[OldDartmouthMark]

That's interesting because the automobile had only really been in widespread use for less than 30 years at that point. In the late '40s, especially in Halifax, not every household had a car - far from it, I believe... and already the freedom and convenience granted by the automobile was starting to convince people that it would be better to live in a nicer area away from the gritty downtown, as was the normal mindset of the time.

By the 1960s, automobile use was in full swing, and with the planned Harbour Drive development combined with the MacKay bridge and Burnside, I can see why waterfront industrial businesses would not see a need to invest further in their properties. Why invest in a hundred-year old building that was already in disrepair, and may be torn down anyway, when you could have one of those modern new steel buildings right in the middle of a transportation hub?

By the late 1960s the city had already acquired numerous buildings in the waterfront area and demolition had commenced. In fact I'm sure that many of those photos on the Municipal Archives were taken for that very reason.

The run-down appearance of the downtown in these photos is merely a sign of end-of-life state for many of these structures, the result of changing dynamics, planning practices of the time, and general neglect by the city.