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 |
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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
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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. |
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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.
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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. |
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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: |
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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. |
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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. |
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^Nice find. :tup:
Its actually weird to me to see a photo of the Africville area from before the MacKay was built. |
I was looking through some old family albums and found these two photos. One is dated 1935 and the other I would guess was in the early '40's.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3506/...92051606_o.jpg http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3548/...30b13eba_o.jpg |
Neat old Scotia Square ad. The complex had only been partially constructed at the time this was published, hence some of the towers looking different from their final form.
http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l2...0/8ebc35e9.jpg |
Interesting rendering. Amazing how artist's conceptions of proposed developments always look so much better than the finished product. Certainly what was proposed looks better than the Cogswell Tower we ended up with, and the streetside looks far more appealing than it turned out to be. You can certainly understand why people wanted this back in the 60s based upon this, especially if you remember what was there previously.
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Yeah, I'm not sure the Scotia Square we know is this lush...
http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l2...0/15eecf89.jpg Does anyone have photos of the area prior to redevelopment? |
Yeah, the Cogswell Tower leaves a lot to be desired.
I actually like the older towers and, to some degree, the Barrington and Duke corner. If the Barrington Street frontage were opened up a little more it would function a lot better (you could imagine an open ground floor in this rendering with main doors and some storefronts, for example, with a glassed in area above). Maintaining the old street grid a little more still probably would have been better in the long run, however. |
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If you scroll to almost the bottom of this page there ia a photo of the corner of barrinton and Buckingham, and a map of the area where scotia square was built. the Halifax history site is interesting. Lots of old photos. |
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Unfortunately it had a redevelopment strategy from the 1950s-70s: tear down about half of the buildings, give some people cheap mortgages in areas like Sackville or Woodlawn, and build public housing for other people.
Clearly the area's not what it was in 1962 but it's been doing better lately. |
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1vLdnm7eFE
Neat Casino ad from the 80s. The spaces outside Maritime Mall and Quinpool Centre look better kept. What does the sign at 0:07 say? I am having trouble placing it because they must have removed a couple planters at some point, and because no entrance exists at that angle today. Is it where the Canadian Tire doors are? In the shots further on the whole stretch looks much better treed. |
I'm pretty sure the sign at 0:07 is for Quionpool Centre, I think that is shot near the Wendy's. I think the planters were only removed about 5 years ago.
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The addition on the (nowadays) Westin Hotel on Hollis Street. Photo cortesy of The Chronicle Herald Community News
http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/sit..._JIGTKST_7.jpg This photo, published on May 14, 1959, informed readers about the "steadily mounting steel framework of the addition to the Nova Scotian Hotel." The original CN-owned hotel opened June 24, 1930. In 1966, the name changed to Hotel Nova Scotian. In 1981, CN sold it to Revenue Hotels and in 1989 the name changed to The Halifax Hilton when Hilton International took over management. It closed in 1993, then reopened on Dec. 1, 1996 as The Westin Nova Scotian. |
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Here's an interesting photo from the NS archives. The title says that it shows the South Park gates of the Public Gardens:
http://www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm/images/Notman/200715179.jpg (you can see it in more detail using a flash plugin at http://www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm/virtual/n...ves.asp?ID=693) I never knew that this structure existed. Does anybody know anything about it, like the date of its construction or demolition? Is the title of the photo even correct? |
I have been trying to find information about the image posted above by someone123 since I didn't know that there was such an elaborate gate at the Public Gardens. While looking through the Nova Scotia Archive images I came across the one below which is dated 1899 and is of an exhibition hall/rink that was at Tower Road and Morris Street. Does anyone know when this rink was demolished?
"Carnival, Old Exhibition Rink, Feb. 1899" (source: http://www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm/virtual/h...ives.asp?ID=62 ) http://www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm/share.asp...%20%20c%202011 PS: It was the Exhibition Building which could also be used as a rink. here is another image - http://www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm/virtual/n...ves.asp?ID=160 PS: In the image above, it looks like the photographer just superimposed images on top of a picture of the exhibition hall. At least one of the images (pirate costumed man) looks like one that I saw in another archived studio image from 1899. It is eerie looking at these old photos - the people are like ghosts who passed away long go. |
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Wow! I had no idea that gate ever existed. It would be awesome if they rebuilt it. Would give a more majestic quality to the gardens.
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Here's an interesting photo of expansion on the VG from the Herald's Community section.
http://thechronicleherald.ca/sites/d..._62H89ON_1.jpg "The steel skeleton of the Centennial Building of the Victoria General Hospital on Tower Road in Halifax was due to be completed in a couple of weeks when this photo appeared on Dec. 31, 1964, according to Manual Zive, chairman of the hospital board." - The Chronicle Herald archive |
George Street. Tearing down some of these buildings was a mistake:
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5132/...feb9210b_b.jpg Source |
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Although from a viewpoint of nostalgia, I agree with your statement, but from a practical viewpoint, the low ceilings and inadequate building code standards compared to current standards would tend to sway the argument towards modern buildings. It is fortunate that some of the buildings in the old image still exist. Most of the the old buildings on the right side of the street are gone. But I think the two on the left side still exist. PS: I think one on the right side of George Street still exists also(?) Is this one in the old image? - http://maps.google.ca/maps?hl=&q=geo...,0.008256&z=18. I think that it is but it is just barely visible. And of course the old town clock at the top of George Street is still there. I am glad that Halifax is a mix of old and new buildings. In the Street View image, the newer Bank of Montreal tower looks good and the TD Bank tower is passable, but the newer Royal Bank tower didn't add anything to George Street. These newer towers are all almost 40 years old now. Question: Would George Street in the old picture have been dirt as it appears to be? If it was dirt then it must have been difficult to maintain. |
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That's part of the whole HT argument that I will never understand. They say they want to preserve heritage, yet when someone proposed to do so but incorporate modern buildings - they go nuts?
I challenged them a while back and asked them why they were not more supportive of that idea because you got the best of both worlds. The basic response was that this kind of thing 'still destroyed the history because of the modern building above'. So I asked them - well why do many of the old historic cities in Europe do that? The answer - those cities cave to developers. Whatever. So, the HT: It's their way or no way. |
Office towers could have been built nearby. There were plenty of sites in Halifax with marginal buildings -- many of those are now parking lots.
In places like Quebec City there is far more emphasis on preservation, but in Halifax we get excuses. You can also look to Europe to see many well-preserved cities. Somehow they managed the building code issues without bulldozing Paris. |
That's an interesting pic, but I'm not sure I agree with the conclusion that those buildings were so special.
Keep in mind that just about everything on the left side of that photo still stands. So it is the ones on the right that we are talking about, which is where the BMO Tower, the Royal Bank Tower, and the TD Tower are located. Are those great buildings? Arguably no, but neither are these. They are not the British Museum. They are the typical Halifax 19th-century 3 storey walkups, and while they had some interesting detailing, they were nothing particularly special even when they were new. The owners allowed them to run down over their lives. They were uneconomical at the end and were replaced with something new. That's what happens in societies. You do not live in a time warp, despite the best efforts of the HT. Remarkable old buildings deserve to get saved. I do not put these in that category, any more than I would argue that the aforementioned towers should be saved in the future. |
What I was trying to say was that they could have been saved (even though I agree with Keith - they are pretty typical for Halifax) and then had modern additions to them. But they weren't.
My issue with HT is that they fail to see big picture and think about ways to accomplish both new additions and saving older buildings. Someone mentioned Founder's Square - that's what i'm trying to say could've happened with these (something along that lines). Either way, the HT can't see beyond their own blinders. |
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