So they were charged taxes? They just didn't pay them.

To repeat, many did own property, and did pay taxes, even though they received very little in services from the City. As with everywhere, some didn't pay the property tax, and the properties were seized and sometimes sold. Nothing particular about Africville, still happens today.

I believe there were other places on the peninsula which did not have sewer and water at the time. For sure there were large areas of Halifax County just off the peninsula on well and sewer. If you look at the pictures, these few houses were quite a distance from the built up parts of the city.

Source? Or is it just an assumption?

The quote states that tax arrears were 4 times as much as the tax levy.

That is correct and not surprising in impoverished areas.

So that means they were not paying taxes. My point stands.

It means some of them weren't paying taxes, not that none of them were.

And we're talking about a community entirely comprised of a marginalized racial group (certainly at that time, at least) who had been there for about 150 years. Taxes are not the trump card in this situation. Taxation or not (and as has been said above, some properties did pay taxes to the city) the evictions were top-down civic macro-management, inspired less by a concern for the welfare of the people than by the value of the land for industry.

The eviction, and the way it was carried out, were wrong. No amount of sophistry about taxes will change that.

Yes, merely build a brand-new community for them nearby with the latest amenities of the time and give it to them for free. How horrible.

I met a man recently who moved to uniacke square when it first opened. At the time it was probably a 'free' situation'. He probably went to post secondary school around the time that Keith and I did. I figure that he pays in taxes now, local and federal, more than Keith and I together.
It is horrible that people have tremendous difficulty getting out of poverty, either way is not an easy road.

So if he is paying lots of taxes he must be making lots of money or have property of great value.

To think that all it took was for an American formurer to innocently thank somebody for posting a picture of Africville, where his family lived. Result: this shitstorm.

Spoiler alert: nobody's going to change their minds. To some people, allocation of tax resources trumps social responsibility, to others, vice versa. Why have this argument again and again and again?

Question, does anybody have a pic of the corner of quinpool and robie before the holiday inn/atlantica was built?

I cannot seem to find one online.

I don't have a picture but Reg Ryer had a service station on that corner for years. It was Esso, I believe

Thank ILH, now I have an idea of what to search for.

So in my trek through the wilds of the Internet jungle, I fell upon a website with the 1945 master plan for Halifax. I have to say that the city back then seemed to have a better idea with what the peninsula shoul grow into.

http://cargocollective.com/cause/194...ity-of-Halifax

How interesting, I've been reading for a couple of hours. They talk a lot about our slums or blighted areas and discuss the standards in these areas.
It is amazing how there were plans way back then to grow the city and how some were completed and some never went any further. No Arm bridge but 2 harbor bridges.

Fascinating reading. The city authorities apparently were more far-sighted then than are ours today, considering this was done when Halifax was consumed with the war effort and the future was somewhat uncertain. Perhaps that allowed a degree of freedom to their deliberations that is not found today, where political correctness and the need to satisfy various special interests seems to slant their actions.

It is interesting that most of the recommendations seem quite sound. It is also interesting to note that, as is typical of Halifax, virtually none of them were implemented. The closest seems to have been the construction of the SGR memorial library, although even that was cheapened up considerably by deleting the recommended 2000-seat auditorium that would have served as an arts facility.

I found their comments on the street grid riveting. They identified then what I constantly rant about today - the antique and obsolete road network. They identified a great many solutions that are quite sensible, from the NW Arm bridge with supporting street improvements, a complete redevelopment of the ridiculously undersized North St-to-Chebucto Rd corridor for the then-proposed MacDonald Bridge, numerous logical fixes to existing street issues of the day, and a series of diagonal arteries from the waterfront area uphill to the center of the city to alleviate the steep grades. All of these ideas on the road network were brilliant, all would still be trememdously useful today, and I do not think a single one of them was ever implemented. Shameful.

Highly recommended reading.

Very interesting. The simple sketch of the Northwest Arm bridge shows that a bridge was being considered almost 70 years ago. I don't think that a suspension bridge would be required though. Here is the sketch.

(source: http://issuu.com/brendancormier/docs...alifax_1945/80 )
http://imageshack.us/a/img853/9541/n...tarmbridge.jpg

I like how the rail cut goes below ground in that image, that "aquatic gardens" park at the rotary with the pinnacle/monument thing is pretty friggin cool too.

It's too bad they didn't build that bridge back in the 1940's. It would still be a useful project today, but the newer subdivisions make it harder to create a reasonable road network.

"Memorial Shaft." That is all.:tup:

Here's a rare photo of Sackville Street during the 1950's. You can see the Zeller's where the Discovery Centre is today. Even more interesting are the brick buildings on Sackville below Hollis Street. I've never been able to find closer street-level shots of them:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.n...52595635_o.jpg
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...52649570440109

This one's not very clear but it's an amazing little scene:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.n...02211918_n.jpg

This one's great too:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.n...13542359_n.jpg

Albums are here (there are over 7,000 photos in total): https://www.facebook.com/VintageHalifax/photos_stream

WOW. Those people do not look happy.

It's interesting how much busier Halifax looked back then, almost to the point of being legitimately crowded. But yeah, not necessarily carefree.

Oh, brutal. Seeing the Customs House is always a punch to the gut, and I never knew the Tex-Park site had so much stuff on it. There certainly seems to have been a grandness to the city back then that's only partially surviving today.

I saw recently some old aerials of the St. Lawrence neighbourhood in Toronto--19th century, 1970s, and present day. The density of the built environment in the first was incredible, but more than half the buildings were gone by the 70s. Today those holes have mostly been filled in again by newer development. Hopefully our way forward as well.

Cool! Thanks for posting those!

Regarding the mood of the people, it could be something as simple as they were not happy to have their photo taken by a stranger. Cameras (and phones with cameras) were not as common on the street back then, and I think people generally tended to be a little more shy, humble and conservative compared to today. I don't think people were generally unhappy then, in fact I get the impression that the opposite was true.

I can't say first-hand, though as I wasn't around in the fifties... :)

Much as I lament the loss of a lot of those buildings, is that a huge oil tank on the waterfront in the Sackville shot? Certainly better off without that.

Did you see the "then and now" pic that somebody posted on that page? Pretty neat!

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.n...22192106_o.jpg

I just came across this old Imperial Oil ad from 1970, talking about the Woodside refinery. It's a pretty mediocre commercial, but ends with a cool pan-in shot of downtown from the refinery itself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDADu0TkwE8

Very interesting. It looks like the CIBC tower, TD tower and Cogswell tower are all missing (they weren't yet built back in 1970).

Hey, here's another one! From 1973:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpXinsoCIPk

Nice one Keith. These videos are a little glimpse back in my family history. A good chunk of my mothers side of the family resided in Woodside for, well, longer than the refinery existed.. lol. My great uncle's house was right across Pleasant St. between what is now the little mini-mart and the Imperial truck filling facility. The house is gone now he's been gone for many years, and the land was sold to Imperial, but the little gravel lot where it once stood is an important little bit of history for us, and getting to see what the immediate area of the refinery looked like, and the views from the area is really cool. :tup:

Here's something a little different -- rendering of the Keith and Gordon Building, a.k.a. Green Lantern Building, from 1896. I think this is one of the nicer old commercial blocks on the street.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.n...18182543_n.jpg
https://www.facebook.com/VintageHalifax/photos_stream

It was a little depressing to google the building and find an article in the Coast from 2009 about its impending restoration.

Jean Laroche just reported on Twitter that the Dennis building is now closed to its workers after they discovered high mold levels.

https://twitter.com/larochecbc/statu...49099206856704

Transportation and Infrastructure minister said "I guess at some stage a 171 year (old building) is gonna have to have to come down." That flies in the face of this report from 2006, indicating a rehab as the cheapest of five options for site reuse, including demolition and a new building.

In any case, some NDP party folks I know say the first step will be to attempt a remediation. Still makes me nervous, though. The thing is clearly in need of an exterior power-wash and thorough interior scrubdown, but if a report from 2006 indicated that a reno was cheaper than a demo, I have a hard time seeing how anyone can make a convincing case for the latter. BUt since few people will bother to compare the numbers and weigh all the options, they won't need to make a convincing case. All it'll take is a few people saying, "Well, guess its time has come," and everyone will nod sadly.

Nobody who has ever had to spend work time there would miss it one little bit. It is a terrible building from a functional point of view. I don't know how it could be renovated to current standards given the ceiling heights, lack of elevator shafts, etc.

The report identified the issues with mold and other problems relating to occupancy back in 2006. However it seems to be biased toward the entire heritage value, referencing a report by Elizabeth Pacey, of all people, and referring to the usual obstructionist voices during one of the interminable consultations: "Given the clear preference of the public to maintain the Dennis Building, if removal of the building is seriously contemplated, there must be a compelling and clearly articulated reason for so doing. As stated by one participant in the consultative process, “it needs a big argument, not a series of small arguments” to justify demolition or significant alteration."

Really? Says who? If it were to be knocked down and a mirror image of One Government Place were to be built on the site and adjacent parking lot I would not shed a tear.

