The Bonne Bay Cottage Hospital Heritage Corporation (BBCHC) is celebrating ten years of productive community support.

The Julia Ann Walsh Heritage Centre (formerly the Bonne Bay Cottage Hospital) is one of three BackPackers of Canada hostels
in Newfoundland and Labrador. The hostel is popular with travelers from around the world and often filled to
capacity in the summer.

Another ongoing initiative of BBCHHC is the Oral History Project. Many local residents have been videotaped telling
their stories of the past. The corporation is also busy developing a museum in the cottage hospital and has plans for a
virtual museum as well.

During the winter months the heritage centre bustles with community meetings, exercise classes and workshops, including
landscape quilting and wool-dying for rug hookers.

The public library is housed in the basement of the building and complements its use as a community centre.

In 2001 the Bonne Bay Cottage Hospital Heritage Corporation, a not-for-profit community corporation, was created to the
preserve and adaptively re-utilize the old hospital for the preservation of local culture and heritage, promotion of health
and wellness, and community economic and social development.

The Bonne Bay Cottage Hospital, located at Norris Point, Newfoundland, was constructed in the late 1930's and opened in
1940. It was part of the Cottage Hospital and Medical Care Plan implemented for Newfoundland by the Commission of
Government. The cottage hospital system was established in the larger outports to provide medical facilities, nursing
services, midwifery training, and a health education service. This was the first instance in North America of a government
establishing a subsidized medical-care plan on a pre-payment basis.

The hospital was built in specification to plans provided by the government. In accordance with the austere measures of
pre-confederation Newfoundland, the hospital was constructed using local supplies and, with the exception of the foreman,
volunteer labour. All of the communities that were to be served by the hospital contributed to its development.
The left wing of the hospital was the female ward and the right wing accommodated the male patients. The
centre of the hospital housed the kitchen and operation and utility rooms. The doctors' offices, a laundry room,
and dispensary were located in the basement.

This facility served the area of the Great Northern Peninsula from Bellburns in the north, to Trout River in the south,
a distance of approximately 180 miles. By the mid 1980's, the hospital had twenty-eight beds, ran an out-patients
department, offered in-patient services in internal medicine, and maintained x-ray, dietary, physiotherapy and laboratory
services.

In 1998, it was announced that a new hospital would be constructed to replace the ageing cottage hospital that had served
the area so well. In December 2001, the old hospital closed its doors for the first time in over 60
years.

But even before the closure, a group of community volunteers convened a series of meetings to discuss the future of the
building. It was felt that such an integral part of the culture and heritage of the Bonne Bay area, such a representative
example of the rich medical history of the Cottage Hospital Era, should be preserved.

Some photos from the Community Gardens Project: