Mahone Bay Old School_A Life and Times_Bob Sayer

The Architects: Boehner Bros., West LaHave
From McAlpine’s Phone Directory: Courtesy: Fisherman’s Museum of the Atlantic
Not only is the Boehner Bros. advertisement and number listed, but also the
number of school trustee and ‘Founding Father,’ Charles B. Begin.
The choice of architect was a good one. Boehner Bros. was a firm with a very
good reputation. The following is quoted from SAWPOWER: Making Lumber
in the Sawmills of Nova Scotia, by Barbara R. Robertson [published by Nimbus
and The Nova Scotia Museum], pages 112 and 113.
• ‘The company built the church in East LaHave and many public buildings
throughout Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland’.
• Saint Anne’s Church in Glace Bay is a good example of their work, see picture,
middle right next page.
• ‘George W. Boehner began transferring his sash and door company from Liverpool to
LaHave in 1870 and it was to continue in business until the 1980s. George W. was one
of the first building contractors to manufacture his own materials’. When George W.
died it became Boehner Bros. [Fred A. and George A., sons of George W.]
‘Boehner Bros. advertised as contractors, builders and manufacturers of windows,
doors, moldings, blinds, newels, balusters, columns, flooring and sheathing, counters,
bank fittings, and church work [including pews] a specialty’
• ‘The company employed about 30 people at the factory in 1913, but many more
were kept busy seasonally in the woods’.
Bruce Boehner still lives in the family house [see next page, bottom right
corner]. He was pleased to offer information and found the photo of Warren
Eisenhauer and Fred A. Boehner. Fred stamped all his plans with ‘Fred Boehner-Architect.’
He corrected some errors that are in the book, and added some information
about some of the pictures on the next page:
• In the top left picture of Fred’s family, the tall lady is Grace and the little
girl on the right is Lavinia.
• In the top right photo of George’s family, daughter ‘Annie’ was actually Sophia.
• Fred William, Fred A.’s son is seated in the employees’ photo-front row,
third from right, wearing the white shirt.
• The factory in the bottom left photo was destroyed by fire in 1913, and replaced,
further up the hill, by the two-storey building pictured in the staff photo.
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