Old Halifax
 

I thought we could make a big photo thread of Halifax pre-1980?

Old Halifax Airport - 1931(Bayer's and Connaught?)

http://ess.nrcan.gc.ca/ats-sat/hist/...ax_airport.gif

Aerial Shots of Downtown - 1921

http://airphotos.nrcan.gc.ca/photos1...ges/k2_001.jpg


http://airphotos.nrcan.gc.ca/photos1...ges/k2_002.jpg

http://airphotos.nrcan.gc.ca/photos1...ges/k2_004.jpg

South Barrington

http://airphotos.nrcan.gc.ca/photos1...ges/k2_017.jpg

South Street and Queen.

http://airphotos.nrcan.gc.ca/photos1...ges/k2_018.jpg

Spring Garden area

http://airphotos.nrcan.gc.ca/photos1...ges/k2_019.jpg

The Commons

http://airphotos.nrcan.gc.ca/photos1...ges/k2_022.jpg

Central Halifax
http://airphotos.nrcan.gc.ca/photos1...ges/k2_023.jpg

Hydrostone and areas still devastated by the Halifax explosion.

http://airphotos.nrcan.gc.ca/photos1...ges/k2_027.jpg

http://airphotos.nrcan.gc.ca/photos1...ges/k2_026.jpg

http://airphotos.nrcan.gc.ca/photos1...ges/k2_028.jpg

Halifax map 1894.

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/histo...lifax_1894.jpg

Halifax-Dartmouth 1960

http://airphotos.nrcan.gc.ca/photos1...a17077_005.jpg

http://airphotos.nrcan.gc.ca/photos1...a17077_006.jpg

http://airphotos.nrcan.gc.ca/photos1...a17077_008.jpg

Halifax-Dartmouth 1993

http://airphotos.nrcan.gc.ca/photos1...a28000_049.jpg

http://airphotos.nrcan.gc.ca/photos101/halifax_e.php

Astonishing the difference in Dartmouth from 1960-1993 aerials

Dartmouth is a good example of how much of a difference transportation infrastructure can make.

It is interesting just how packed some of those North End blocks were. The Spring Garden Road area is unrecognizable in those pictures. Originally it looks like there were two buildings West of the TUNS building. I think one was a mansion built in the 1700s. It was probably almost as nice as Government House. I suspect the other was a small brick university or hospital building but I don't know for sure. It is kind of unfortunate that these were torn down and the lot was left empty for so long.

It's also interesting to see the Cornwallis Park area before the hotel was built. Originally the park itself was built up. The train station pre-dates the hotel but I don't know if it was a different building or not. I don't remember the exact year the rail cut was built but this station and the North End station may have both been operating for a few years before the explosion.

Here is a reeeally old Halifax "shot"

http://www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm/virtual/halifax/images/3.jpg

"The original Governor's House of 1749 was a small one-storey structure. The frame and material were brought from Boston and the governor took up residence in early October 1749. The new Governor's Mansion shown in the centre of this engraving was built in 1755 during the tenure of Charles Lawrence. With the arrival of Lieutenant Governor John Wentworth in 1792, complaints were heard of the unfitness of the house as a viceregal residence, and in 1796 Wentworth convinced the government to build a new structure, this time in the South Suburbs – thus allowing Government House to assume the aspect of an English country seat. The 1755 Mansion was pulled down in 1800. Mather's Meeting House (later St. Matthew's Church), the oldest Protestant Dissenting congregation in Canada, began worship in 1749 and in the following year built the church structure seen to the left in this illustration, at the corner of Prince and Hollis Streets. The church was used for worship, the basement as a bonded warehouse–until New Year's Day 1857, when a huge conflagration destroyed the church and two adjoining buildings."

http://www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm/virtual/h...hibit.asp?ID=3

Wow!! Thanks so much for posting these, guys. My home was built on the site of the "Halifax Riding Club & Polo Ground", my place of work is on the site of an orphanage, and my school appears to have been some sort of barracks. The difference in Dartmouth is incredible. CFB Shearwater looks so active. There are 3 or 4 runways, rather than the 1 that operates today.

