TRAVEL LIKE A LOCAL | Top 10,000 Places to Visit in Canada
The page created by Evrytt Foy | Jayden Berard | Jaevelene Hinagpis | Jasmine Kaur | Harjeet Singh | Red River College 
| William Joy – H.M. George IV passing Yarmouth on his return from Edinburgh, 1822, Wikimedia Commons
In the center of town, the Collins Street Heritage District boasts many of the elaborate homes once owned by local sea captains and merchants.
Past and present are interwoven along the waterfront, where you can see the Milton clock tower and historic Killam Brothers Marina. The south end of Yarmouth boasts the Old Yarmouth Academy as well as the first Yarmouth Hospital.
Photo: https://www.townofyarmouth.ca/heritage.html
Through the 19th century, Yarmouth was a major shipbuilding centre, at one point boasting more registered tonnage per capita than any other port in the world. Yarmouth ships were found in most major ports throughout the world at this time.
The era produced a wealth of ship paintings, artifacts and documents that are now housed in the Yarmouth County Museum and Archives. This is an award-winning museum with over 20,000 artifacts that document Yarmouth County’s heritage, in a historic former church.
It’s also home to the third-largest ship portrait collection in Canada.
In the late 1800s, William D. Lovitt was one of Yarmouth’s most prominent shipowners. He was the major owner of seven ships.
William Dodge Lovitt owned his own shipyard in Belliveau’s Cove, Digby County (some fifty miles from Yarmouth) where the majority of his vessels were built. These vessels ranged the world taking the name of Yarmouth with them and bringing home profits for Lovitt and the other owners of his ships.
He was president of the Yarmouth Duck and Yarn Co, a local textile mill that was profitable into the 20th century.
The William L. Lovitt House is a two and a half storey Queen Ann Revival-style wood frame house built in 1897. It is located on Vancouver Street in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia on a large residential lot overlooking the head of Yarmouth Harbour.
The American composer Meredith Willson wrote his well-known song “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” while staying in Yarmouth’s Grand Hotel.
In 1894 the original Grand Hotel opened on the east side of Yarmouth’s Main Street, just northeast of what today is called Frost Park. Unfortunately, the original building has not survived. You can feel only the atmosphere of the place.
Maud Lewis was a folk artist from Nova Scotia. She remains one of Canada’s best-known folk artists.
Born on the Yarmouth and Acadian Shore of Nova Scotia in 1903, Maud spent most of her time alone, mostly because she felt uncomfortable about her differences around the other children. She began her artistic career by selling hand-drawn and painted Christmas cards.
Screenwriter Sherry White wrote a script for a film about Lewis, entitled Maudie which made its Canadian debut at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival.
In Yarmouth, Maud lived on Hawthorne Street.
Seafest is a unique maritime festival that takes place every July in Yarmouth. Since 1979, locals and visitors have come together every summer to celebrate the food, culture, and life of our coastal community. Our award-winning festival offers spectacular events and fun activities for all ages.
Don’t miss SeaFesr Car Show.
John Patch was a sailor and fisherman who invented one of the first versions of the screw propeller. He was born in Yarmouth in 1781.
One day, while watching a small boat being manoeuvered with a single oar, John Patch came up with the idea for a device that would allow steamships to travel without the need of inefficient paddlewheels or wind-dependent sails. Thirty years later he had seen his idea become reality.
John’s invention is presented at an exhibit at the Yarmouth County Museum & Archives.
The Coal Shed Music Festival is a summer music event created as a fundraiser for the Yarmouth Food Bank. Local artists entertain on the Yarmouth waterfront every weekend in August.
Begun in 2007, the Coal Shed Music Festival has become the musical event of the summer. It has grown over the years from a strictly local event to a festival that now attracts national and international musicians, boasting over 200 performers over the nine days and nights of performances.
Izaak Walton Killam was one of Canada’s most eminent financiers. He was known as “the mystery man” of Canadian finance because of the low public profile he maintained.
Killam was born in Yarmouth in 1885. Here he had his first experience in business selling newspapers. At the age of 18, he started his career as a junior clerk in the Yarmouth branch of the Union Bank of Halifax.
In 1961 the Killam sisters, Miss Constance Killam and Mrs. Elizabeth Rodgers offered to donate the funds for a new library building in memory of their late brother Izaak Walton Killam. The library is now called the Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Library.
The Charles C. Richards House Historic Bed and Breakfast was built in 1893 in the Queen Anne Revival Style as a private home for the President of the Minards Liniment Company.
One of two brick mansions ever built in the Province of Nova Scotia, this awards winning restoration honours its late Victorian architecture while its interior décor highlights the art deco craze of the 1930s and ’40s.
Th’YARC (The Yarmouth Arts Regional Council) Playhouse and Arts Centre is a performance centre located in Yarmouth. We present a wide range of theatre, music, dance, and art events in our theatre, art gallery, and studios.
Switch Open Street is a re-occurring event where volunteers take back local streets transforming them into safe, fun, festive and carefree family spaces.
Everyone is welcome at SWITCH, with the exception of cars. Whatever you can imagine will happen in our streets. Residents will be encouraged to join the party for FREE and participate in planned activities, classes, shopping, food, music, entertainment and much more!
