Old Halifax

[Keith P.]

I am unfamiliar with the Customs House building, but am curious about the dome shown in a couple of those pics. I presume it topped a central gallery open all the way to the ground floor?

[ILoveHalifax]

I remember visiting my uncle in the Irving building and was shocked about the nasty office facilities - much worse than my father's office south of there

[K-Man]

Originally Posted by someone123

I'm not really sure where it was or when it was demolished. It's a shame; these ironstone buildings were striking and fairly unique.

That Parks Canada link is a pretty good one 'someone123'....I'm glad you posted that. There's a lot of pictures on there that I haven't seen before. I have to agree with your statement about the ironstone buildings being unique. I always enjoy seeing a structure that's made with it as it's usually a pretty good sign of a building that's still standing from "old Halifax"....in a way I kind of see it as a Badge of Honor. I had read a snipit from an article a while ago that said there were some architects/builders that didn't like to use it as they found it drab and ugly - especially when it was rusting or "bleeding out". So that's one of the reasons that granite and sandstone quoins were so popular as besides adding structural stability they offset the look of the ironstone. I can't seem to find the source now though...thought it was pretty interesting anyway...

[OldDartmouthMark]

Is this the article you were referring to?

https://halifaxbloggers.ca/noticedinnovascotia/2019/02/best-face-forward/

[Keith P.]

Originally Posted by K-Man

I've been intrigued since you posted this a few days ago so I decided to make a trip to "ground zero" to see what the turntable looks like today. It's in pretty rough shape...still pretty cool though.



Source: My image


Source: My image


Source: My image


Source: My image


Source: My image

Big fire in the CN compound tonight, initial reports are that it was an abandoned building(s).

https://imgur.com/a/N1jhcc6

[K-Man]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

Big fire in the CN compound tonight, initial reports are that it was an abandoned building(s).

https://imgur.com/a/N1jhcc6

Ah ok, that would explain all the fire trucks I saw going down Windsor this evening...glad you threw that up...

[K-Man]

Originally Posted by OldDartmouthMark

Is this the article you were referring to?

https://halifaxbloggers.ca/noticedinnovascotia/2019/02/best-face-forward/

Hmmm, I remember it was a .pdf that I was skimming through but I wonder if the author may have used this as a source because parts of the two articles were very similar. A question popped into my head reading that though....I wonder when they clean the ironstone during the restoration work if they have a sealant they use to prevent further 'bleed through'? As much as I love the look of ironstone it can look pretty crappy when it starts to rust out too much and run down the side of a building. The canteen at York Redoubt is an example that comes to mind. Thanks for the link...I always enjoy his posts.

[K-Man]

REGISTERED HERITAGE PROPERTIES IN HRM

Thought I'd share this link to a .pdf file that lists all the registered heritage properties in HRM. For each building the article lists the civic number, the street name, the property name, and the construction date. It's not an overly exciting read or anything but I've used it a couple times for some 'lesser-known' sites. I thought it might be a useful tool for anyone doing some research. The article contains sites from Beaverbank to Waverly. Here's a quick little shot from the article for a few Halifax properties:

Link to the 'Registered Heritage Properties' .pdf:
https://www.halifax.ca/sites/default/fil...%20-%20Website%20Update%20Dec%202017.pdf


Source: https://www.halifax.ca/sites/default/fil...%20-%20Website%20Update%20Dec%202017.pdf

[ns_kid]

I thought I would share an image I find fascinating. While we have seen other aerial views of this precinct, I don't recall seeing this one posted in this thread before.

A provincial information service photographer took the shot, apparently from a rooftop on the northwest corner of Barrington and South on a brilliant late spring day. It has a whole bunch of interesting visual elements.


Source: Halifax Military History Preservation Society

Beginning from the top left is the Nova Scotian Hotel (later Hotel Nova Scotian; later still a Hilton, now the Westin Nova Scotian). Canadian National built the hotel starting in 1928, opening it in 1930. It adjoins the CNR's Halifax station, opened in 1928. Both buildings are decorated with flags and bunting for the 200th anniversary of Halifax's founding. The celebration was on 21 June, 1949 so it's reasonable the assume the photo was taken around that date.

To right of the Beaux-Arts station is the original red-brick interim station opened in 1920 to replace the Explosion-damaged North Street station and later converted to handle railway mail and express business. Behind it is Pier 21 with the Cunard liner RMS Aquitania (1914-1950) in port.

In front of the station is a Nova Scotia Light and Power trolleycoach (1949-1970). The coach is almost new, having been introduced less than three months before to replace the old street railway trams.

