Island Views
Hunter River
Hunter River
Title: Hunter River, PEI (1997)
Artist: Morag Weatherston (Gainer)
Image Size: 3 3/4” x 5 3/4” (9.5 x 14.6 cm)
Description: Watercolor painting. Matted to fit a standard 8” x 10” frame.
Morag Weatherston studied art at Edinburgh College of Art (1964-68) in Scotland, specializing in mural design and tapestry weaving. Following school emigrated to Canada. For a time, she taught art in New Brunswick, before relocating to Prince Edward Island in 1991.
The former Hunter River Library building is a plain one-and-one-half storey wood framed structure with wood shingle cladding. It is located along the highway near the mill pond and the Presbyterian Church in the Village of Hunter River. The building is valued as an example of a former village library in Prince Edward Island. Funding for a library system in PEI began in 1933 with support from the Carnegie endowment. The Hunter River branch opened in 1936 under the organization of Nora Bateson. Initially, the library was located in the home of a local merchant. Eventually, by 1939, a site adjacent to the Presbyterian Church was acquired and the current building was hauled to the site. In the early 1990s, the library was moved to the Hunter River Municipal Building. It then was used as commercial space.