It looks like there were a lot of natural features on the Halifax peninsula that were destroyed, too. Look at all the ponds, like the one behind the Victoria General (I guess today, there's a little power plant there, or the Centennial Building). Camp Hill is also pretty much nonexistent, with the QEII & associated parking garage there today.

I notice the Willow Tree used to be a roundabout. I wonder how that'd work out today.

At onetime, a stream flowed from the commons, across the public gardens, down by south street and to the harbour though a ravine where the Queen Street Sobeys is!

New pictures
Tuff's Cove - 1871

http://www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm/virtual/h...images/141.jpg

Sackville and Lower Water 1904
http://www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm/virtual/h...images/146.jpg

"Portland Street between Prince Albert Road and the Five Corners, at the intersection of Pleasant, Portland and Albert Streets."
http://www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm/virtual/h...images/119.jpg

Laying tracks for the tramway, Quinpool Road? 1906-1912.
http://www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm/virtual/h...images/120.jpg

Here's a picture of the cover of a book for sale about the waterfront (from the WDC):

http://www.wdcl.ca/uploads/wdclbook.jpg

I've never seen a photo from this angle before. It shows a number of historic buildings that no longer exist, such as the original Royal Bank offices, Customs House, and buildings on Sackville Street.

Seems odd that they would put a shot of the law courts on the cover, since it is one of the most ill-placed and unfriendly buildings one could ever imagine for such a location.

Hopefully the law courts will go the way of those other buildings...

It's a really ugly building and, to add insult to injury, the little efforts to dress it up over the years all look kind of pathetic. I wouldn't mind if that little strip mall thing got torn down either.

The population density in parts of the North End was pretty crazy up until urban renewal in the 1950s. The Falkland/Maynard area had over 20,000 people/sq. km (80 people/acre) in 1941, and there were other areas of the city that dense as well (all in central Halifax near Agricola and Gottingen). Almost exclusively in 2 or three bedroom buildings as well. Pretty intense crowding, lots of families took borders or shared with other families to make ends meet.

The densest area of Halifax today is east of Queen St. and south of Morris (Kent, Harvey, Church, Green, Smith St.) The population density in that area is just under 9000/sq. km.

Loving the pics :tup:

I guess it just underlines how few good buildings there are on the waterfront. Summit Place isn't that hot from the water, neither is the Casino or the Marriot. Purdy's effectively kills the waterfront boardwalk.

I personally don't mind Purdy's Wharf much. The casino and the hotel are average but not terrible buildings. That Bioscience building (formerly DFO?) is much uglier, as are all the empty lots. The whole area below Hollis/Granville between Sackville and Bishop is really underdeveloped and looks awful. The downtown's intimate scale and downward slope amplify the effect of empty lots.

You say Purdy's kills the waterfront boardwalk, but... what's beyond Purdy's anyway? The casino, and then the navy dockyard. You can't walk into the dockyard regardless, so Purdy's is an effective bookend to the harbour boardwalk.

I think its about time we re-open this thread. I found these photos of Halifax from 1963. Its quite interesting to see what the north-end looked like when the factories were still in use;

http://www.halifaxhistory.ca/Robie%2...20Aerial-a.jpg

http://www.halifaxhistory.ca/Robie%2...rial%202-a.jpg

Source

NSCC in the foreground of the first picture is a handsome building, looks fairly modern for Halifax at the time. I don't actually know what it looks like today.

Just south of NSCC in the first picture is St Stephen's school, which is built on an interesting piece of exposed rock which constitutes most of the "field" surrounding it. The large open area in the center of the pic is Fort Needham, the height of which is distorted by the air photo.

There was a lengthy thread in hfx.general a few months back about the second photo. The Oland grain drying plant at the bottom of the photo was a newish structure at the time. The tall office building on Young St now sits on that site.

Mm, I'll say. Damn good looking building - and it still is, in my opinion.

Today there's an additional 3 wings to the north (bottom of the picture), so it's quite amazing to me to see it in this state. It's an awesom building and I'm glad I attended there.