Lunenburg is one of the oldest cities in Canada and was home to the schooner Bluenose, featured on some Canadian coinage. It is also one of only two UNESCO communities on the continent, the other one being Quebec City. It is the best conserved British-style colonial settlement on the continent with planned rectangular blocks that ignored topography, has 400 buildings in its old town, and shows its history of shipbuilding and Atlantic fishery through its architecture. The old town consists of six divisions of 14 lots each 40 by 60 feet.
German, Swiss, and French farmers turned to fishing as an additional means of subsistence in the late eighteenth century and went as far as the coast of Newfoundland. In German, the -burg ending in place names is not pronounced as “-berg,” but rather like the French “-bourg.” The French -bourg and German -burg denote a defensive structure like a castle, while -berg means mountain.
St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church is the oldest Presbyterian church in Canada. It was built in 1770 to serve the 60 Calvinist families who were among the first Europeans to occupy the place. Rev. Bruin Romkes Comingoe was the first Reformed minister ordained in Canada. The present church is from 1828. Zion Lutheran Church built in 1828 has a bell that use to rind in the chapel of Louisbourg Fortress.
St. John’s Anglican Church was the second Anglican Church in Canada, the first was St. Paul’s in Halifax. It was built between 1754 and 1763 in Meeting House style with oak frames from King’s Chapel in Boston. The current Carpenter’s Gothic church was built in 1870 to replace the old one. The original church bell from 1814 was imported from London and rang until 2001, when a fire destroyed the church tower, damaging the bell.
The bell is displayed in the park in front of the church. Also facing the park is the Heinrich Koch House, one of the oldest buildings in Lunenburg built in the 1750s. Heinrich and his father Anton opened the first sawmill in town to afford to build the timber house.
