14 THE COMMUNITY HALL

The Hall has played an important part in the life of our community for nearly a hundred years. In 1890 a number of persons combined together into a company to be called the Stanhope Hall Company for the purpose of erecting a building suitable for lectures, concerts, and other like entertainments. The directors and trustees of this Company were Alexander MacLauchlan, John Ross, Bruce Leitch, Henry Curtis Lawson, George Alexander, Artemas C. Douglas and Ralph Carr. These trustees purchased a piece of land, measuring approximately 38 x 20 feet, fronting on the road leading to Covehead from Duncan and Euphemia MacLauchlan, in fee simple, for the sum of Ten dollars of lawful money of Canada On this site the Stanhope Hall was built, and it remained here until 1937. Over the years, there were political and Gospel meetings at the Hall, and concerts and box socials were held there, to pay off the building debt; songs, recitations and dialogues were popular items at the community concerts. The “Blooming Heather” branch No. 156 of the Orange Lodge used to meet at the Hall every Monday night from 1894 to 1896.

School Fairs were held at the Hall, starting in 1921; these fairs were organised in P.E.I. in 1916 as part of the agricultural training in the rural schools, promoted by the Department of Agriculture. Students from Stanhope, West Covehead, Grand Tracadie and Covehead Road took part, and exhibits included sewing, baking, knitting and wood-working, all shown inside the Hall, with farm animals being judged outside. Fair Secretaries included Irene Lawson, Hilda MacLauchlan, Frances McCabe,rRebecca Keizer, Mae Hughes, Edith MacLauchlan, Mary Horgan, Eric T. Wilson, Eileen Robison and Ivy Hughes. In 1932 the Fair was moved to York, but Stanhope did not participate further.

In 1922 “An Act to Incorporate the Trustees of Stanhope Hall”

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