Mahone Bay Old School_A Life and Times_Bob Sayer

Photo at foot of previous page - Courtesy: Bill Meredith Collection
[A rare view of the waterfront from the bay! (pg. 5) Mader’s Warehouse is
center with the shop to its left. In 1914 one class had to start the year on the
second floor of the warehouse until their new classroom was finished. The
tower of the old Methodist Church [later used as a theatre and community
hall] can be seen on the left, and the spire of the Baptist is to the right. The
Freeman home [later, the location of the Zwicker Inn, now a candy shop] is
on the extreme left.]
Candy Shop
‘Next to Mader’s was a candy store, [street number 633] run by Emma Veinot
and Laura Kaiser’ [later, this candy shop moved to the other side of the road…
kids drooled at the candy, set out under large glass covered counters]
Fancy’s Blacksmith’s, “The Hot Place To Be!”
The Sunday School Superintendent & The Cusser
The Royal Hotel [also known as The Mader Hotel]
• ‘Opposite Fancy was the Royal Hotel [now the nursing home at street no.640].
I spent so much time with the Mader’s sons- Fred, Bill, George and Owen.
• The hotel was also used for salesmen’s sample display rooms. All salesmen arrived
in town by the R.R. [Railroad] and had large trunks of samples. The merchants
came there to see the merchandise and place orders.’
• An early photo, below, of the Royal [Mader] Hotel reminds us of the horse and
buggy age. Cars were still rare in 1914. The Royal was the number one hotel in
town. Guests who arrived in town by train were met at the station. Fred Ramsey,
who lives now on Pleasant Street, turned it into a nursing home in the mid
1960s. He kept a number of guest registers, and the signatures include
Wilfred Laurier, prime minister of Canada and Mrs. Fennimore Cooper. The
livery stables behind the hotel are clearly shown. The building to the left
housed the samples rooms, and upstairs a hall used regularly for dances.
• ‘Next to the candy shop, [in a space now vacant] was Mr. D. A. Fancy’s Blacksmith
Shop. That was the town’s hot spot for us youngsters. D.A was truly the village
smithy. Not Andrews or Harris Ham up town.
• D.A. shod all the horses and oxen. Or rather his son Cecil did, while dad made the
shoes and shipyard forms.
• Mr. Fancy was the Baptist Sunday School Supt. and knew only good Biblical
words [he never cussed]. But his son knew and used all the [cuss] words daily….
• The horses were no problem. Not so with the oxen…they had to be lifted off their
feet in a large canvass carrier [this process can still be seen at Ross Farm
Museum]...when he did the rear hoofs… somehow all oxen would get nervous and
without warning the flood would start flowing and run down Cecil’s neck, back and
arms. Anyone present would hear, very loudly, all the words.
• Mr. Fancy would just say, “Cecil! Cecil!” [D. A. was well respected in Mahone,
and was elected to the first Town Council in 1919].
• Cecil’s language was not quite the language for guests of the Mader Hotel across
the road to hear.’ [Maybe that was one reason why Mr. Fancy relocated later
to further up the other side of the street, present number 668, now the lot
occupied by Seawitch Gifts.
• ‘Cecil would take me deer hunting…only he carried a gun…Years later in W.W.
2 [Second World War] he walked with..Martin Allen up thru Italy when Cecil
dropped dead from a bullet.’
Courtesy: Bill Meredith collection (down stairs, left of photo was the office where men gathered
to “talk and drink” (Ulrica Strum). Will Mader is the man in white shirt sleeves.
Winter Horse Racing on the Harbour Ice
• ‘The hotel had a large livery stable and had many horses and wagons to rent…They
also had the only stallion in town. The name was Marshall M. It was a very fast runner
and Mr. Mader was often challenged by Mr. Ambrose Eisenhauer, who also had a
racer.
• The trotting track [see map ] was no longer used, so they would race in winter on
the harbour ice. They would start almost at Strum’s [see map] and race up to Ernst’s
Shipyard. What a crowd of people on the ice. They used regular trotting wagons.’
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