Liverpool, Nova Scotia, Canada

🇨🇦 Liverpool is a Canadian community and former town located along the Atlantic Ocean of the Province of Nova Scotia's South Shore. It is situated within the Region of Queens Municipality which is the local governmental unit that comprises all of Queens County, Nova Scotia.

Liverpool's harbour was an ancient seasonal camp of Nova Scotia's native Mi'kmaq and was known as Ogomkigeak meaning "dry sandy place" and Ogukegeok, meaning "place of departure". Samuel de Champlain originally named the harbour Port Rossignol, in honour of Captain Rossignol, an early 17th-century founder of New France in North America who used the harbour for trading. Later Nicolas Denys, a pioneering 17th-century French explorer and trader of Nova Scotia, was granted land here by the leader of Acadia, Isaac de Razilly (c. 1632).

Following the Expulsion of the Acadians (1755) during the French and Indian War (the North American theatre of the Seven Years' War), Liverpool was founded by New England Planters (commercially organized settlers) as a fishing port in 1759, originally named Lingley after Admiral Charles Lingley, and then renamed after Liverpool in England – which also lies along its own Mersey River. Silvanus Cobb was an original proprietor of the town. In 1759 Capt. Cobb became a proprietor of the new township of Liverpool. Liverpool township was to run from Cape Sable Island to Port Medway and continuing 14 miles inland from the shore. Sylvanus transported many of the other original residents to the new settlement. On July 1, 1760, at the first meeting of the proprietors, Capt. Cobb made a petition to be granted a piece of land to build a house and a wharf. The land was granted and the house was built at the foot of present-day Wolfe Street. There is a park and monument to Cobb at the site of his original home which was built from materials he transported from New England.

Liverpool is situated on the Atlantic coast along Nova Scotia's South Shore. The community primarily occupies the west bank of the mouth of the Mersey River and along its harbour front faces opposite the smaller community of Brooklyn which is situated on the east bank of the River. Beyond Liverpool, the river widens to become an estuary called Liverpool Bay, which is partially sheltered by Coffin Island, and there melds into the Atlantic Ocean. The Gulf Stream which passes just to the east of Nova Scotia in the Atlantic Ocean provides Liverpool with a year-round temperate northern climate.

Liverpool is located along Trunk Route 3 ("The Lighthouse Route") and at the junction of major Highway 103 (at Exit 19) and Trunk Route 8 ("The Kejimkujik Scenic Drive") which leads to the Bay of Fundy.

Economy As the largest population centre in the fairhaven of Queens County, Liverpool has a diverse business community. Many large business franchises provide modern convenience, while the community's quaint small shops still thrive in the original business district on Main Street. Commercial and recreational fishing still play an important role in the local economy. Liverpool's largest employer was once the Bowater Mersey Paper Company Limited, which operated a pulp mill and newsprint mill situated in nearby Brooklyn. The mill closed in June 2012.

Queens Place Emera Centre is a major, modern recreation centre that serves the entire Regional Municipality of Queens. The NHL-sized ice surface has double-sided permanent seating for 1000 spectators. The centre was built along with a large Best Western hotel complex to facilitate large tournaments and thus draw visitors to the area. Queens place is home for many hockey teams: local minor hockey team, the Cougars; major hockey team, Western Hurricanes; and a Junior B team, the Liverpool Privateers.

Tourist Industry Tourism has become increasingly important to Liverpool and the South Shore region in recent decades, particularly as tourists travel the "Lighthouse Route" (a scenic drive between Halifax and Yarmouth). Liverpool has a large number of museums for a small community. They include the Queens County Museum and the adjacent Perkins House the 1766 built residence of Simeon Perkins and now part of the Nova Scotia Museum system. Perkins house was closed to the public in 2015 after the province, citing shifting floor beams deemed the building a safety hazard and that the provincial budget cannot afford the cost of repairs. It reopened in 2021 after the repairs were eventually completed.

Other museums include the Museum of Justice located in the former courthouse, the Hank Snow Home Town Museum located in the former Liverpool train station, and two private museums run by Nova Scotian photographer Sherman Hines. Facing Liverpool Harbour is the Fort Point Lighthouse, the third oldest lighthouse in Nova Scotia which contains a lighthouse museum and is surrounded by a public park. In late June of each year, history comes alive in Liverpool during "Privateer Days" when over a long weekend members of the community conduct a parade, provide various entertainment venues, re-enact a Loyalist military and privateer encampment, shoot fireworks, and conduct guided graveyard tours. Liverpool has also become a summer break destination for residents of Halifax due to its warm weather and nearby sandy beaches. Beach Meadows is a 1 km long beach to the east of Liverpool.