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, now a national museum. 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 arts of reclamation and transformation ever since, which is why I founded Mrs. Nicholson Inc. in 2003.

My one-woman company’s original business — to buy and restore old buildings in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia (my husband’s home town and Canada’s oldest permanent settlement) resulted in two award-winning heritage projects: the restoration of the abandoned Annapolis Royal Train Station and the historical rehabilitation of the Ruggles-Munro House, an 1818 Georgian home. You can read about them both here.

But I have two other businesses. If you click on Store, you can read about the development of the Mrs. Nicholson Home building located at 212 St. George Street. It housed my and my sister’s vintage home décor retail shop, which operated from July of 2012 to late September of 2017.

In June of 2016, I founded AIRO – Annapolis Investments in Rural Opportunity — an angel investor and economic development firm. Located in the train station, AIRO’s mission is to stimulate entrepreneurial activity in Annapolis Royal and Annapolis County through research, funding and collaborative action.

In my work with Mrs. Nicholson Inc., the Annapolis Heritage Society and various other businesses and non-profits, I have come to deeply appreciate the economic risks that face both small towns and built heritage in our country. AIRO and Mrs. Nicholson Inc. are what I can do for Annapolis Royal. I hope this web site will inspire you to do something for your town… take another look at it, work on its economic development, preserve its heritage and help protect the things that keep it near to your heart.

Jane Nicholson –