region, a building of this size was sufficient but also allowed schoolchildren to remain relatively close to home. The school opened late in the year on June 5th, 1915, with Katherine Harris as the schoolteacher. Other notable teachers over the years included Deliah Pace, Bessie Hay, Hilda Moser and Opal Forrestall.

Albert Moser and Thomas Irwin of nearby Moser River did most of the work on the structure. The building retains many of its original features, including the sash windows and wood shingles. The building has an overall balanced and unadorned appearance with a steeply pitched roof, symmetrical windows on the side and front facades, and a central entrance in the gable end with a wooden door. Decoration is added with a wide trim at the eaves and modest window hoods. A simple, pitched roof covered entrance with wooden support brackets defines the entrance. The building also has a basement entrance that was originally used mainly as access for coal and wood storage as the building was heated with one central stove in the classroom.

The building also served the community as a space for church services at times until an Anglican church was built nearby in 1959. In 1952, senior students began being bussed to a new consolidated high school in Sherbrooke, lowering the class sizes in this traditional one-room schoolhouse. By 1962, the school was closed and elementary students were also bussed to a new school in the community of Marie Joseph. In 1974, a conservation grant allowed the New Chester community to begin repairs on the structure and it began a new life as a venue for social gatherings and the local community club.

Source: District of St. Mary’s municipal heritage files, “New Chester Community Club”.

Character-Defining Elements

Character-defining elements of the New Chester Community Club include:

- original location, size and massing;
- wood-frame construction and wood shingle cladding;
- medium-pitch gable roof;
- symmetrical placement of windows and entrance;
- wide trim at the eaves and modest window hoods as decorative elements contrasting with the wood shingle exterior;
- simple, pitched roof covered entrance with wooden support brackets in the gable end;
- original sash windows and wooden door three glass panes.