The Terra Nova Sulphite Company Pulp Mill is a large concrete structure located along Angle Brook in Alexander Bay in Glovertown, NL. The designation includes the concrete structure and a 50 metre buffer zone extending from the footprint of the structure.
Formal Recognition Type
Municipal Heritage Building Structure or Land
Heritage Value
The Terra Nova Sulphite Company Pulp Mill has been designated a municipal heritage site by the Town of Glovertown due to its historic and aesthetic value.
The Terra Nova Sulphite Company Pulp Mill has historic value due to its connection to the province’s industrial history. In 1919, a Norwegian company called Terra Nova Sulphite Company Limited was incorporated in Newfoundland. The company had plans to operate a sulphite pulp mill along Angle Brook in Glovertown. By April of 1920, construction engineer L. Jensen had arrived in Glovertown to oversee construction of the mill and associated wharves and stores. The previous winter, work crews had been cutting timber for the project. Hundreds of men were working on the construction of the mill. The company had successfully acquired timber blocks containing an estimated 3,000,000 cords of wood. Water and land leases for hydro development had been secured for a planned 800 kilowatt turbine, with future plans to develop a falls on the Terra Nova River to produce 25,000 horse power. It was estimated that the completed mill would be capable of handling at least one hundred tons of pulp a day. A report in December of 1920 stated that 300 men had been employed in construction that year and $1,200,000 had been spent on the project. Shorefront facilities allowing steamers to dock were under construction. Staff quarters and other facilities meant to service the expected population boom had been built or were planned. The mill was expected to be operational by the fall of 1921.
By December of 1921 the construction and opening of the mill was held up due to the falling value of the Norwegian Kroner and the hesitancy of Norwegian investors to supply the funds needed to complete the mill. The company had approached the Newfoundland government for a guarantee on a bond of $1,200,000 or a loan of $500,000. Both requests were denied. In April of 1922 a citizens’ committee appealed to the government to approve a loan of $500,000 to complete the mill. $2,000,000 had been spent to that point and they argued that the mill had the potential of employing 300 people on site – with an additional 600 loggers employed to supply pulp wood. This request was also turned down.
All progress at the mill had basically halted when, in 1923, the Anglo Newfoundland Development Company (A.N.D.) secured a two-thirds interest in the Terra Nova Sulphite Company. By September of 1923 A.N.D. had assumed control of the Terra Nova Sulphite facility. The results of a test run suggested that the mill was too small and inefficient to prove profitable. The machines and equipment inside the mill were eventually dismantled and moved to other A.N.D. facilities. In 1925 the Newfoundland government decided that an expansion of A.N.D.’s paper mill at Grand Falls would meet the conditions of Terra Nova Sulphite’s original 1920 contract with the government. Some elected officials were demanding that the original contract should stand and that the mill at Glovertown should be made operational. Others argued that woods work at Terra Nova, Gambo and Glovertown to supply an expanded mill at Grand Falls would provide more work than operating a sulphite mill at Glovertown. The government approved amendments to the Terra Nova Sulphite Company Act of 1920, which allowed A.N.D. to meet conditions set down for the Glovertown mill at their existing mill in Grand Falls. It was argued that the A.N.D. Company couldn’t compete with sulphite being produced in Scandinavian and if conditions proved favourable in the future the A.N.D. Company could reestablish the mill at Glovertown, a scenario that didn’t come to pass.
The Terra Nova Sulphite Company Pulp Mill has aesthetic value due to its design, construction technique and place on the landscape. Built from reinforced concrete, this huge structure rises above the landscape. It is a physical reminder, to residents of Glovertown and beyond, of a proposed industrial development that could have made Glovertown an industrial hub. It stands as a unique monument to the expectations and changes industrialization brought to Newfoundland in the early 20th century.
Source: Town of Glovertown Regular Council Meeting Motion #14510-685-4, June 30, 2021
Character Defining Elements
All elements relating to the historic value of the Terra Nova Sulphite Company Pulp Mill, including:
-dimension, location and orientation of concrete mill building;
-size, style and location of existing window and door openings;
-all remaining elements that speak to the building’s intended use;
-50 metre buffer zone extending from the footprint of the mill;
-association with Terra Nova Sulphite Company;
-association with industrialization attempts in the early 20th century.
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Town of Glovertown Website
