Avondale, Newfoundland And Labrador
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Avondale is a town located on
Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador, having a total size of . As of 2025 the population ...
's
Avalon Peninsula The Avalon Peninsula () is a large peninsula that makes up the southeast portion of the island of Newfoundland in Canada. It is in size. The peninsula is home to 270,348 people, about 52% of the province's population, according to the 2016 Ca ...
in the province of
Newfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador, having a total size of . As of 2025 the populatio ...
, Canada, which was incorporated in 1974. The community is situated at the southwestern head of
Conception Bay Conception Bay (CB) is a bay on the southeast coast of Newfoundland, Canada. The population (in 2011) of people living in municipalities (or unincorporated census subdivisions) located along the coast of Conception Bay was 90,490 making it ...
in Division 1. It is located southwest of St. John's and northeast of Placentia. Up to 1897, the community was known as Salmon Cove, but was renamed to avoid confusion with two other nearby communities of the same name in the Port de Grave and Brigus Districts. The name Avondale was suggested by the parish priest Rev John Roe because of the resemblance to his native area in Ireland, taking the name from Thomas Moore's poem, "The Meeting of the Waters". Earliest record of settlement per Fishing Room Grants is for John Mahaney in 1773, a census of 1812 reports 12 inhabitants. Settlers to the area were primarily Irish Roman Catholic with a smaller number of Jersey French and English. Avondale incorporated the communities of Salmon Cove, Gasters, Northern Arm, and Southern Arm. In addition to the railway station, it the town hosted a
post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...
, a
money order A money order is a directive to pay a pre-specified amount of money from prepaid funds, making it a more trusted method of payment than a cheque. History Systems similar to modern money orders can be traced back centuries. Paper documents known ...
office, and one
church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...
. It functioned as a
lumber Lumber is wood that has been processed into uniform and useful sizes (dimensional lumber), including beams and planks or boards. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, window frames). ...
ing,
fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment (Freshwater ecosystem, freshwater or Marine ecosystem, marine), but may also be caught from Fish stocking, stocked Body of water, ...
and
farming Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...
settlement in what was known as the Harbour Main District. The population dwindled in the early 1900s as men began migrating to the eastern US (Boston and New York) to find work. Its first postmaster was Edward Kennedy who came to the area in 1889 after the railway was built.


Avondale Railway Station

In 1863, the Anglo American Telegraph Company set up a repeater station in Avondale. In 1881, the
Newfoundland Railway The Newfoundland Railway was a narrow-gauge railway that operated on the island of Newfoundland (island), Newfoundland from 1898 to 1988. With a total track length of , it was the longest narrow-gauge system in North America. History Early con ...
conducted a survey of the land and planning preparations were started for constructing a railway out to Harbour Grace, in which Salmon Cove was seen as a convenient place for a station. Upon completion of the main railway line in 1898, the Reid Newfoundland Company took over the existing railway, and Avondale was one of these existing stations. It was used as a passenger and freight station. In 1923 the Newfoundland Government took over the railway with the 1923 Railway Settlement Act, where the Government acquired the railway, coastal bats, and dry dock from the Reid Newfoundland Company for $2 million. The Avondale Railway Station then became a part of the Newfoundland Railway once again. In 1931 it was finalized for the post offices and telegraph stations to be managed by Newfoundland Railway agents; the Avondale office was taken over on December 15. The Canadian National Railway took over from the Newfoundland Railway in 1949 when Newfoundland joined the Canadian Confederation. The Avondale Railway Station was managed by CN until 1984. The last train to run in Newfoundland was on September 20, 1988 and less than a month later CN started tearing up the tracks, finishing in 1990 (see: Terra Transport). The rails were sold for scrap and the rolling stock was retired, scrapped, or sold. But for the Avondale Railway Station the tearing of their tracks happened in 1984, and was something that upset the community. The Avondale Heritage Foundation applied to keep a section of their track as the museum could, and has, greatly benefit from it. They had not received any sort of reply to their application until workers came to tear up the tracks. The people of the community decided they would protest the removal of the tracks, by sitting on them as trucks and bulldozers moved around them. Determination won in the end and the Avondale Railway Station came to an agreement to officially keep a small part of the tracks. The Avondale railway station remains preserved along with a small display of retired railway cars and a locomotive.


Demographics

In the
2021 Census of Population The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sli ...
conducted by
Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; ), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and culture. It is headquartered in ...
, Avondale 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. Avondale has lost approximately one third of its population since 1976 when it numbered 937 residents.


See also

*
List of cities and towns in Newfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland and Labrador is the ninth-most populous province in Canada, with 510,550 residents recorded in the 2021 Canadian Census, and is the seventh-largest in land area, with . Newfoundland and Labrador has 278 municipalities, including 3 ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Avondale, Newfoundland And Labrador Towns in Newfoundland and Labrador