When I was a young kid in the early 1970s, the present Waterfront Plaza was the Dominion grocery store. My mom shopped there on a regular basis so I do have many memories of being in the store. Jack MacLeod was produce manager, my cousin Pat West worked there too, stocking shelves,and carrying out groceries for customers. They also had to price each individual item since back then there were no scanners and bar codes were not used. The cashiers had to punch every price in separately - how did they ever bear putting in an 8 hour day. When you walked into the Dominion store, there was always a promotion going on whether it was a different encyclopedia or a set of wildlife books, maybe even a set of dishes where each week or month there was a new addition available to the set. I remember in the freezer area there was a photo of the store manager and I recall being shocked one day when we went there. Louisa Coombs picture was there as the store manager. I didn't know Louisa at all, but my surprise was that a woman was the manager, It was almost unheard of back in those days and it was something I never forgot. Dominion closed for business many years ago and the building empty for some time and was eventually purchased and smaller units made for several businesses to rent. Pizza Delight moved in, as did Sears, Liverpool Pizzeria, Avco Financial, Tina's Uni-Jeans, Privateer Pub, Dixie Lee, Hugh's Fin n Feather, and Memory Lane. Presently in the building is VON, Dr. Kelly Hatt (dentist), Craig Harding's (The crown prosecutor) office was there not sure if it still is or not. The site where Memory Lane was for 10 years is presently vacant, hopefully when the economy improves something else will occupy the space. * For those of us who are too young to remember, the area where Waterfront Plaza is, was part of the river's edge. Over 50 years ago, the entire parking lot was wharves and water and was filled in during the 1960s.
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| Dixie Lee at the Waterfront Plaza |
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| Hugh's Fin & Feather in the Waterfront Plaza |
Dave was manager of that store from 1978-1981 when I met him. We got married whenb he got transferred to Kentville in 1981.
ReplyDeleteThanks Brenda, yes how could I forget that was where Dave worked. Completely slipped my mind so thanks for mentioning it. Did you work there too? If Dave recalls others who worked there send another post!!
ReplyDeleteI worked there under Louisa and Dave, then moved to Halifax in 1979 and worked at the Bayers Road Shopping Center Dominion.
DeleteI wasn't around back when that was the waterfront but I do know that two WWII ships were sold for scrap and are burried under the park somewhere as fill when it was all filled in. I believe it was HMCS HALIFAX and HMCS FREDERICTON that are burried here.
ReplyDeleteYou can still see part of one ship underwater. When the old Tourist Information Building was there, u could see it located 4 parking spaces to the right of the building. All you could see was the front section of it the rest is under the parking lot. Of course, I have a picture of it.
ReplyDeleteNew the history of the ships but that is news Tim. You will have to post thatone too.
ReplyDeleteMy brother George use to work at Dominion. I shopped there, but not as much as the IGA. It was sad to see it go too.
ReplyDeleteMy mom (Marion Whynot) worked at the Dominion Store as a cashier... she has lots of stories about the place... I think at the time she worked there Moyal Conrad Sr. from Greenfield was the manager...
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