Halifax, Nova Scotia (former city)

This article is about the area considered to the area of Halifax that was once the former city . For information on the prsent day municipality Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia, or see Halifax (disambiguation) for other articles.

History of Halifax

Halifax, founded in 1749, is a community and the former city in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. Halifax was the shire town of Halifax County and the provincial capital.

Rudyard Kipling paid homage to Halifax in his poem The Song of Cities:

Into the mist my guardian prows put forth,

Behind the mist my virgin ramparts lie,

The Warden of the Honour of the North,

Sleepless and veiled am I!

In 1749 the Hon. Edward Cornwallis landed with some 2,500 settlers on the Chebucto peninsula to establish a permanent fortified settlement. Halifax was established by the British to counter-balance the French presence in Québec and Acadia, which at the time included present-day New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton Island and the Gaspe Peninsula. The little community was soon hristened 'Halifax' in honour of Lord Halifax, President of the British Board of Trade at that time .For most of its early history, Halifax was the primary North Atlantic base for the Royal Navy, it prospered during times conflict and languished during times of peace. Despite Halifax's status as the regional centre and colonial capital, the city rarely saw commercial or economic success in its early years.

Titanic

Halifax is a place were the victims and the surviors of the ocean liner Titanic were taken . Many were buried at the Mount Olivet Cemetery and at the Fairview Lawn Cemetery .

City of Halifax Amalgamating

In 1969, the City of Halifax grew westward of the peninsula by several communities from the surrounding Halifax County; namely Fairview, Rockingham, Spryfield, Purcell's Cove, and Armdale. These communities saw a number of modern subdivision developments during the late 1960s through to the 1990s, one of the earliest being the Clayton Park development at the southwestern edge of Rockingham.

Since amalgamation into HRM, the name "Halifax" is increasingly used to refer to neighbourhoods on the Halifax Peninsula, (i.e., the pre-1969 city boundary), and to a much lesser extent, the post-1969 amalgamated parts of the county . Many of the communities that were amalgamated during the 1960s have reasserted their identities and have become for the most part part of the "Western" service delivery districts of HRM known as Mainland West or Mainland North. The peninsula, in addition to being referred to as "Halifax," is officially referred to as the "Central" or "Capital District

Regional Amalgamation

In 1996 the provincial government amalgamated all municipalities in Halifax County into a single tier regional government named Halifax Regional Municipality, commonly referred to as HRM. While Halifax and its neighbouring city of Dartmouth and the town of Bedford were disincorporated at this time, the area of the former city and the areas of Dartmouth and Bedford forms part of the urban core of the larger HRM .The area of the former city of Halifax is labelled the "capital district."

Halifax only began to benefit from a process of increased rural depopulation and corresponding urban growth in Atlantic Canada during the late 20th century — a demographic shift that was delayed several decades in the region compared with other parts of North America. Today the former city is the centre of HRM's urban core and is benefitting from increased cultural and economic diversity.

Halifax's was First to

In North America

1759 Naval Dockyard
1767 Naval Clock
1890 All electricly street lighted city

In the World

1840 Use of wood pulp to make paper
1846 Tested Kerosene
1794 Martello Tower

Geography

The original settlement of Halifax occupied a small stretch of land inside a palisade at the foot of Citadel Hill on the Halifax Peninsula, a sub-peninsula of the much larger Chebucto Peninsula that extends into Halifax Harbour. Halifax subsequently grew to incorporate all of the north, south, and west ends of the peninsula with a central business district concentrated in the southeastern end along "The Narrows".

Main article: Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia

Present Day Neighbourhoods

Historic Neighbourhoods

Please see main article on the History of Halifax for the history of Halifax. For current information on the Halifax Regional Muncipality, see the Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia article, or the Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Bedford, Nova Scotia and Halifax County, Nova Scotia and for in-depth information about HRM's other constituent communities.

External links

Apartments for Rent in Halifax, Nova Scotia

Communities in the Halifax Regional Municipality | Cities in Nova Scotia | 1749 establishments

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