In the foreground is Cornwallis Park, its central axis lined up with the hotel entrance; not surprising, since CNR paid to build the place, before later transferring it to the city. Of course the now-infamous statue of Edward Cornwallis stands at its centre. I love the young trees and manicured foliage that make the park feel like a much more open and inviting place, at least for non-indigenous visitors.

A final little treat in the photo, at the extreme bottom left corner, is the image of what appears to be a Ben's Bakery delivery van. There are some other great vintage autos visible in the photo as well.

There are many remnants of old Halifax in this image.

[Keith P.]

Nice statue, a shame it's been disappeared.

Also, I find the use of the word "precinct" a bit pretentious. It is typically used in the US for policing zones but we don't have that here. The only person I have seen using it is Mason.

[ns_kid]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

Nice statue, a shame it's been disappeared.

Also, I find the use of the word "precinct" a bit pretentious. It is typically used in the US for policing zones but we don't have that here. The only person I have seen using it is Mason.

Haha, I don't know there was any pretension involved, more imprecision. Use district, neighbourhood or area if you prefer. But don't blame Mr. Mason; the term figures in the Halifax Land Use Bylaw, which I believe predates him. The park and hotel are part of precinct 2, Barrington Street South.

[K-Man]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

Big fire in the CN compound tonight, initial reports are that it was an abandoned building(s).

https://imgur.com/a/N1jhcc6

Hey all!

I was in the area today so I decided to take a quick stop by to see what the situation was. An officer with a spray bottle of water shooed me away though so I wan't able to get very close but the zoom on my camera is actually not too bad. They're not great but I was able to get these from a distance then got talking to some friendly bystanders that lived in the Bayers Park Apartments who were able to see everything from their balcony last night. They were saying that the building was used for maintenance on the trains so there were concerns about the oil, grease, gas, and other chemicals that would have built up over the years. I guess there was also some concern about a bunch of acetylene tanks that were onsite so they were top priority as well as the large fuel tanks (marked with white arrow) which they said had 44, 000 liters of gas in it. They said the fire department covered those with flame retardant blankets. I feel like we need to throw the 'Bat Symbol' into the air and have 'ns_kid' confirm some of this though!

Anyway folks, our turntable is still safe!


Source: My image


Source: My image


Source: My image


Source: My image

[K-Man]

Originally Posted by ns_kid

I thought I would share an image I find fascinating. While we have seen other aerial views of this precinct, I don't recall seeing this one posted in this thread before....

Nice, I haven't seen this image before either. I have to agree with you that the park feels much larger with the young trees, eh? It caught my interest that you mentioned the building being decorated with flags. A few posts back there was some discussion about the use of canvass awnings and signage on storefronts which is no longer 'in vogue'. I've noticed the same thing with flags in older photos. This image of the Queen Hotel comes to mind where flags seemed to be used more often on buildings & storefronts than they do nowadays - especially during celebration as in the image you posted. Anyway, that was an informative read...and now I also have one more pic for my collection, haha.


Source:https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/QUEEN-HOTEL-H...&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

[ns_kid]

Originally Posted by K-Man

Hey all!

I was in the area today so I decided to take a quick stop by to see what the situation was. An officer with a spray bottle of water shooed me away though so I wan't able to get very close but the zoom on my camera is actually not too bad. They're not great but I was able to get these from a distance then got talking to some friendly bystanders that lived in the Bayers Park Apartments who were able to see everything from their balcony last night. They were saying that the building was used for maintenance on the trains so there were concerns about the oil, grease, gas, and other chemicals that would have built up over the years. I guess there was also some concern about a bunch of acetylene tanks that were onsite so they were top priority as well as the large fuel tanks (marked with white arrow) which they said had 44, 000 liters of gas in it. They said the fire department covered those with flame retardant blankets. I feel like we need to throw the 'Bat Symbol' into the air and have 'ns_kid' confirm some of this though!

Anyway folks, our turntable is still safe!

Thanks for capturing some interesting shots, at great personal peril. I have this clear vision of you -- in your bat-suit of course -- doing battle with the spray bottle-wielding corporate lackey. Good work standing up to the man.

I wish I could share more light. It was a pretty ramshackle building and CBC quotes some unnamed CN official as saying it wasn't in use. I expect the locals are right, chances are there is contamination around that site even if there were no chemicals being stored there. I'm interested to see if any reporter bothers to try following up -- not that they are likely to get anything substantive from CN. Surely the fire marshal will be curious about how that fire began.

[K-Man]

Originally Posted by ns_kid

Thanks for capturing some interesting shots, at great personal peril. I have this clear vision of you -- in your bat-suit of course -- doing battle with the spray bottle-wielding corporate lackey. Good work standing up to the man.

