Misplaced Pages

#800199

57-611: Hydrostone is a neighbourhood in the North End of the Halifax Peninsula in the Halifax Regional Municipality , Nova Scotia , Canada. It consists of ten short parallel streets and is bordered by Duffus Street to the north, Young Street to the south, Isleville Street to the west and Novalea Drive to the east. The Hydrostone District has about 9.3 ha (23 acres) of landmass. The neighbourhood

114-753: A gentrified area, sought after by young professionals and small families for its ample green space and proximity to shops and transit. Recently, this newer generation has been buying and renovating the area's homes, pushing up property values and displacing longtime residents. In 2011, the Canadian Institute of Planners named the Hydrostone the Second Greatest Neighbourhood in its inaugural Great Places in Canada contest. North End, Halifax The North End of Halifax

171-468: A Dalhousie University study, this had "no positive impact on the vitality of the Gottingen Street commercial district". Agricola Street, which runs parallel to Gottingen Street, is a commercial district home to many local galleries, restaurants, and shops. It has also benefited from new residential developments that have increased the local population. Businesses of The Hydrostone serve as

228-550: A feature characteristic of Western Canadian cities, but not usually found in Eastern Canadian communities. It is designated a National Historic Site of Canada . Following the Halifax Explosion , many of the wood-frame buildings collapsed on their coal stoves and furnaces and caught on fire, which was a concern when reconstruction was being planned. To minimize the danger of fire, Adams and Ross proposed

285-569: A large middle-class African Canadian population, while lower-income families lived nearby in Uniacke Square. Many of the black home owners operated businesses, or were working professionals. The North End has long been seen as a center of commerce, education, entertainment, and religion among African Nova Scotians . However, uncontrolled gentrification of the North End has changed the area's demographics considerably. In recent years,

342-574: A marble fireplace and a separate ticket office), a reading room as well as ticket offices for the Intercolonial Railway and the Windsor and Annapolis Railway as well as offices for the station master and passenger superintendent. The second floor contained more railway offices and a balcony where railway officials could observe operations in the large glass-covered passenger shed, the second glass railway canopy built in Canada. The shed

399-464: Is a neighbourhood of Halifax , Nova Scotia occupying the northern part of Halifax Peninsula immediately north of Downtown Halifax . Prior to European colonization, the Mi'kmaq inhabited the land throughout Atlantic Canada and Northern Maine. The North End of Halifax began as an agricultural expansion north from central Halifax as African American and German Foreign Protestant settlers arrived in

456-532: The Bedford Basin within the North End. A consequence of the Halifax Explosion , the community was damaged on 6 December 1917. In January 1964, the City Council of Halifax voted to relocate the residents of the community. The municipal government justified the destruction of Africville by citing the poor living conditions of the community, despite having historically refused to extend those services to

513-648: The Canadian Forces Exchange System , the curling club, the Military Police , and the Military Family Resource Centre. The Gottingen Street area population declined from high of 11,939 people in 1951, to a low of 4,494 people in 1996. However, in recent years the trend has reversed as more housing is built in the area and as vacant lots have been developed. The population has risen substantially since

570-772: The Halifax and Southwestern Railway after 1901. The station was the first departure point for such famous named trains as the Ocean Limited in 1904, the Maritime Express and the Flying Bluenose . In 1902, the King Edward Hotel, the most modern, and one of the largest, hotels in Halifax was built immediately across Barrington Street to the station's west. The North Street Station served as

627-680: The South End ended at South Street. A neighbourhood further to the north was Richmond , and was located on the eastern slope of Fort Needham. Further north of Richmond, at the end of the Campbell Road, was the former community of Africville . There are arenas, community-centres, libraries, parks, public pools, and trails within the North End of Halifax. Arenas Community centres Community YMCA Libraries Parks Public pools Trails The areas of Creighton Street, Gottingen Street, and Maynard Street were traditionally home to

SECTION 10

#1732776155801

684-410: The 1996 Census, resulting in an ever-more diverse neighbourhood. Gottingen Street is the commercial and entertainment heart of the North End, and is home to numerous shops, bars, clubs, and performance venues. In 1950, the four blocks of Gottingen closest to downtown were the site of more than 130 enterprises, including two cinemas. The street declined in stature as the peninsula lost population during

