Old Halifax

[worldlyhaligonian]

There's a smilie for that:

[-Harlington-]

^^^

lol !

[Keith P.]

I wonder if it was damaged/destroyed in the Halifax Explosion.

[someone123]

Those old gates were in the middle of the South Park side of the fence. In 1907 the entrance was moved to its present location. It is possible they demolished the old gates at that time, but I don't really know.

I doubt they would have been damaged or destroyed in the Explosion. They look like they were built out of stone and they would have been on the opposite side of Citadel Hill from the blast.

[jslath]

Originally Posted by someone123

Those old gates were in the middle of the South Park side of the fence. In 1907 the entrance was moved to its present location. It is possible they demolished the old gates at that time, but I don't really know.

I doubt they would have been damaged or destroyed in the Explosion. They look like they were built out of stone and they would have been on the opposite side of Citadel Hill from the blast.

My grandfather once told me about that gate. If I recall the story correctly, you would have to buy a ticket at the gate to use the tennis courts, for a seat for concerts at the band stand, or to go skating on the pond in winter.

[fenwick16]

Originally Posted by someone123

Here's an interesting photo from the NS archives. The title says that it shows the South Park gates of the Public Gardens:


(you can see it in more detail using a flash plugin at http://www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm/virtual/n...ves.asp?ID=693)

I never knew that this structure existed. Does anybody know anything about it, like the date of its construction or demolition? Is the title of the photo even correct?

The screen capture below is from this link - http://ia700208.us.archive.org/2/ite...cihm_13042.pdf . The image is from a 1878 Atlas of Halifax that was posted by planarchy in another thread (http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...97#post5490297). The image is from Plate P of the atlas.

Although it doesn't show fine details, it shows the Public Gardens Skating Rink in 1878 in the middle of the South Park Street side. I wonder if the large South Park Street Gate was associated with this skating rink? According to the following link - http://www.halifaxpublicgardens.ca/s_8.asp, it was the first skating rink in Canada. Based on the preceding link, the rink was removed to make way for the wrought Iron Gate (and I assume the large gate and wooden fence were removed at the same time).

PS: I just read jslath's post which seems to indicate that this might have been at the entrance to the skating rink.



Here is some more interesting information (http://www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm/virtual/h...troduction.asp) - "Halifax would have the first covered skating rink in Canada, after one was constructed inside the Horticultural Gardens (later the Halifax Public Gardens) in 1867, to meet the rising interest in indoor skating." (I think the date might be wrong through, since elsewhere I read that both Halifax and Montreal opened skating rinks within days of each other in 1862 - http://www.birthplaceofhockey.com/or...ame-chron.html)

The drawing (below) of a 1880 skating carnival is probably from a skating rink set up the Exhibit Hall on Tower Road and Morris Street that opened in 1880. "Another local novelty was the skating rink at the Exhibition Building on Tower Road, officially opened in 1880. Ice carnivals were held there regularly, attracting upwards of 3000 spectators to watch hundreds of costumed skaters." (source: http://www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm/virtual/h...&SearchList1=4) So it appears as though Halifax had at least two covered rinks at that time, including the one at the Halifax Public Gardens.

(source: http://www.old-print.com/cgi-bin/cat...m=M1210880375T)



I think that it is rather interesting that back in the mid to late 1800's, Halifax was such as innovative city.

[worldlyhaligonian]

But guys, using any historical sites is totally against the fact that they were used historically.

[eastcoastal]

LOL - love that the gardens were historically used in the winter.

[planarchy]

Fantastic video of Halifax in the 40s. Lots of streetcar shots! Enjoy!

http://youtu.be/RP_mS5WDApY

[Jstaleness]

Originally Posted by planarchy

Fantastic video of Halifax in the 40s. Lots of streetcar shots! Enjoy!

• Video Link

Is the building starting at 1:03 the old Nova Scotia Hotel? I have only ever seen a few pictures but it looked familiar.

Amazing how busy it was. What a time to have lived in Halifax.

[Empire]

Originally Posted by jslath

My grandfather once told me about that gate. If I recall the story correctly, you would have to buy a ticket at the gate to use the tennis courts, for a seat for concerts at the band stand, or to go skating on the pond in winter.

WHAT! You could skate on Griffins Pond at one time. I suggested opening up the Gardens 365 days a year and more specifically promote skating on Griffins Pond to council about 5 years ago and I was nearly run out of town....................

[Empire]

Originally Posted by Jstaleness

Is the building starting at 1:03 the old Nova Scotia Hotel? I have only ever seen a few pictures but it looked familiar.

That is one bad ass video. I especially like the clip of a speeding bicycle splitting between two tram cars while a traffic cop oblivious to the scene directs unconcerned motorists......it looks like New York!

We need to get our Mojo back.............

[ZET]

I doubt that the gates were affected by the explosion. The house that Maclennan (Barometer Rising) lived in at the time of the explosion was only torn down a couple of decades ago, and it would have been directly across the street from the gates. Of course, I could be wrong

[fenwick16]

I found what I believe is a picture of the Public Gardens Skating Rink taken in 1880. The image below is a zoomed-in view of an image from the Nova Scotia Archives - https://novascotia.ca/archives/Notma...ves.asp?ID=406.

The skating rink was the first covered skating rink in Canada (3 sources) - http://www.halifaxpublicgardens.ca/s_8.asp, http://www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm/virtual/h...troduction.asp, and http://www.birthplaceofhockey.com/or...ame-chron.html



The skating rink location matches the one shown in the 1878 Halifax Atlas Plate P (page 162/220) - http://ia700208.us.archive.org/2/ite...cihm_13042.pdf (from a link posted previously by planarchy)

[resetcbu1]

Great pic , great quality and just pretty cool view of an area that has certainly changed alot!

[JET]

Those three houses would have been where the CBC radio building is now?

[beyeas]

Originally Posted by Empire

This is something that should be rebuilt.

I have a great picture of my grandfather in his naval uniform, taken in 1943 while he was here doing training before going overseas, standing by one of the small bridges in the gardens. In present day you can see the existing gate from that location. But based on the picture in 1943 the current iron gate wasn't there... it looks like it is just trees etc where the gate is now (the same trees that came down in the hurricane!).

It is cool though to see, as the bridge, the concrete flower pots etc all look identical to what they are now.

[fenwick16]

Originally Posted by JET

Those three houses would have been where the CBC radio building is now?

Yes, at the corner of South Park Street and Sackville Street. You can identify the three homes in this Halifax Atlas (i.e. survey) from 1878 - http://ia700208.us.archive.org/2/ite...cihm_13042.pdf. It is on page 91 of 220 of the pdf file. I took a screen-capture image and posted the image below.

The Atlas was from 1878, which was 2 years prior to the picture in 1880, so by comparing the two many of the buildings can be identified.

[someone123]

It's interesting how prosperous Halifax looks in photos from the mid-late 1800s period. The gate looks like something from a European city and the ice rink was the first in Canada. One of the institutional buildings in the background of that photo was an exhibition hall. I'm not sure what the other brick building farther off in the distance was -- maybe the poor house, but I thought it had burned down by then.

Back around 1870 Halifax was more like, say, Calgary is today. Atlantic Canada had about 1/4 of Canada's total population. By 1930 or so Halifax had fallen to the point where it was about the same size as places like London, Ontario. Since then it has been a medium-growth city. This sort of growth timeline is pretty unique in North America; the industrial cities did amazingly well during the 1880-1930 period. Had Halifax kept pace even with Montreal during that period it would have had about 300,000 people by 1930 and would probably be a city of well over 1,000,000 today.

To put things into perspective, in 1871 the City of Toronto had 46,000 people and by 1931 it had 631,000. During that period Halifax went from 30,000 people to 59,000. Saint John went from 29,000 to 47,000. That's the period when the Maritimes really fell behind.

I am getting these stats from this great site by the way: http://populstat.info/

[fenwick16]

Originally Posted by someone123

It's interesting how prosperous Halifax looks in photos from the mid-late 1800s period. The gate looks like something from a European city and the ice rink was the first in Canada. One of the institutional buildings in the background of that photo was an exhibition hall. I'm not sure what the other brick building farther off in the distance was -- maybe the poor house, but I thought it had burned down by then.

Back around 1870 Halifax was more like, say, Calgary is today. Atlantic Canada had about 1/4 of Canada's total population. By 1930 or so Halifax had fallen to the point where it was about the same size as places like London, Ontario. Since then it has been a medium-growth city. This sort of growth timeline is pretty unique in North America; the industrial cities did amazingly well during the 1880-1930 period. Had Halifax kept pace even with Montreal during that period it would have had about 300,000 people by 1930 and would probably be a city of well over 1,000,000 today.

To put things into perspective, in 1871 the City of Toronto had 46,000 people and by 1931 it had 631,000. During that period Halifax went from 30,000 people to 59,000. Saint John went from 29,000 to 47,000. That's the period when the Maritimes really fell behind.

I am getting these stats from this great site by the way: http://populstat.info/

After reading your post I realized which building was the Royal Exhibition Building. I zoomed in to show both the Royal Exhibition Building, which was built in 1880 and it held skating carnivals during the winter, and the Public Gardens Rink (built around 1860 and was the first covered skating rink in Canada). I think the building of the Royal Exhibition Building probably led to the eventual demolition of the Public Gardens Rink, since the Royal Exhibition Building was a much more majestic structure.

(source: a screen-capture of this image - http://www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm/virtual/N...ves.asp?ID=406)



Here are a few more of the Royal Exhibition Building:

(source: http://www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm/virtual/N...ves.asp?ID=680 )


(source: http://www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm/virtual/N...ves.asp?ID=160 )


(source: http://www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm/virtual/N...ves.asp?ID=653 )