Bridgewater

With a population of just under 8,000 residents and the busiest commercial centre south of Halifax, the Town of Bridgewater is certainly a jewel in its own right on the South Shore.

Situated at the head of the LaHave River, the community's combination of natural beauty and modern convenience makes Bridgewater a unique hub of activity in Lunenburg County.

The town had humble beginnings. After the first house at what would become modern-day Bridgewater was constructed by Ralph Hotchkiss around 1812, the area served as a rural, inland trading post for several years.

The opposing sides of the LaHave River were joined by a bridge — hence the community's name — around 1825.

By the 1840s, Bridgewater's strong farming hinterland and easy access to quality timber enabled the community to begin a steady growth.

In the 1860s, Edward Doran Davison relocated his milling operations from Queens County to the banks of the LaHave River and, over the next three decades, Bridgewater became the pivot point of the internationally renowned E.D. Davison and Sons Lumbering Company.

On January 12, 1899, a devastating fire raged along more than a kilometre of Bridgewater's Commercial Street business and service district.

While only one fatality was recorded, and that as an indirect result of the fire, Bridgewater was temporarily handcuffed, with much of the town's major employers reduced to ashes.

The townspeople, however, were motivated to recover, having previously witnessed the calamity that fire had caused in Windsor and Yarmouth.

Even after the Great Commercial Street Fire and the collapse of the wooden shipbuilding industry, Bridgewater's economy remained strong on the backs of economic enterprises such as Acadia Gas Engines Ltd.

Today, Bridgewater maintains its standing as an important service centre, with shops and stores to satiate all conceivable commercial desires.

In addition to its fine retailers, the town also boasts numerous artistic and entertaining attractions, including the DesBrisay Museum, Woodland Gardens and Shipyards Landing, where the Bridgewater Fire Department Band dazzles spectators during their famed Summer Concert Series.

And if that doesn't get your engine going, then the province's largest agricultural fair, the South Shore Exhibition, held each July, is sure to do the trick.