Only Twenty Dollars

A wonderful building was sold in Pictou the other day and the price paid was 20 dollars, so the Pictou Advocate tells me.  It was the old Pictou Academy, a building of memories and tradition and history, perhaps one of the most historical buildings in this province, and in the days gone by one that played an important part in the affairs of both church and state.  It was built in 1816 by the famous Thomas McCulloch and intended as the nucleus of a Presbyterian college as a rival to old King's at Windsor.  The fight for responsible government overcharged the atmosphere of the old building, as well as the fight for educational equality.  A writer says it was the storm centre out of which came the weapons that secured freedom.  Well, it lived long enough to see King's come in and nestle in the bosom of its successor, Dalhousie.  Time works wonderful changes.  From this same old Pictou Academy came such men as Sir William Dawson, who was president of McGill, George Munro Grant and D. M. Gordon of Queens, Donald Macrae, of Morrin, John Forrest, James Ross and Stanley Mackenzie, of Dalhousie, and Clarence Mackinnon, of Pine Hill.  It's a pity the old building could not have been preserved, but it was built of perishable material and had to go.