History of Rose Cottage

Alberta Webster Dana (1880-1970) was one of seven sisters from Cambridge, NS, descended from a branch of Noah Webster’s family — New England Planters who had migrated here from Connecticut in 1760. In 1917, at the age of 37, she married 25-year old William Shepherd “Shep” Dana (1892–1939), descendent of author and whaler Charles Henry Dana and heir to a Wall Street newspaper fortune. They divorced in 1928, shortly before the the family fortune was greatly reduced in the Great Crash. Alberta insisted that her daughters each have a career, so they would be financially independent.

Her three daughters were Ethel Dana Atkinson (1918-1975) a doctor who had seven children and lived in Los Altos, CA; Doris Shepherd Dana (1920-2006), a translator and author who was the partner of Chilean novelist and diplomat Gabriela Mistral; and actress Leora Dana Kaszman (1923 –1983).

Around 1940, Alberta Webster Dana built the house at 292 Longspell Rd — a two story cottage on a property spanning from Longspell Road to Pleasant Street. Many of her Webster sisters and their children had summer cottages in Kingsport, such as the Mackinnon, Ritcey, and Piercey families.

Kingsport was the premier resort community in the Annapolis Valley. The port of Kings County, it was serviced by railway (the Blueberry Special), and the Kipawo ferry (named for its three ports of call, Kingsport, Parrsboro and Wolfville). Of course, people gathered while waiting for the ferry to sail on high tide and for the trains to embark or disembark, so the village also had a dance hall, several grocery stores and churches, a gas station and a school. Along with Chester on the South Shore, it was one of the most popular summer resort towns of the late 19th and early 20th century Nova Scotia.

Within a few years, Alberta built three more houses across the road (339, 343 & 345), giving them to her daughters to encourage them to visit. Later in her life, she married Harris Cox, from the Cox shipbuilding family in Kingsport. When Alberta died in 1970, her daughters Leora and Doris returned to the house to auction off its contents. From this point the cottage has changed hands several times, undergoing a major renovation in 2003.

– Information provided by Christine Macy and Sarah Bonnemaison