741-535: The Halifax Peninsula comprises thin soil resulting from glacial deposits, as well as outcroppings of a dark sedimentary shale known as ironstone . The entire peninsula has no significant surface water, unlike the areas northeast and southwest of Halifax Harbour (the Eastern Shore and South Shore respectively). At 60 m (200 ft) in elevation, Citadel Hill is the highest point on

798-605: The North End Community Gardening Association, Anchor Archive Zine Library, North By North End, and the Nova Scotia Youth Project. Plans are now under way for the redevelopment of Bloomfield Centre. The Halifax Armoury , on North Park Street, is a National Historic Site . The massive Romanesque Revival building resembles an old castle, but it boasted numerous technological innovations when it opened in 1899, including

855-485: The North End and construction of the North Street Station in 1878, the largest station east of Montreal. Wharves warehouses lined the waterfront, along with the city's prison at Rockhead and major defence installations such as HMC Dockyard and Stadacona (formerly HMCS Stadacona and Wellington Barracks, now part of CFB Halifax ). On 6 December 1917, the Halifax Explosion damaged and destroyed much of

912-477: The North End at New Horizons Baptist Church . Throughout the 20th century, Gottingen Street was the epicenter for black business and enterprise in Nova Scotia, including being home to a beauty shop and school owned by Viola Desmond . The North End housed one of the first Afrocentric schools in Canada, St. Patrick's-Alexandra School (closed in 2011). A neighbourhood with strong African Nova Scotian roots,

969-523: The North End has become a popular destination for Halifax's growing university population. As the prices of apartments closer to Dalhousie University and Saint Mary's University continue to rise, and as the cost of transportation has fallen due to the introduction of the U-pass , students are finding cheaper accommodations in the North End. This has spawned a thriving artistic community, with many musicians, painters, and writers lured to this neighbourhood, at

1026-662: The North End's public housing projects, as well as into other communities throughout the urban area, and beyond. Seaview Park on the Bedford Basin is the site of Africville The North End has traditionally been home to a number of important African Nova Scotian institutions. Provincial institutions like the African United Baptist Association and the Nova Scotia Association for the Advancement of Colored People were formed in

1083-478: The North End. The explosion's aftermath saw the area north of North Street razed, and a new street grid was superimposed over the old street patterns. New residential construction saw the creation of the Hydrostone neighbourhood, built during the relief construction following the disaster. Today the memorial bells at Fort Needham, which were recovered from a church that didn't survive the event, may be heard in

1140-664: The North Street Station. On December 6, 1917, the French ammunition ship SS Mont-Blanc blew up following a collision in Halifax Harbour, a tragedy known as the Halifax Explosion which killed nearly 2000 people. Although numerous accounts of the Halifax Explosion erroneously state that the North Street Station was destroyed, it was only damaged, albeit seriously, and quickly resumed service. On

1197-495: The North Street side. A covered and heated staircase led from the station up to Barrington Street's sidewalks and streetcars. The ocean liner and immigration terminal at Pier 2 was only a few blocks away making for a convenient transfer to trains at the North Street Station for ocean liner travellers. Ships with large numbers of immigrants were served by special immigrant passenger trains of Colonist cars ran directly into

SECTION 20

#1732776155801

1254-854: The Nova Scotia Railway was taken over by the Government of Canada and became part of the Intercolonial Railway . In 1873, the Intercolonial made plans for a large new landmark station worthy of their eastern terminus. The new station was located much closer to downtown at the corner of North Street and Barrington Street thanks to negotiations between the Canadian Government and the British Royal Navy whose Halifax Dockyard had blocked

1311-548: The adoption of electricity and the truss structure that permitted a large interior space with no columns or walls. HMCS Stadacona is home to numerous other historic military buildings. The North End is also home to the Halifax Shipyard , sited just to the north of HMC Dockyard. Founded in 1889, the shipyard has built many vessels for the Royal Canadian Navy and is the largest full-service shipyard on