Yipee!

Let's take a few pics, then tear it down and build a new structure that uses the whole lot. The vacant lot does nothing for Barrington. From what I was reading they really could only half ass preserve a facade. We have streets of old facades. Let's build something that looks like 2013.

Oh, no the ceilings are too low! Guess it's useless then! (Sarcasm.)

It can be gutted and rebuilt inside in a contemporary fashion—which, as I have tried to point out exhaustively on here, is called "adaptive reuse", and has been done many, many, many times, around the world, successfully. Whether you think it's worth the effort on a small building is one thing, but this is one of the grandest, largest, most visible old structures in the city/province/Maritimes. Tearing down should not even be on the table. It would be an act of civic vandalism on par with removing Keith Hall or something like that.

Whatever you were reading is wrong. There's more than enough room on the Barrington-facing side to build there without removing the Dennis.

I genuinely don't understand you and Keith. Advocating for tearing this down is bizarre. Whatever.

10 years ago when I moved to Halifax, friends dragged me to Parade Square to see the New Year's fireworks. I nearly froze to death. However, I was very impressed with the display as it was reflecting in the glass of the TD building.
So I vote for another glass mirror highrise. Come to think of it what a great place for residential with a view over the Square. Granville side office and Barrington side residential. How high can we go?

What I read is if they were to try to save it (the facade0 they would have to add a few feet per floor to get proper ceiling height and that would most likely destroy the appearance of the building.

There is no "proper" ceiling height, just preferred. I encourage you to take a walk through NYC sometime and marvel at the streets full of buildings with obsolete ceiling heights. As to how high can be built here, 28 metres under HRMbD.

Here's what I don't understand: Rather than try and preserve what is clearly one of the very best buildings of its era in the city, the province, and in fact the country, people just immediately go, "well, it's old and there are certain challenges with reusing it. So rather than try and solve those problems, knock 'er down."

We need to exercise more imagination with building out city. There are lots of other places to put new glass towers.

I don't think so! Every site with every old slum seems somebody wants to save it.

BTW, that report from 2006 gave estimates for 5 options regarding the Dennis. The cheapest was demolition and new construction. Just to be accurate and all.

I think you misread: Under "total cost" it said the cheapest were options 1 and 4--preserve with minimal changes to the structure, or preserve and remove every other floor to create higher (I guess way higher) ceilings.

Low ceiling heights make it untenable as Class A office space. No problem: make it residential or Class B. So many choices.

The biggest challenge when it comes to running a government or running a city like Halifax is that you have to balance the disparate needs and desires of many different groups. Some people don't care about heritage buildings, but they are inherently valuable to others, so a balanced solution is for the government to put some amount of effort into saving them. The province can't afford to spend tons of money, but a creative solution might not cost much at all, and it could be a big win when you consider how unique the Dennis Building is. It's not true that Halifax has tons of buildings like this -- it really only has a few blocks of nice stone buildings centred around Province House. This area should be considered a very special heritage district. There is nothing else quite like it anywhere else in Canada.

The ceiling height issue seems like it would be less of a problem if the building were converted to residential, or maybe it could just become some sort of lower cost incubator space for new businesses downtown. There are lots of empty sites nearby for the province to build on, like the surrounding parking lot, the empty lot by the AGNS, the Queen's Landing lot, etc., and there is vacant space in some existing office buildings downtown.

Last page of the report summarizes the options. Cheapest per sq ft is demo & build new. They buried that nicely.

Brilliant. Let's turn it into MLA apartments to appease the public who seem to want out-of-town MLAs to sleep in the back seat of their cars in the Province House parking lot rather than pay them a housing allowance. I can see it now: a penthouse on top for the Premier; the top floors for govt members; the middle floors for the official opposition; ground floors for the other parties. Perhaps they can construct a gaol in the basement for those MLAs who are convicted of expense fraud or other misdeeds. We would need to construct underground parking below the gaol to allow cars to be removed from Province House, but that should only be a few dozen million, unless they find historic artifacts, in which case the cost could cause the province to go bankrupt in the name of some 18th century broken bottles.

This is a fine adaptive reuse of an otherwise unusable heritage building and will have a payback of 200 years or so, which seems appropriate.

Check out this video from 1989. Driving tour through downtown from Gottingen all the way to Spring Garden Road. Lots of changes since then!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ4hUuArFbs

Lot's of changes for sure, however, there are lots of spots where other than the models of the cars driving around, everything is still pretty much the same.. and several of those are places where things should've progressed at least SOME in 25 years.. lol:shrug: