All Saints Cathedral

The All Saints Cathedral is tucked away between two condo buildings on Martello Street, facing Victoria Park. It is unfinished, and her corner stone was originally laid at the corner of Spring Garden and Robie. Bishop Binney (of Black Binney House fame) dreamed of a stone cathedral to serve the needs of the western suburbs. … Read More

History of the Queen’s Wharf

The Queen's Wharf sits at the foot of Prince Street, and is currently an empty parking lot. The site has a long history dating back to the formation of Halifax. The Queen's Wharf originally was the site of the Middle Battery that defended Halifax. It consisted of 10 guns facing the harbour, 3 to the… Read More

The Urban Horses of Halifax

Steven Archibald recently posted Reckless Pedestrians where he looks at old photographs of Halifax, and compares how much more pedestrian-friendly they were in the days of the horse, before the car. This didn't seem right to me, and caused me to go searching for urban transportation pre-automobile. When you look at the photos, the people look… Read More

Amherst ICR Station in Danger

Thanks to Steve Boyko's Confessions of a Train Geek blog for making me aware of this. The railway station in Amherst is facing an uncertain future. Still owned by VIA, it was closed in 2012 when The Ocean went to 3 days a week. The train still stops; however, the train crew handles customer service.… Read More

The Welsford-Parker Monument

The Welsford-Parker Monument is a triumphal arch located in the Old Burying Ground. This is the second oldest war monument in Canada  and the only monument to the Crimean War in North America. The Monument was inaugurated in a ceremony on July 17th 1860, and the committee that erected it was composed of H. Pryor,… Read More

South End Rail Cut

The South End Rail Cut was built as part of the Ocean Terminals project. It took the railway from Three Mile House at Fairview, around behind the city to the south end to serve the new ocean terminals and railway station. It also included construction of the Bedford Basin Yard. The cut is approximately 6… Read More

The Halifax Ocean Terminals

The Ocean Terminals were built in the south end of the city, close to the mouth of the harbour, and were meant to be new, modern and larger port facilities for Halifax. It was quite the civil engineering feat. The project was for the construction of what we know today as Piers 20-28, the railway… Read More

The Macdonald Bridge

The big news about the Macdonald Bridge is the impending re-decking. Halifax is fortunate, in that the proposed procedure has been done, once before, in Vancouver. The Lions Gate Bridge is a twin to the Macdonald, and so they are very similar. In fact, the contract to complete the work was awarded to the same… Read More

The 1945 Master Plan… Meanwhile in Dartmouth

With Halifax developing a master plan in 1945, the town of Dartmouth felt it should have one as well, and council approached the Nova Scotia Municipal Bureau and the Department of Municipal Affairs for assistance. The department provided the funding, and the bureau produced the report. The actual report was written by architect D.P. Reay… Read More