1368-494: The area has undergone gentrification in recent years. As a result, the proportion of Black residents in the neighbourhood has fallen from 30% in 2006 to 15% in 2016. In 1966, the Halifax North Memorial Public Library was opened in memory of the victims of the explosion. Located on at 2285 Gottingen Street, the library offers a welcoming environment as well as programs that strongly reflect

1425-467: The carillon and monument to the disaster. The Memorial was designed by Nova Scotia architect Keith L. Graham. The Halifax Shipyard was built in 1918 beside the Naval Dockyard, further entrenching the industrial character of the North End. The area once included historic Africville . A former African-Canadian community settled by African slaves coming to Canada, it was located on the shores of

1482-618: The commercial centre of the northern half of the North End. The North End, located on the Peninsula , is served well by public transportation . Halifax Transit routes There is a private school, public schools, as well as a post-secondary educational facility within the North End. Post-secondary education Private school Public schools 44°39′47.3″N 63°36′4.6″W  /  44.663139°N 63.601278°W  / 44.663139; -63.601278 North Street Station (Halifax) The first railway station in Halifax

1539-512: The community. The community was torn down in the 1960s preceding a proposed urban redevelopment of the region which would see new highways and the construction of the A. Murray MacKay Bridge , although the lands of the community were never used in a proposed port expansion. In the ensuing controversy it was designated as parkland. The Africville expropriation is often characterized as an example of institutional racism in Halifax. Descendants and residents of Africville were dispersed among some of

1596-476: The country's largest military base. His Majesty's Canadian Dockyard (HMC Dockyard Halifax) is a sprawling complex that occupies the harbourfront area next to the traditional North End. Stadacona, on the opposite side of Barrington Street, is host to barracks and a host of supporting facilities housed in both historic and modern structures. In the centre of the peninsula, away from the shoreline, Windsor Park and Willow Park are home to base transport and supply, housing,

1653-423: The diverse make-up of the community. By the end of the 19th century, the perception of the North End had come to generally include Richmond as well. Following its total destruction in the Halifax Explosion , Richmond never again regained its individual identity. The area underwent significant redevelopment during the inter-war period and gradually became an extension of the original North End. The northern part of

1710-479: The east coast. In 2011 the shipyard was selected to build the navy's new combat fleet, comprising 21 vessels costing $ 25 billion over a period of 30 years. Irving Shipbuilding, owner of the shipyard, has undertaken a $ 300 million upgrade of the facility, boasting that Halifax will have "the most modern shipyard in North America". The shipbuilding contract is expected to employ between 2,000 and 2,500 people at

1767-497: The entire engine crew of a train that had just left the North Street Station. Relief and passenger trains were temporarily diverted over the recently-laid tracks to the unfinished south end terminal on December 6 and December 7. However railway workers quickly repaired and cleaned up the North Street Station. The remaining train shed roof was hauled down and the platform tracks were cleared on December 8. Windows were boarded up until they could be replaced. Cranes and track crews cleared

Hydrostone - Misplaced Pages Continue

1824-479: The expense of some long time residents. There is still a Black presence in the community, although it is shrinking and for the most part limited to the confines of the public housing surrounding Uniacke Square. As of 2019, only a handful of homes are still owned by Black families. The area has become home to organizations such as the Bloomfield Centre, Grainery Food Co-Op, Turnstile Pottery Cooperative,

1881-456: The express offices had reopened. . Despite its battered exterior, the North Street Station served for another year of intense passenger traffic as the fighting drew to a close and troops returned home following the Armistice on November 11. However, the heavy wartime traffic highlighted the limited size of the station's terminal tracks, already noted before the war. The Royal Canadian Navy

1938-461: The finished stones were hauled across Halifax Harbour by barge. Transporting the stones to the construction site was problematic, due to the steep rise from the harbour. To solve this problem and make the area more easily accessible, two diagonal streets were included in the Richmond district reconstruction plans: Devonshire Street / Avenue and Dartmouth Avenue. Today, the Hydrostone has become

1995-659: The focus for important civic events such as the departure of Halifax's contingent in the North-West Rebellion of 1885 and the departure of Canadian troops for the Boer War in 1898. The entire front of the station was decorated for the return of Boer War troops in 1901. Following the sinking of RMS Titanic in 1912, numerous private cars of the wealthy filled the special spur beside the station as wealthy families arrived in hopes of identifying and claiming bodies of their loved ones and so many reporters congregated that