Well, the 'ol bat-suit doesn't fit like it used to that's for sure - it's a little tight around the waste these days and with achy winter joints most of the work gets sourced out to Robin while I plug in the heating pad, haha!

[K-Man]

COLLINS BANK SIGN IN DISREPAIR

My favorite part of town has to be the north end of Granville, Hollis, and Water St. with the Granville Mall, Morse's Teas, Collins Bank/Simon's Warehouse, and in a perfect world the Pentagon building. A while ago at the NS Archives I had taken this shot of the Collin's Bank sign dated 1964 and I have to say it was looking pretty good for it's age.


Source: NS Archives - Taken with the camera on my phone of the image on their screen

I was downtown taking some photographs over the weekend and decided to stop by the Bank to snap a few shots. I was surprised to see once I got there though the poor condition that the sign is in. You can see in the photos that the sandstone is pretty worn/weathered and in the last two images it looks almost completely split away from itself. The photos don't really do it justice as I enhanced them a bit for clarity but by the shape that's it's in I'd be surprised if what's left makes it through 2 or 3 more winters.

I've read multiple dates as to the when the Collin's Bank building was built ranging from 1825, 1830, 1832, right up to 1875. Most articles though seem to date it 1830-ish. So, it got me wondering how it went 134 some-odd-years (1830-1964) maintaining itself quite well to falling into what looks like near disrepair in the last 55 years (1964-2019)? It doesn't seem like it 'made the cut' for the restoration in the 70's. I wonder if there are any plans to try and restore/salvage what's left? It looks to me like the sign was put together in layers so I imagine they could always just attach a new front. Anyway, even though it's right out on Water St. I kind of feel like it's a bit of a hidden gem in plain sight....


Source: My image


Source: My image


Source: My image


Source: My image

Collins Bank - 1900

Source: Parks Canada - http://parkscanadahistory.com/series/chs/9/chs9-3m.htm

I don't know why but the photo above is a favorite 'old time' image of mine. I think it's because it's not what we see but rather what Enos and his entourage are seeing instead. They're seeing the original Jerusalem Warehouse before the fire & brick addition, the infamous Pontack Inn in it's final days, Buckingham St, the Ordinance Yard, and of course the Pentagon building. As much as I like this photo I think I wish more that someone in Collin's posse had a camera to take a picture that day as well. When was the selfie invented again?

[OldDartmouthMark]

Originally Posted by K-Man

Hey all!

I was in the area today so I decided to take a quick stop by to see what the situation was. An officer with a spray bottle of water shooed me away though so I wan't able to get very close but the zoom on my camera is actually not too bad. They're not great but I was able to get these from a distance then got talking to some friendly bystanders that lived in the Bayers Park Apartments who were able to see everything from their balcony last night. They were saying that the building was used for maintenance on the trains so there were concerns about the oil, grease, gas, and other chemicals that would have built up over the years. I guess there was also some concern about a bunch of acetylene tanks that were onsite so they were top priority as well as the large fuel tanks (marked with white arrow) which they said had 44, 000 liters of gas in it. They said the fire department covered those with flame retardant blankets. I feel like we need to throw the 'Bat Symbol' into the air and have 'ns_kid' confirm some of this though!

Anyway folks, our turntable is still safe!


Source: My image


Source: My image


Source: My image


Source: My image

Great sleuthing! I had noticed the column of smoke while driving through the Fairview overpass around 5:30 on Sat night but was unaware of the source. Discovered the news on the internet in the meantime and could see the glow of an active fire when I drove by there again around 12:30.

If you were looking for closer shots, including video of the active fire, check out this twitter feed, and scroll back to the evening of Nov 9 through Nov 10. There are some good shots on there...

https://twitter.com/hrmfirenews?lang=en

Seeing that it is an older brick building, I was curious as to when it was built and what its original use might have been. Perhaps it's always been a warehouse/storage area?

[OldDartmouthMark]

Originally Posted by ns_kid

I thought I would share an image I find fascinating. While we have seen other aerial views of this precinct, I don't recall seeing this one posted in this thread before.

A provincial information service photographer took the shot, apparently from a rooftop on the northwest corner of Barrington and South on a brilliant late spring day. It has a whole bunch of interesting visual elements.


Source: Halifax Military History Preservation Society

Beginning from the top left is the Nova Scotian Hotel (later Hotel Nova Scotian; later still a Hilton, now the Westin Nova Scotian). Canadian National built the hotel starting in 1928, opening it in 1930. It adjoins the CNR's Halifax station, opened in 1928. Both buildings are decorated with flags and bunting for the 200th anniversary of Halifax's founding. The celebration was on 21 June, 1949 so it's reasonable the assume the photo was taken around that date.

