[OldDartmouthMark]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

I believe the more accurate statement is that the various attempts made to "enhance" Argyle St were largely a waste of money and I stand by that. It was vibrant before the blacktop was painted like an argyle sock or replaced by paving stones, and it is just as vibrant now. HRM's war on the private vehicle has meant it is now useless for that purpose although the true believers continue to post shots of delivery or service trucks intruding upon what they perceive as their own private plaza. Where they expect to get their burgers and nachos from without such deliveries remains a mystery. The long-term will tell if the businesses there survive once the weather turns cold and stormy, and people are not wandering around as much.

That's not an "accurate statement". It is only your opinion.

You focus too much on the extremes of social media (maybe you should spend less time on social media and actually go to the places you complain about?). Any time I visit the area I see lots of people walking (or wheeling, for those in chairs) about enjoying the pedestrian-friendly streets, not complaining or taking photos of delivery trucks. Most people understand the realities of life - like businesses need to have delivery access - but it doesn't mean that they don't have the ability to enjoy the area just the same.

There are already businesses that have survived there long-term, and there have been restaurants that have turned over a lot (common in the restaurant industry, if you pay attention). I don't see how anybody could reason that having a nicer street could affect businesses that are entertainment or service-based in a negative fashion.

What old buildings? Please identify some memorable stone or masonry buildings with architectural detail that would stop visitors in their tracks which have been removed from Argyle St.. The answer is that there were none. Halifax is not a city that ever had very many of those. Aside from the old stone church where TD Canada Trust now resides I can think of none. It was always a very workmanlike city with wooden buildings of minimal character for the most part. You are making a false analogy comparing it to Old Montreal.

The answer is that there were several masonry buildings on Argyle Street, and more ornate/elegant ones in the lower streets (like Granville and Hollis), which housed the centre of business and government.

Halifax was well-off financially early on until the shift of business to upper and lower Canada sometime in the 1800s, but it has always been a centre of military, shipping, other marine-based industries (for obvious reasons), and its history is very rich and interesting. Different from New York, Toronto, Montreal, Chicago, etc. etc. in that things were done on a smaller scale and in a way that's more or less unique to Halifax, but we shouldn't want to be or try to be those cities. I already covered this previously.

Montreal is used as an example because I recently visited there and was impressed by how much care has been given to preserve their structures and to create a vital space that people want to visit - not to say that we are the same as Montreal (though someone123 has pointed out that there were actually many similarities). The concept of respecting their heritage and protecting its structures is very much alive there, and is part of the culture - it would be a great example for us to follow, if we could get our heads out of our asses for 5 minutes.

But, you want examples of stone and/or masonry buildings on Argyle Street that have been torn down, so here's a few. Maybe not as ornate as other cities (or other areas of Halifax), but definitely typical of Halifax. If you expand your search for images outside of Argyle Street, there is no trouble to find some buildings that fit your qualifications that have been torn down.

Source of below photos

These were all on Argyle Street:








Just because it's not made of stone, a building can still have an interesting/significant history. The wooden structure next to the Saint Paul's rectory building (that was torn down in the 1980s) in the photo above, is currently home to the Auction House - a brief history at the link below:
http://www.auctionhousehalifax.com/our-story/

The same goes for the building which currently houses the Five Fishermen:
https://www.fivefishermen.com/history/

For that matter, your disdain for wooden structures is without base. One of Nova Scotia's strong points has been its wooded structures, largely feeding off the heydays of wooden shipbuilding, which was quite large in this province back in the day. It is the major reason that Lunenburg is a UNESCO world heritage site:
https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/741

But... I realize this will be wasted on you because Lunenburg doesn't have the equivalent of Penn Station...

Certainly what has occurred in Quebec is indeed all about federal money. They receive an endless river of it.

Speculation

I am not sure I want my municipal property taxes being routed to preserve old run-down buildings of dubious architectural value just because they are old (if there ever were any).

There's way more to it than that, but someone123 and other posters have already presented enough material that you have glossed over sot there's no point in going much deeper than this.