Wednesday 9 November 2011

Welcome!

Welcome to our blog!  The Great Northern Peninsula Heritage Network (GNPHN) is excited to join the online blogging community.  Also, be sure to check us out on Facebook.
The GNPHN's main purpose is to celebrate heritage organizations on the Great Northern Peninsula, to encourage collaboration among the various heritage organizations.

Firing of the French Bread Oven - Port au Choix, NL
RED Ochre Photo, 2010
The network works towards the sharing of best practices, the development of products and services, improved interpretive training and deliberative marketing efforts - all adding to the overall sustainablity of each and every organization, heritage site, and the network as a whole.Whether you are a member of the GNPHN, a partner of the network, or a supporter of "all things heritage", we welcome you to our blog and invite you to join us again.  Stay tuned!

Regina Rumbolt - Heritage Development Specialist
Great Northern Peninsula Heritage Network

2 comments:

  1. Bonne Bay Cottage Hospital
    Designated in 2011 as a Place of Provincial Significance

    Nominated by: Joan Cranston, Bonne Bay Cottage Hospital Heritage Corporation

    The establishment of the cottage hospital system was an important step in the development of professional, socialized health care, especially in rural parts of the province.

    Before the establishment of the Cottage Hospital and Medical Care Plan in 1935 (or Cottage Hospital System), there were only eight hospitals in the country outside the capital of St. John's. Health care available to residents in areas not covered by those eight hospitals consisted primarily of individual physicians in private practice. People living in the smaller outport communities - almost half of Newfoundland's population - had few if any health care services. Infant mortality rates were most shocking: in 1934, on the eve of the Cottage Hospital System, the infant mortality rate was 102.8 per 1000 births and accounted for 19.3% of all registered deaths in Newfoundland that year. Newfoundlanders also had very high rates of malnutrition and infectious diseases.

    When the Commission of Government took office in 1934, it immediately recognized that Newfoundlanders needed increased and improved health care services. The Commissioner for Public Health and Welfare, Sir John C. Puddester, and the department's Secretary, Harris Munden Mosdell, became the driving force behind health care reform.

    The Cottage Hospital System was part of a national health insurance plan in which local families paid a fee of (initially) $5/year which permitted them access to medical care and hospital facilities (maternity services, dental extractions, and outpatient medications usually cost extra). For those who could not afford the fee, the plan allowed families to pay whatever they could afford in the form of cash or commodity, such as fish, firewood, or produce. In this way, the plan was particularly sensitive to local traditions and created a flexible means of access for people with limited resources.

    The first cottage hospital opened in Old Perlican in 1936, followed by 18 others built across the Island until 1954. The Bonne Bay Cottage Hospital officially opened in July 1940, although it admitted its first patient in December 1939. It was one of the largest of the cottage hospitals in operation, containing twenty-three beds, two cots for babies, x-ray facilities as of 1943 (for which the community fundraised), and a hospital staff of ten. At the time of its construction, the Bonne Bay Cottage Hospital at Norris Point stood out as the best designed facility within the entire Cottage Hospital System, and was also unique in that its construction largely came about after an active local lobby effort.

    Today, the Bonne Bay Cottage Hospital is recognized as a representative example, and one of a handful of remaining cottage hospital complexes, of this important stage in the development of Newfoundland and Labrador, especially as it is still used as a resource for community health and well-being, and is a place committed to interpreting the cottage hospital story.

    See more at http://seethesites.ca/media/40282/bonne%20bay%20report%20-%20april%2020%202011.pdf

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  2. The eastern side of the Northern Peninsula is rich in French History which, the French Shore Interpretation Centre in Conche can attest to. This area was important to the French Migratory Fishery for over four hundred years and it was especially noticeable in the towns of Conche, Croque, St. Lunaire-Griquet, Port au Choix , and the Port au Port Peninsula. These communities have more than their share of French Cemeteries, sunken shipwrecks, bread oven, battles fought between the English and French. Through our research we have found that the French influence still exists as recorded evidence and 19th century photos show the development of the French Fishing Stations into today’s communities on the French Shore.

    Based on the evidence of the French Fishery in this area, the French Shore Historical Society in partnership with Nordic Economic Development Association , Service Canada, and the Dept. of Innovation, Business and Rural Development, has worked very hard to develop the French Shore into a tourism destination. In 2000, the old Grenfell Nursing Station in Conche was renovated into a Interpretation Centre to house a permanent exhibit entitled, “Quest for Cod”. This building and it contents, which include Medals of Courage and Honour given to Mr. James Dower of Conche by Napoleon III and the French Shore Tapestry, have become a cultural resource for the tourism industry of Newfoundland and Labrador.

    See more of what we offer at www.frenchshore.com

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