About Mrs. Nicholson Inc.

I was born in England and immigrated with my family to Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1956, passing through the doors of Pier 21, Canada’s immigration facility. We arrived in our new country with three suitcases and not much else, so I learned at an early age to see the beauty in other people’s leftovers. I’ve been fascinated by the art of transformation ever since, whether it’s the redecoration of one room in a modern house or the rescue of an old building.

Mrs. Nicholson Inc. is the one-woman company I founded in 2003 to do the work of transformation. If you click on Decoration above, you will see an example of one side of the business… the transformation, through decoration, of the modern house. But the company’s main business is to buy and restore old buildings in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, my husband’s hometown and Canada’s oldest permanent settlement. This website describes the two award-winning heritage projects undertaken by the company in the last five years: the restoration of the abandoned Annapolis Royal Train Station and the historical rehabilitation of the Ruggles-Munro House, a Georgian home from 1818.

In my work with Mrs. Nicholson Inc. and the Annapolis Heritage Society, I have come to deeply appreciate the risks that face built heritage in our country. I hope this web site will inspire you to take another look at your town and make a stand for saving a good old building… maybe even your own.

Jane Nicholson –