Product Code Database
Harbour Grace is a town in Conception Bay on the Avalon Peninsula in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. With roots dating back to the 16th century, it is one of the oldest towns in North America.
It is located about northwest of the provincial capital, St. John's. The town has a population of 2,796 (2021), engaged primarily in fishing and fish processing. The alternative spelling of Harbor Grace was current at one time.
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Archived June 28, 2022. Harbour Grace was an important port and fishing centre from the earliest days of European exploration of North America. The town was a thriving seasonal fishing community by 1550. The first resident known by name was Robert Tossey of Dartmouth in 1583. History of Harbour Grace
In 1610, pirate Peter Easton made Harbour Grace his headquarters, and established a fort overlooking the bay. Although it was attacked by the French the following year, the early settlement survived throughout the 17th century, with a permanent, year-round population numbering a few dozen, swelling to several hundred during the fishing season.
Around the year 1618, Harbour Grace became a permanent settlement. In that year 1618, Bristol's Society of Merchant Venturers received a charter from King James I of England to establish a settlement near Harbour Grace, "Bristol's Hope", and appointed Robert Hayman as its first Proprietary Governor, a post he held for the next ten years. He was back in London at the end of this period in 1628, where he published a work of pithy epigrams called Quodlibets. He had written this in Harbour Grace;William Barker, "Hayman, Robert (bap. 1575, d. 1629)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, September 2004; accessed January 31, 2018.
Over the coming years, control of Harbour Grace became a point of contention between the English and the French. The town, with a population numbering about 100, was razed by the French in 1697, Journal of Abbe Jean Baudoin, Crossroadsforcultures.ca, 28 January 1697. again in 1700, and captured briefly in 1762. Nevertheless, between these attacks, the population grew by 50%. By 1771, the population was close to 5,800. By then, however, other colonial towns along the Atlantic coast had surpassed Harbour Grace in population and influence.
Ridley Offices is a stone building, built in 1838. It was home to businessman Thomas Ridley, a controversial but well-known merchant. Rhonda Parsons acquired the home in 2005.
The first flight by a Canadian from North America to England embarked October 9, 1930, in the plane Maple Leaf (aka Columbia), piloted by Capt. J. Erroll Boyd (1891–1960) and was navigated by the American, Lieut. Harry Connor. This flight was also notable for transporting mail bearing a surcharged stamp as a commemorative overprint. The aviators borrowed a Webley & Scott flare pistol to carry during the flight from Edward Langdon Oke, a former Sergeant with the Royal Newfoundland Regiment in World War I. The aviators had the gun engraved to mark the historic flight and it resides in the collection at the Conception Bay Museum. Amelia Earhart took flight from Harbour Grace on May 20, 1932, to become the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. The early transatlantic flights from the Harbour Grace airfield were designated Events of National Historic Significance.
In July 1941, the Royal Canadian Navy established a High Frequency Direction Finding wireless station on the airfield. Consisting of an Operations Building and a Direction Finding shack, the station had an uninterrupted sweep of the northern Atlantic sector and was able to provide bearings on U-boat transmissions and to intercept enemy radio traffic.
Harbour Grace was one of the first sites that the Royal Canadian Navy was solely responsible for after war broke out. On May 21, 1945, the Canadian Naval Service approved closing down and disposing of its facility at Harbour Grace. There is no evidence of the station today. Following WWII, the airstrip was left to deteriorate. In 1977, through the efforts of the Harbour Grace Historical Society, it was restored to a usable condition. In 1999, after years of being considered abandoned, the airstrip was reinstated to official international airdrome status under the designator of CHG2.
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Harbour Grace had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.
| + Population trend | ||
| 2021 | 2796 | -6.6 |
| 2016 | 2995 | -4.3 |
| 2011 | 3131 | 1.9 |
| 2006 | 3074 | -9.1% |
| 2001 | 3380 | -9.6% |
| 1996 | 3740 | NA |
| + Knowledge of official languages (2016) ! Language ! Percent | |
| English only | 97.8% |
| French only | 0% |
| Both English and French | 2.2% |
| Protestant | 61.4% |
| Roman Catholic | 38.3% |
| No religion | 0.3% |
| Other religions | 0% |
| + Race/ethnic groups (2006) | |
| White | 99.3% |
| Visible Minority | 0.7% |
|
|
