Starrs Point, Nova Scotia

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Starr's Point in Nova Scotia

Stately Prescott House at Starr's Point dates from about 1811.

Starr's Point is a community in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located in Kings County two miles (3 km) west of Port Williams near the mouth of the Cornwallis River. It is an agricultural area noted for apple orchards. First named Cornwallis, it was intended as the main town settlement of New England Planters in Cornwallis Township who arrived in the 1760s following the Expulsion of the Acadians. However settlers found that nearby Port Williams, Kentville and Canning made better town sites, leaving the official town site to develop instead as rich and productive farmland. The original grid of streets of the Cornwallis town site is today known as the Town Plot and is marked by a cairn commemorating the arrival of the Planters. The community became known as Starr's Point, after the Starr's family who emerged as major landowners led by Major Samuel Starr one of the first Planters settlers in the township. Another member of the Starr family, John Starr, became an early Member of the Legislature for Kings County. In 1812, farmers in Starrs Point combined forces with farmers in Canard to build the Wellington Dyke across the Canard River to the north of Starr's Point. Completed in 1825, the dyke protects 3,000 acres (12 km²) along the north side of Starrs Point, formerly submerged by tides of the Minas Basin. Several 18th century and early 19th century homes still exist including the Planter Barracks and Prescott House which was home to noted agriculturist Charles Ramage Prescott and is now a museum.