To right of the Beaux-Arts station is the original red-brick interim station opened in 1920 to replace the Explosion-damaged North Street station and later converted to handle railway mail and express business. Behind it is Pier 21 with the Cunard liner RMS Aquitania (1914-1950) in port.

In front of the station is a Nova Scotia Light and Power trolleycoach (1949-1970). The coach is almost new, having been introduced less than three months before to replace the old street railway trams.

In the foreground is Cornwallis Park, its central axis lined up with the hotel entrance; not surprising, since CNR paid to build the place, before later transferring it to the city. Of course the now-infamous statue of Edward Cornwallis stands at its centre. I love the young trees and manicured foliage that make the park feel like a much more open and inviting place, at least for non-indigenous visitors.

A final little treat in the photo, at the extreme bottom left corner, is the image of what appears to be a Ben's Bakery delivery van. There are some other great vintage autos visible in the photo as well.

There are many remnants of old Halifax in this image.

Fascinating photo and great commentary! Thanks for posting this!

[OldDartmouthMark]

Originally Posted by K-Man

Nice, I haven't seen this image before either. I have to agree with you that the park feels much larger with the young trees, eh? It caught my interest that you mentioned the building being decorated with flags. A few posts back there was some discussion about the use of canvass awnings and signage on storefronts which is no longer 'in vogue'. I've noticed the same thing with flags in older photos. This image of the Queen Hotel comes to mind where flags seemed to be used more often on buildings & storefronts than they do nowadays - especially during celebration as in the image you posted. Anyway, that was an informative read...and now I also have one more pic for my collection, haha.


Source:https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/QUEEN-HOTEL-H...&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Thanks for that. I hadn't seen that photo of the Queen Hotel. From the vehicles on the street I'd have to say it was from the late 1920s or early 1930s, likely just 10 years before the Queen Hotel was lost to a fire which took many lives. I posted about the fire previously in this thread:

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showpost.php?p=7794542&postcount=611

[OldDartmouthMark]

Originally Posted by K-Man

COLLINS BANK SIGN IN DISREPAIR

My favorite part of town has to be the north end of Granville, Hollis, and Water St. with the Granville Mall, Morse's Teas, Collins Bank/Simon's Warehouse, and in a perfect world the Pentagon building. A while ago at the NS Archives I had taken this shot of the Collin's Bank sign dated 1964 and I have to say it was looking pretty good for it's age.


Source: NS Archives - Taken with the camera on my phone of the image on their screen

I was downtown taking some photographs over the weekend and decided to stop by the Bank to snap a few shots. I was surprised to see once I got there though the poor condition that the sign is in. You can see in the photos that the sandstone is pretty worn/weathered and in the last two images it looks almost completely split away from itself. The photos don't really do it justice as I enhanced them a bit for clarity but by the shape that's it's in I'd be surprised if what's left makes it through 2 or 3 more winters.

I've read multiple dates as to the when the Collin's Bank building was built ranging from 1825, 1830, 1832, right up to 1875. Most articles though seem to date it 1830-ish. So, it got me wondering how it went 134 some-odd-years (1830-1964) maintaining itself quite well to falling into what looks like near disrepair in the last 55 years (1964-2019)? It doesn't seem like it 'made the cut' for the restoration in the 70's. I wonder if there are any plans to try and restore/salvage what's left? It looks to me like the sign was put together in layers so I imagine they could always just attach a new front. Anyway, even though it's right out on Water St. I kind of feel like it's a bit of a hidden gem in plain sight....


Source: My image


Source: My image


Source: My image


Source: My image

Collins Bank - 1900

Source: Parks Canada - http://parkscanadahistory.com/series/chs/9/chs9-3m.htm

I don't know why but the photo above is a favorite 'old time' image of mine. I think it's because it's not what we see but rather what Enos and his entourage are seeing instead. They're seeing the original Jerusalem Warehouse before the fire & brick addition, the infamous Pontack Inn in it's final days, Buckingham St, the Ordinance Yard, and of course the Pentagon building. As much as I like this photo I think I wish more that someone in Collin's posse had a camera to take a picture that day as well. When was the selfie invented again?

Great detail views of the sign! It looks like the sign was made with an outer layer of sandstone that was finished to a much higher standard than that which lie underneath. From that perspective, it looks like the sign could be restored by replacing the outer layer...

I suspect, with gaps in the layers being exposed to snow and ice, that the thermal cycling and thus expansion and contraction of the ice/water that gets between the two layers will accelerate the deterioration somewhat. The sign does not have have a long life ahead of it IMHO.