Point Verde
Louis XIV of France gave Pastour de Costebelle the Point Verde Downs
for his successful attack on St. John's. Point Verde was once the site of fortifications that protected the
southern entrance of Placentia Harbour. While Placentia was built upon a stony beach, Point
Verde ("green point") has fine grasslands. Its coast consists of grasslands known as the "bar"
(barachois) meadows and the downs, and of Point Verde beach, which reaches to Woody Point
(formerly known as Bergeron Point). Point Verde Pond is another striking feature of the
headland. From the hills which separate the Point from Placentia, it appears as two bodies of
water, a road now dividing what was one pond. The pond is separated from the ocean by slender bars
of land, but an eighteenth century document shows that a gut once allowed small boats to pass
between it and the sea.
Continuous settlement at Point Verde dates from the arrival of the Green(e)s, a Quaker family of American loyalist background. John and
Robert Green(e) acquired the peninsula from Placentia merchants Saunders and Sweetman
in 1803. The Green(e)s fished herring, capelin and cod, which was sold to Placentia merchants.
They cleared tuckermore by hand (according to family tradition using pigs to clear stumps) and
soon had extensive gardens and kept a variety of livestock. By the first census in 1836 the
community had a population of 72. Other families had arrived by the late 1870's, including the
Collins, Crouchers, Rowes, and Walshs, but in 1892 the community was still dominated by the
Green(e) family. In 1874 Point Verde had 138 people in 26 families, approximately half of whom
were primarily engaged in farming. On 120 acres of cleared land farmers produced oats, wheat,
and barley, and kept 158 sheep. Two years later a lighthouse was established on the Point and
was manned by the Crouchers and other local people. In the early 1970's it was automated.
Through the first half of the twentieth century the population of Point Verde numbered 220, but
beginning with the construction of the "Argentia Base" in 1941 many men left farming and fishing
for wage labor. In subsequent years most people have continued to work away from the
community, at the base and later at Long Harbour and Come by Chance, or in fish plants or
service industries in Jersey Side and Placentia. Meanwhile an influx of new families arrived in
the 1950's and 1960's from islands in Placentia Bay. By the 1970's few people did any farming and
much of the soil on the Point was used for fill. In 1992 only four or five people fished out of
Point Verde, which had come to be regarded as a suburb of Placentia.
Sources:
Encyclopedia of Newfoundland and Labrador
http://enl.cuff.com/entry/69/6922.htm