Admiralty House and Bakery Saturday

This past Saturday we ventured all the way to Mount Pearl and Paradise to visit Admiralty House Museum and Nourish - a gluten-free bakery!

Admiralty House

Less than 20 minutes from most parts of St. John's, lies the neighbouring community of Mount Pearl. Most people from St. John's dislike Mount Pearl and vice versa; that's just the way it is. St. John's seems to have more history, being the oldest English-founded city in North America, more amenities, and more people (among other things). However, as we discovered on Saturday, Mount Pearl wasn't created as an addition to St. John's, it has its own unique history and story to tell.

We visited Admiralty House in Mount Pearl on Saturday morning, and we were the only people in the museum. There wasn't even anyone working there or taking admission! However, there is a meeting room in the museum and there seemed to be a driving class going on in there. It was a strange set up for a place that claims to be 'open year round', but we learned lots and enjoyed our time there nonetheless.

Anyway - in the 1800s, the area which later became Mount Pearl was used for farm land, and James Pearl was granted 500 acres of land there in recognition of his career in the Royal Navy. From the exhibits, we found out that he joined the Navy at the age of 9, served in the Battle of Trafalgar, was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant at the age of 18, saved 190 lives in the China Seas and was presented by a gold medal by the King of the Netherlands, commanded thirty ships in the Burmese War, and was promoted to the rank of Commander at the age of 37. And those are just the highlights. Pretty remarkable. 

One of the other major components of Mount Pearl's history is its wireless telegraphy station, established in 1915 by the British Admiralty. It was built at that time, along with 12 other stations, to improve British war time intelligence and weather reporting. Throughout its active life, the station received the S.O.S. transmission from the S.S. Florizel, and made contact with the British rigid airship, the R34, on its first crossing of the Atlantic by air.

Newfoundland, in general, is also a significant part of wireless telegraph history as Marconi received the first transatlantic wireless message on Signal Hill in St. John's.

"Marconi and assistants preparing a kite on Signal Hill, St. John's"

Admiralty House also has a variety of artifacts  from its time as a wireless telegraphy station, and then a transmitting station for radio. We spent just over an hour exploring the place (and trying not to be too loud for the people in the driving school). Overall, it was a nice museum and according to some signs, they will be working on improving some areas of the museum soon.

After working up an appetite at Admiralty House, we made our way to Nourish, a gluten-free bakery in Paradise! We couldn't help ourselves and ended up buying a cinnamon roll, a brownie, a bit of chocolate chip banana bread, and a bit of coffee cake. We ended up eating all of it by the end of the day, but it was definitely worth it. Lots of great gluten-free options for people who are interested.

Then later on in the day, we played a game in our Social curling league and won our third game in a row!

... Until next Saturday (or Sunday)!