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  #661  
Old Posted Mar 26, 2018, 6:36 PM
OldDartmouthMark OldDartmouthMark is offline
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Originally Posted by JET View Post
That last shot of the tram with the 'gas holder' in the back.
The are quite prevalent in London UK and are very neat: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30405066
Thanks for the info! I was not aware of 'gas holders'... learned something new today!!
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  #662  
Old Posted Mar 26, 2018, 7:55 PM
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Thanks for the info! I was not aware of 'gas holders'... learned something new today!!
Massive ones were seen in large US cities as well (the Elmshurst Tanks in Queens , NYC, were a notable landmark), and Toronto also had them in the distillery district and probably elsewhere too. They were originally used for town or coal gas, which was made from coal and piped into homes. Nasty stuff apparently. I remember as a kid visiting an old house on Lawrence St and the deactivated gas lamps were still attached to the walls. I had no idea back then that there was a network of gas mains in the streets of Halifax way back when.
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  #663  
Old Posted Mar 26, 2018, 9:53 PM
OldDartmouthMark OldDartmouthMark is offline
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Originally Posted by Keith P. View Post
Massive ones were seen in large US cities as well (the Elmshurst Tanks in Queens , NYC, were a notable landmark), and Toronto also had them in the distillery district and probably elsewhere too. They were originally used for town or coal gas, which was made from coal and piped into homes. Nasty stuff apparently. I remember as a kid visiting an old house on Lawrence St and the deactivated gas lamps were still attached to the walls. I had no idea back then that there was a network of gas mains in the streets of Halifax way back when.
I never put 2 and 2 together to consider that there was actually a gas network within the city back then, but was aware of wall mounted gas lamps when I read about the Poor House, which burnt down in 1882, killing 31 (not conclusive due to poor record keeping) people. I don't believe the cause was determined to be the lamps, but certainly gas flowing in pipes within the walls would have helped the fire out a little.



http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-s...lled-1.3918547
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  #664  
Old Posted Mar 26, 2018, 11:01 PM
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Halifax had a long history of coal gas service. The Halifax Gas Light Company started refining gas from coal in 1843, initially servicing 281 downtown homes and businesses. Fun fact: one of the first directors of HGL was Edward Cunard, son of Sam. Successor Nova Scotia Light and Power finally abandoned the gas network and purged all its gas lines in 1953. The last new major gas customer was the VG's Victoria Building in 1948. Source: NSLP
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  #665  
Old Posted Mar 27, 2018, 11:59 AM
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Thanks for the info! I was not aware of 'gas holders'... learned something new today!!
I find the skeletons quite beautiful, when I'm watching tv shows set in London, they can often be seen in the background.
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  #666  
Old Posted Mar 27, 2018, 6:13 PM
IanWatson IanWatson is offline
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Mark, in all your archive browsing, have you ever come across photos of the TexPark site BEFORE the TexPark garage was built?
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  #667  
Old Posted Mar 27, 2018, 6:58 PM
OldDartmouthMark OldDartmouthMark is offline
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Mark, in all your archive browsing, have you ever come across photos of the TexPark site BEFORE the TexPark garage was built?
Hmmm... not sure. I'm thinking *maybe* ... but I'm not super organized in that respect - mostly going by memory and making mental notes of what I've seen. Also trying to remember when Texpark was built as that will help.

I will post it if I can find it, though.
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  #668  
Old Posted Mar 27, 2018, 9:44 PM
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  #669  
Old Posted Mar 27, 2018, 10:00 PM
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Interesting-looking building, oddly captioned as "Hantsport Baptist Church
Hantsport NS 1857 Religious" on the source site.
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  #670  
Old Posted Mar 27, 2018, 10:59 PM
OldDartmouthMark OldDartmouthMark is offline
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Hmmm... the TexPark block...

According to wikipedia, the TexPark garage was built in the early 1960s (a little vague, but gives us a rough timeline). It says expropriation of the properties on which to build it was completed on 16 August, 1960. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texpark_site

Starting with the Halifax Atlas from 1878, to give us an idea of the addresses involved using the old numbering system (Halifax city address history and Old city addresses pdf), it looks like the old street addresses we are looking for are approximately 120 - 150 Hollis St., and 37 - 55 Granville St.

1878 Halifax atlas, plate I

From the Halifax Municipal Archives, we can find a couple of photos labelled 122 - 132 Hollis St.:



And from the back side:


Halifax Municipal Archives

The photo of the back side confirms the location by the Ralston building (with the 'old' windows in it). The Municipal Archives has them labeled very roughly as 1960s with a question mark, which indicates the photos are probably from the late 1950s through early 1960s period. The vehicle in front of the VW bus is a 1959 Ford, which could have been purchased new as early as Sept-Oct 1958, so the photo can't be any older than that. The businesses all appear to be occupied and there is no sign of snow or ice on the ground, so I would guess the pics were taken just before expropriation, so maybe autumn of 1958 or spring-autumn of 1959? Could be as late as spring 1960, though.

