Retrieval Number:8317/10/2
Patterson family and Anderson family homes on Coles’ Island Road, 193?
Mount Allison University Archives, Albert Anderson family fonds.
May be reproduced only with permission of Mount Allison University Archives

This family snapshot of the Patterson-Anderson homesteads in the 1930s captures what were typical
house and barn complexes for this region. Constructed of wood, both houses and barns follow the vernacular styles that emerged in the second half of the 19th-century in Maritime Canada. Farmers were careful to locate the barns close to houses and often in an orientation to protect the farm yard from the strong and bitter winds characteristic of the marshes. In this way both humans and animals might be sheltered from the worst of this condition. This farmstead was one of the few that stood so clearly in the midst of the Tantramar Marshes. Situated on a small rise, known as Cole’s Island the site was just high enough to provide a comfortable elevation for a dry cellar. Within a few years of this picture being taken the site was acquired by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for the erection of the shortwave station and signal towers that still stand in place of these buildings.