2052-454: The height of construction in 2021. The North End is home to several historic churches. The Little Dutch Church , adapted as a church in 1756, is the second-oldest building in the municipality. St. George's Church is a unique round church at the corner of Brunswick and Cornwallis Streets completed in 1801. After St. George's Church was badly burned in an accidental 1994 fire, Prince Charles , who had visited it in 1983 with Princess Diana ,

2109-479: The large, two-storey single-family houses at the eastern end of each street. Some have been converted to sets of flats. All of the streets in the Hydrostone are boulevards except Stanley Place. These boulevards have treed, grassy strips which serve as communal outdoor space for the neighbourhood. This is consistent with the Garden city movement by which Adams was influenced. All streets are also served by back lanes ,

2166-674: The latter half of the 20th century, and as a result of car-oriented urban renewal schemes. Many nearby residences were demolished when the northern part of Barrington Street was transformed into a highway to serve the Macdonald Bridge, and when the Cogswell Interchange was built. In 1958, several blocks of houses and apartment buildings were demolished in an attempt to boost patronage on Gottingen by providing additional car parking. Seven new parking lots were built, displacing local residents to other areas, but according to

2223-455: The morning of the Halifax Explosion, the Ocean Limited had just departed and the local train from Truro had just arrived. The air blast from the explosion collapsed two thirds of the train shed roof. Virtually all the windows in the station were blown away. Doors and walls on the exposed third floor were knocked over and the roof was damaged. In the blizzard that followed the explosion, heating pipes and radiators froze and burst, and portions of

2280-534: The peninsula and when combined with the expansive undeveloped parkland of the North Common , creates a physical boundary that separates the various neighbourhoods. Fort Needham is another glacial drumlin located in the heart of the North End. The neighbourhood referred to as the North End by Halifax residents was bounded by the north of the Bedford Basin , and on the east by The Narrows of Halifax Harbour . Its other boundaries as not as sharply defined, but

2337-661: The province. It became the focus of industry in Halifax with the construction of the Nova Scotia Railway in the 1850s which located its terminal in the North End. Factories such as the Nova Scotia Cotton Manufacturing Company , Hillis & Sons Foundry, and the Acadia Sugar Refinery, made the North End the focus of manufacturing in Halifax. Railway growth intensified with the extension of railways further into

Hydrostone - Misplaced Pages Continue

2394-532: The railway's extension into downtown. The new station was the second largest in Canada when built, exceeded only by Toronto's Union Station. The layout of the new Halifax station was designed by the Intercolonial's Chief Engineer Alexander McNab. The architectural details and working plans were drawn up architects Andrew Dewar and David Stirling, who also designed the Provincial Building and St. David's Presbyterian Church on Grafton Street. The station

2451-462: The roof collapsed. More significantly, two miles of the approach tracks to the North Street Station were deeply buried in debris and blocked by wrecked railway equipment. This included the destruction on 16% of all the Intercolonial's passenger cars. A few railway employees were killed at the North Street Station, but most railway deaths occurred in the Richmond yards north of the station, including

2508-496: The site of the south end terminal, the North Street Station remained the gateway to Halifax and saw the heaviest use in its history. Thousands of troops arrived in the city prior to embarking overseas followed by thousands of family members and wartime workers piling into the busy wartime port through the North Street Station. As the war dragged on, increasing numbers of wounded arrived back in Canada aboard hospital ships, met at Pier 2 by special hospital trains outfitted and organized at

2565-421: The station installed extra telegraph lines for their use. However, by 1912, the North Street Station was reaching its limitations. Built for fewer and shorter trains in the era of 50-foot wooden passenger cars, the newer longer trains with 80-foot steel cars exceeded the size of the station's platform. The increased number of trains taxed the station's limited number of platforms. Hemmed in by Barrington Street to

