The Salvation Army Cemetery is located off a path at the end of Peach Street in the Guy’s Point area at the western extremity of Arnold’s Cove. The fenced cemetery contains more than a dozen markers, mainly of white marble, but also wooden crosses and at least one granite headstone. The designation includes all land within the fence surrounding the cemetery and the grave markers within it.
Formal Recognition Type
Municipal Heritage Building, Structure or Land
Heritage Value
The Salvation Army Cemetery has been designated a municipal heritage site by the Town of Arnold’s Cove because of its spiritual, historic and aesthetic value.
The Salvation Army Cemetery at Arnold’s Cove has spiritual and historic value as the first and only cemetery associated specifically with that religious and charitable group in the town, and as one of the oldest known cemeteries there. The Salvation Army was established in Arnold’s Cove by the turn of the twentieth century. The earliest date of death recorded on a headstone is 1911, and the latest is 1973. However, the period during which the cemetery was used for burials may go beyond that range given that there are likely unmarked graves and that some wooden gravemarkers have become illegible.
The Salvation Army Cemetery has historic value because its extant gravemarkers contain historical and genealogical type information. One headstone memorializes Henry Guy, who is credited with establishing the Salvation Army in Arnold’s Cove. Henry fished out of Grand Bank, where he was introduced to the Salvation Army.
The cemetery also has aesthetic value. Like Henry Guy’s headstone, most of the surviving gravemarkers in the cemetery are of white marble, in tablet or column forms. This is in keeping with the forms and materials of headstones popular during the twentieth century period to which they date. The gravemarkers, natural groundcover, and wooden fencing at the perimeter combine to make the Salvation Army Cemetery a special feature of Arnold’s Cove’s cultural landscape.
Source: Town of Arnold’s Cove Regular Council Meeting Motion 144/2008 October 29, 2008.
Character Defining Elements
Those elements that embody the elements of the cemetery, including:
-location of site;
-styles, placement, inscriptions and materials of gravemarkers;
-wooden fencing defining cemetery area, and;
-natural groundcover.
Notes
Surnames on the headstones at the cemetery include Eddy, Peach, Guy, Trowbridge and Williams, with about 25 people commemorated in total on about 17 headstones. However, there are likely unmarked graves, and some of the wooden markers have become illegible. Henry Guy was the grandson of Ambrose Guy, who immigrated to Newfoundland from Marnhull, England around 1820.
The first Salvation Army meeting held in Arnold’s Cove was in 1895, some time after which the first citadel known as Old Junior Hall was built. A second building was purchased from the Orange Lodge in 1914; later a former Wadman’s furniture store was converted in the 1980s.