Modern Homes

Homes
Homes

Monday July 15, 1957: Show modern trend – Modern homes are steadily increasing in number along the Cole Harbor Road and when it recieves its hard surface, already started, will probably mount by the score.

The Homes Front: The Accommodation Crisis In Halifax, 1941-1951

dart wartime housing

“Cobbled thoroughfares, unpaved sidestreets, an overburdened public transportation system, obsolete water supply, inadequate health services, draconian liquor control regulations, and overcrowded restaurants, cafes, and cinemas combined to produce an atmosphere that would have been oppressive even without the damp climate, gasoline and food rationing, or blackout regulations. In many respects the city resembled a military camp more than an urban community, yet authorities refused to declare Halifax a restricted area.

Halifax landlords were roundly criticized in the national press for charging exorbitant rents, but in reality the cost of housing rose everywhere, as workers arriving from smaller communities to work in war industries competed for available accommodation. Unlike sugar or gasoline, the supply of housing remained essentially unregulated. Even after rent controls were imposed in mid-1941, tenants and landlords found ways to circumvent the system. Native Haligonians did not like what the war had done to their city, although many benefited economically from the war boom. There were too many strangers, too many ships, too many uniforms, too many camp followers.

Halifax was less prepared to house a large influx of workers than cities with a larger industrial and manufacturing base, since industry tended to stimulate housing construction. Under normal conditions, a revivified local economy would soon have spilled over into the building trades, and the housing stock would have expanded to meet the increased demand. That this did not happen in Halifax may be attributed to two main factors: military priorities affected the availability of labour and materials for residential construction, and the majority of the wartime transient population were not industrial workers, therefore the government made scant provisions for housing them.

This failure to expand the housing stock during the war only exacerbated an already chronic shortage of affordable, adequate accommodation caused by two decades of slow economic growth.

Many Hydrostone dwellings administered by the Halifax Relief Commission during the 1930s remained vacant for months on end because the rents were so high. Low income wage-earners— young adults, seasonal workers in primary resource industries, domestic servants—survived the depression by staying at home longer, working short term positions while living in rooming houses, taking cheaper accommodation outside the city and commuting, and returning to smaller communities—where the cost of living was lower—between jobs. New housing construction in Halifax was confined to a relatively small area in the western portion of the peninsula. In older sections of the city, conversion of large homes into apartments was more common than replacement of existing structures. The multiple-family apartment building was almost unknown in Halifax other than the occasional dilapidated tenement where sanitary facilities were often totally inadequate.”

Wartime Housing Limited bungalows for war workers under construction in Dartmouth, ca. 1942. A similar project, the first in Canada, was built by WHL in the north end of Halifax in 1941, and is visible in the background of this photograph. (SOURCE: Public Archives of Nova Scotia, Bollinger Collection #84)

White, Jay. “The Homes Front: The Accommodation Crisis In Halifax, 1941-1951.” Urban History Review / Revue D’histoire Urbaine, vol. 20, no. 2/3, 1991, pp. 117–127. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43562087.

Old Court House

From The Story of Dartmouth, by John P. Martin:

At left is shown the red-bricked Court House fronting George Street where the Magistrates long administered the affairs of Halifax and of the whole County. After Halifax was incorporated in 1841, both City and County business was transacted there until the County Court House was erected about 1860. Then it housed the civic offices and jail until the present City Hall was opened in 1890. The 82-year old Court House was demolished in 1892.

The building seen in middle, still stands at George and Water St. At right is shown the City Market House on the Customs House location. The stalls fronted Water Street, and were not much used. This is a Saturday morning sidewalk market scene of July 1886, taken by Dr. Sinclair from the corner of Cheapside and Bedford Row looking northeast.

Sherbrooke

From The Story of Dartmouth, by John P. Martin:

This is the 70-foot ferry Sherbrooke launched at Dartmouth in 1816. Inside the housing on the deck, a team of eight horses harnessed to iron stanchions traveled around a cog-wheel which turned a crank. The crank then moved the single propeller located under the middle of the boat. As auxillary power, sails were hoisted whenever the wind was favorable. This type of ferry was common at the time.

Imo

From The Story of Dartmouth, by John P. Martin:

Christmas sight of 1917 at north Dartmouth, looking down the harbour. This is the ill-starred “Imo”, flung somewhat parallel to the shore, with her starboard side canted towards Halifax. The stump of the smokestack is seen slanting up from the twisted mass admidships. Holes in the stem and stern, flooded the steamer to the water level.

Pinned on bottom under the “Imo’s” bow could be seen the remains of Walter Meredith’s 27-foot motor-cruiser. Tidal waves deluged all level lands to the left of the railway. “Imo” survivors afterwards declared that they were unaware of “Mont Blanc” cargo.

Fairfield

From The Story of Dartmouth, by John P. Martin:

This is “Fairfield”, residence of the great Joseph Howe from 1863 to 1869. Amid his books and his garden, Howe spent many happy days in this rural retreat away from all sorts of persons who continually besieged his Halifax home. It was at “Fairfield”, during the Confederation wrangles, that he made perhaps the most momentous decision of his whole career, when in 1869, he left the Liberal party.

Many prominent Liberals and Conservatives, like wealthy Enos Collins, bitterly opposed the Confederation scheme. Howe was their spokesman, and the leader of two futile delegations to London seeking repeal of the B.N.A.

Returning home from an election victory in Hants County, he was met at the ferry and escorted in a torchlight procession to “Fairfield”, while bonfires blazed on the hills, and an 18-gun salute was fired.

Realizing that opposition was useless, Howe then headed the agitation against the Dominion for adequate financial relations, popularly known as “Better Terms”. Advised by Sir John A. MacDonald that such proposals would never pass the House of Commons unless he accepted a Cabinet post, Howe eventually sacrificed his life-long political feelings in favor of his native province, and became a member of the Conservative Government. “Anti-Confederates” never forgave him.

It seems safe to assume, therefore, that at “Fairfield”, the future Dominion-Provincial policy of that day was determined. It was also at “Fairfield” that Howe prepared his marvelous oration delivered at Halifax in 1864, on the occasion of Shakespeare’s tercentenary.

Joseph Howe’s commanding figure, clad in gray suit and gray beaver hat, was a familiar sight as he drove or walked along Windmill Road, followed by his little dog, on his way to the ferry.

Dartmouth Rink

From The Story of Dartmouth, by John P. Martin:

This was Dartmouth’s first rink built entirely of spruce at a cost of $3,800. Its dimensions were 190 feet by 65, with an ice oval of 175 feet by 50 feet. It was the home rink of the famous Chebucto Amateur Athletic Club, Maritime hockey champions from 1887 to 1894.

Electric lights flooded the entrance on the grand opening of September 29, 1884, when 2,000 people crowded the building for an evening musical concert. Over the original tower fluttered colored flags and streams of bunting.

The new lighthouse section was inserted in 1903. In 1907 the light was removed to is present position on Synott’s Hill.

This local leaning Tower of Pisa was all that remained of wooden Dartmouth rink after the 1917 explosion. Standing as it did on the hilltop, without any sheltering houses on the east side of Windmill Road, the old rink was directly in the path of the terrific concussion that swept down from the Narrows. In pre-movie winters, the rink was a nightly mecca.

Grace Methodist Church

From The Story of Dartmouth, by John P. Martin:

This is Grace Methodist Church after the extension of 1876 had provided seating accommodation for about 150 additional persons, and the two towered steeples were erected. The 1853 entrance was in the middle of the front of the edifice, and was reached by a long imposing flight of steps from the sidewalk.

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