2622-507: The station is a parking lot opposite the main gate to HMC Dockyard just north of the Angus L. Macdonald Bridge where it crosses Barrington Street. The North Street Station provides an important setting in the Canadian novel Barometer Rising by Hugh MacLennan where two major characters are killed in a vivid, although wildly-exaggerated depiction of the station's canopy collapse during

2679-487: The use of non-combustible hydrostone for the reconstruction of this area. Hydrostone was a concrete block that was finished with crushed rock (granite, in this case) to approximate the appearance of cut-stone construction. The concrete blocks and their faces were amalgamated through a hydraulic pressing process, patented by a Chicago firm. Manufacture of the blocks was done in a plant located in Eastern Passage and

2736-562: The west, and the Navy dockyard to the east, the station had no room to expand. Plans announced in 1912 for a much larger combined passenger station and ocean liner terminal in Halifax’s South End . Construction of the railway cutting to access the new South End site began in 1913. Construction of the tracks, piers and terminal grounds in the south end had just begun when World War I erupted in 1914. While track work slowly continued towards

2793-528: The western limit of the neighbourhood is generally agreed to be Windsor street. The southern boundary was, traditionally, the northern limit of the original settlement of Halifax along the slope of Citadel Hill (now Cogswell Street), and continuing along the northern edge of the North Common to Quinpool Road. The northern boundary has steadily migrated toward the Bedford Basin since Halifax's founding. The boundary originally ended at North Street, just as

2850-504: The wharf side sheds on Pier 2, co-ordinated by the North Street Station. The station opened on August 8, 1877 with a special ceremonial train carrying Canadian Prime Minister Alexander Mackenzie , followed by a public opening the next day. The North Street Station was a union station as it served the Intercolonial but also the Windsor and Annapolis Railway (known as the Dominion Atlantic Railway after 1893) and

2907-407: The wreckage from the track through Richmond allowing the North Street Station to open for a modified passenger schedule on the evening of December 8. The Dominion Atlantic’s Kentville train was the first train to leave from the reopened North Street Station at 6 pm on December 8. Full service resumed from the station on December 9. By January 1918 a new roof had been constructed on the train shed and

SECTION 50

#1732776155801

2964-403: Was 400' by 87' and contained five enclosed tracks and platforms. A sixth track on the west side outside the shed was used for private railway cars where the rich could disembark in privacy and hook their private cars up to steam heating from the station. The glass roof was supported by a canopy of 24 iron trusses. Extensive iron awnings sheltered express wagons on the east side and passenger cabs on

3021-465: Was also eyeing the property in hopes of dockyard expansion. As a result, the South End terminal was brought into permanent operation in 1919. The last regularly scheduled passenger train left the North Street Station on January 4, 1919. Although the North Street station saw a few months of sporadic use for freight and special passenger trains, it was demolished sometime in the 1920s. Today the site of

3078-570: Was among those who donated toward its reconstruction. The restoration was completed in 2000. St Patrick's Church , also on Brunswick Street, was founded in 1843 and rebuilt in its present form in 1885. The Africville Church, established in 1849 and razed under cover of darkness in 1969, was reconstructed in 2011 as part of the Africville Apology . The North End is home to several of military installations within CFB Halifax ,

3135-455: Was built by the Nova Scotia Railway in 1854 at Richmond, Nova Scotia . A large wooden structure, it consisted of an enclosed train shed covering one track and platforms with series of wings for the ticket offices, waiting rooms and a lunch room and saloon. The station was functional and without ornamentation as well as inconveniently located two miles from downtown Halifax, connected by a horse-drawn street railway. After Confederation in 1867,

3192-468: Was built by the construction firm of Henry Peters. The station followed the Second Empire architectural style with a mansard roof, a large central clock tower and elaborately decorated dormers. The main station structure was 113' x 50' with walls of decorated pressed brick rising from a granite base. The first floor contained a general waiting room, a ladies’ waiting room (fitted with plush seats,

3249-469: Was designed by architect Thomas Adams to provide housing for working-class families displaced by the Halifax Explosion in 1917. Architectural design was by George Ross of the Montreal architectural firm of Ross and Macdonald . The neighbourhood draws its name from the special cinderblocks from which the houses were constructed. Most of the dwellings are row-houses in groups of four and six, except for

#800199