To confirm location, there is this photo from the NS virtual archives (appears to be from the mid to late 1950s):



If you zoom in, you can see the back side of the buildings in the pics above, with the Ralston visible in the background and the service station that is visible at the far right of the second photo:



More to come as I find them...
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  #671  
Old Posted Mar 27, 2018, 11:02 PM
OldDartmouthMark OldDartmouthMark is offline
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Also from the Municipal Archives is this additional photo of 124 Hollis:



Halifax Municipal Archives
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  #672  
Old Posted Mar 27, 2018, 11:07 PM
OldDartmouthMark OldDartmouthMark is offline
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Originally Posted by Keith P. View Post
Interesting-looking building, oddly captioned as "Hantsport Baptist Church
Hantsport NS 1857 Religious" on the source site.
There is also this one, looks like 144? Labeled the same...



Which would explain the photos of the old church 5 rows down from the top being labeled "Buildings on Hollis Street". Simple mistake...
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  #673  
Old Posted Mar 28, 2018, 12:23 PM
IanWatson IanWatson is offline
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Oh wow, that's awesome!

Also, I found this one:



The building on the right appears to be the TexPark garage, so I guess this isn't technically before it was built. I think the blank wall on the left is what is now MEC. What's depressing is that the really nice arched facade in the background somehow became the metal-clad butt-end of the Green Lantern building (and is now demolished).
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  #674  
Old Posted Mar 28, 2018, 1:39 PM
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I never knew that Texpark was on municipal property. I should have realized that when the vacated lot after its demolition was offered for sale by the city, but I never connected those dots. That also explains the reason Texpark was as poorly built as it was. I am old enough to remember using it and a few things stick out in my mind. It was cheaply built using a steel frame, concrete-block walls and corrugated metal. The floor plates by the time I remember it were quite scary due to the flex you could feel in them as you drove over them looking for a parking spot. It was particularly noticeable as you were walking from your car to the stairwells or elevator when other vehicles drove past. It was dark, dingy and dirty inside as you might expect from looking at photos. It had a single small elevator in the northeast corner that was by far the most scary elevator I have ever ridden it. On several occasions I wondered if I was going to die in it as it clanked and jerked its way to your destination and I always wondered how it passed provincial inspection. It seemed little care was taken by the city during its design, which matched the little maintenance they did during its life.
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  #675  
Old Posted Mar 28, 2018, 2:16 PM
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Yeah, apparently the city expropriated a bunch of properties to build the garage. The owners got priority placement in Mulgrave Park...

What do you think the chances are that the concrete wall in this image:



Is the concrete wall that can still be seen on site:

https://www.google.ca/maps/@44.64627...7i13312!8i6656
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  #676  
Old Posted Mar 28, 2018, 2:39 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by IanWatson View Post
Yeah, apparently the city expropriated a bunch of properties to build the garage. The owners got priority placement in Mulgrave Park...

What do you think the chances are that the concrete wall in this image:



Is the concrete wall that can still be seen on site:

https://www.google.ca/maps/@44.64627...7i13312!8i6656
It's hard to tell. The wall in the b/w photo shows a concrete wall with almost a brick/stone look. Lots of roughness. The google image shows a much smoother looking wall. Considering the years that past, the google image looks like a newer wall.
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  #677  
Old Posted Mar 28, 2018, 6:59 PM
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I think that from the perspective with the Ralston at that angle, that shot is further south on Granville, probably somewhere in the area where Metropark now is.

Speaking of which, what was there on the southeast end of Granville prior to Metropark? I used to work in that area but cannot recall.
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  #678  
Old Posted Mar 28, 2018, 9:18 PM
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Originally Posted by Keith P. View Post
I think that from the perspective with the Ralston at that angle, that shot is further south on Granville, probably somewhere in the area where Metropark now is.

Speaking of which, what was there on the southeast end of Granville prior to Metropark? I used to work in that area but cannot recall.
I also used to work there (in the Ralston Building) but my pre-MetroPark memory is vague. But I do recall that at 1566 Hollis was the former DoubleDeuce, later Stonewall tavern. I found these photos of the DoubleDeuce but I have a recollection the building was painted blue when it housed the Stonewall. I believe it was Stonewall for just 2-3 years before it closed in the late 90s.



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  #679  
Old Posted Mar 29, 2018, 12:04 AM
OldDartmouthMark OldDartmouthMark is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Keith P. View Post
I think that from the perspective with the Ralston at that angle, that shot is further south on Granville, probably somewhere in the area where Metropark now is.

Speaking of which, what was there on the southeast end of Granville prior to Metropark? I used to work in that area but cannot recall.
I disagree. If you use the blue sight lines I drew to the bottom corners of the second row of windows on the photos below, you can see they cross over the same features on both photos...



Approximate location of photographer based on perspective is where the blue lines meet.
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  #680  
Old Posted Mar 29, 2018, 12:13 AM
OldDartmouthMark OldDartmouthMark is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by IanWatson View Post
Yeah, apparently the city expropriated a bunch of properties to build the garage. The owners got priority placement in Mulgrave Park...

What do you think the chances are that the concrete wall in this image:



Is the concrete wall that can still be seen on site:

https://www.google.ca/maps/@44.64627...7i13312!8i6656
I don't think so, because if you look at that wall in Google 3D it lines up with the taller, thinner section of the Green Lantern building, whereas the service station wall in this photos would be more in line with the building on Barrington that has Star Anise in it:

https://www.google.ca/maps/@44.64551.../data=!3m1!1e3
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