The Nova Scotia cable station that relayed first word of the sinking of the Titanic to a shocked world will be demolished, according to the Nova Scotia village of Hazel Hill where it is located. The historic 1888 monument to modern communication was built by the Commercial Cable Company and handled more than 3,000 messages a day in the early years of the last century, including profound events of WWI. The station was once famous enough to grace post cards (above). Commercial Cable created Hazel Hill, about 100 km east of Halifax, as a white-collar enclave for the modern industry it ran. It built its employees “new and stylish homes” with such added amenities as a tennis court, cricket field, curling rink and a manager’s home complete with a ballroom. Hazel Hill has dwindled to merely 500 souls and the shuttered station, out of business since 1962, has defied efforts to somehow save it. The community has been told it is unsafe but that must surely be just about the cost of making it safe. It appears a rare piece of Canadian history is about to flattened for lack of money and, at the federal level, not much interest.
