Middleton played an important part of my early life as this was the location of my first lifeguarding summer job (where I made $180 per week!) and also the place where I went to high school.
Middleton, for a small place, has a very rich local history (I love that phrase “Local History”) some of which I studied when I was doing research on the Annapolis Valley. It was originally known as Gates Ferry, after Middleton’s first settler, Oldham Gates, who arrived from Massachusetts in 1760. There is an old brick house on the edge of town that is reputed to be older than this 1760 date. It is a house that has often intrigued me because it looks like it has an interesting past and has stood the test of time (I have no pic of the house because it is hidden behind trees and bushes).
Middleton is known as the Heart of the Valley because it is in the middle of Annapolis Valley and also equidistant from Halifax and Yarmouth, the two important port cities in the province. The town was founded in 1810 though at that point in time the town consisted of one store and four houses. It wasn’t until the advent of two railway systems that a lifeline was added to the region and people began to move into the town.
The most important of the two railways was the industrial railroad. This gave the Torbrook Mines port access without the miners needing to use the main Dominion Railway. This line eventually ran freight such as fruit and butter to and from other parts of the province, which is evident in the number of storage and cooling facilities along the tracks.
The buildings in Middleton haven’t changed much, which you can see from the old vs. new photos of Commercial Street. There are tons of Victorian Houses full of charm and lots of energy. I always dreamed of owning one of these houses and now that I can afford it (the average value of a house in Middleton is around $100,000) I’m not sure I would want to take on such a responsibility. Not only can you not change the house or the facade because of historical preservation laws, but you also live in the fear of fire destroying everything and killing you in less than a minute. Still it would be cool to say you live in the spooky old house on the edge of town!
