All Seats Free

Three trustees by the names of John Grant, George Hudson and Joseph Banks held a meeting in Phinney's Cove on April 20, 1886. There it was decided to build this tiny chapel as a Baptist Church and Temperance Hall. So they bought a bit of land from Frank Chute, and a building was raised. Can't tell you much of what came next, but the last pastor here was Basil Whitman Pierce. He seemed a well-loved individual, fisher, farmer and carpenter who placed his time at the pulpit above all those occupations. Mr. Pierce died in 2016, at the ponderous age of one hundred and one. In the decade since his death, the structure has drifted downhill to a dereliction already underway in his lifetime. Sills all worn and rotting, windows cracked and broken, land growing over at a steady pace.

For those who live lives tied tight to the past, it's tough for some to say what should become of small and vacant memories. History holds sway here, no power or plumbing, no hint of changes made in the past half-century. To the question asked: "What are you keeping it up for?" the surest answer next is nothing. Life becomes like a series of daydreams drifting, when now can't compete with the weight of then. But repurposing is always an option — just have to surrender to someone who cares. Maybe the story will shift in some unexpected direction, find a place in the modern world, rather than just another blank space on the map. The sign out front reads "All Seats Free", from a time when many churches made you purchase your pew. Well, it's never been more applicable than now. All seats free and available too, today, tomorrow, perhaps evermore.

June 20, 2025
Phinney's Cove, Nova Scotia

Year 18, Day 6431 of my daily journal.