When Judge of Probate Edmund J. Cogswell wrote about Kentville in 1895, he mentioned the town’s seven hotels. Foremost among them, he said, was the Royal Oak and the Kentville Hotel, the former according to Cogswell being the better of the two.
Much later, in 1932, Leslie Eugene Dennison reminisced in The Advertiser about Kentville, covering the same period Cogswell wrote about. Dennison recalled the town having only five hotels or inns and he doesn’t mention the Royal Oak.
Surprisingly, Cogswell and Dennison fail to mention what for a time was the grandest hotel in Kentville and certainly in the Annapolis Valley. This was the Hotel Aberdeen which for about 40 years beginning in 1892 was the leading hostelry and social center. Before being torn down and replaced by an even more magnificent hotel in 1930, the Aberdeen stood in a prominent place near the railroad station. Kentville’s dominant position as the railway’s headquarters likely influenced the decision to place the Aberdeen there.
Among the numerous A. L. Hardy photographs of the Aberdeen that have survived is one reproduced many times in The Advertiser and in various historical publications. You’ll find it in Louis Comeau’s pictorial history of Kentville, for example.
Oddly, photographs and brief write-ups are the only record you’ll find on the Aberdeen despite its once prominent position in Kentville. How many rooms did the Aberdeen have in its three stories? What about its ambience, its dining room, its bar room? What conveniences did it offer besides the Union Bank and the fact that it was conveniently located close to the railway station? What did it cost to stay there overnight?
Search as I have, I’ve been unable to find answers to these questions. I can tell you the year the Aberdeen was built (1892) who built it (Daniel McLeod) when the railway purchased it and changed the name to the Cornwallis Inn (1920) and when the railway tore it down and built a larger, grander Cornwallis Inn across the other side of town (1930).
Other than these facts (that anyone can discover with a few minutes of research) I have no other information on the Aberdeen. Mabel Nichols Kentville history, The Devil’s Half Acre, contains a short history of the Aberdeen and from the researching I’ve done, this is the only written record currently available.
This photograph of Hotel Aberdeen likely was taken during or after 1894 since the Union Bank of Halifax opened there in that year.
Ed Coleman 
Hello Mr. Coleman. I believe my great grandfather lived at this hotel. His name was Angus or Daniel, his wife was Jessie. My grandfather was Duncan MacLeod. I think my great grandfather, (Angus or Daniel) died young, and my great grandmother and their 8? Children were asked to leave. I also was told that 2 of my grandfather’s sisters went out for a walk one day and were never seen or heard from again. I have just gotten into “ancestry.com” and am stuck in this time period. My grandfather moved to the United States…my email is jgarifallou@gmail.com. My maiden name is Jeanne MacLeod. Thank you!
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Hello Mr. Coleman. I’ve uncovered a few=more clues. My great grandparents were John William MacLeod, brother of Daniel MacLeod, owner of the Aberdeen Hotel, and Jessie Sutherland MacLeod. Apparently my great grandfather john William lived and or worked at the hotel with his wife Jessie Sutherland MacDonald. They had 7 children. John died at the age of 34, and my great grandmother was left to raise their children. I discovered their daughter Eva MacLeod was buried with them when she died in 1904. She was born in 1881. I have not been able to confirm or deny the disappearance story. There was a sister Annie, and a sister Alberta (Albertine) who I know survived. There were 3 girls and 4 boys. Appt there was a break in the record keeping during some key moments. On Ancestry.com, there are some confusing connections which I believe people have mixed bloodlines. My wish I stayed to come there in person soon. What do you think?
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