We had an interesting day in Halifax as we took the 'Best of Halifax" day tour and visited some historical sites and saw some spectacular scenery. Halifax is where you start really seeing the Arcadian and Scottish influences in Nova Scotia.
The Acadians (French: Acadiens, IPA: [akadjÉ›̃]) are the descendants of the 17th-century French colonists who settled in Acadia, many of whom are Metis. The colony was located in what is now Eastern Canada's Maritime provinces (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island), as well as part of Quebec, and present-day Maine to the Kennebec
River. Although today most of the Acadians and Québécois are French speaking (francophone) Canadians, Acadia
was a distinctly separate colony of New France. It was
geographically and administratively separate from the French colony of
Canada (modern-day Quebec). As a result, the
Acadians and Québécois developed two distinct histories and cultures. They also developed a slightly
different French language. France has one official language and to accomplish
this they have an administration in
charge of the language. Since the Acadians were separated from this council,
their French language evolved independently, and Acadians retain several
elements of 17th-century French that have been lost in France. The settlers
whose descendants became Acadians came from "all the regions of France but
coming predominantly directly from the cities".
The Acadians lived for almost 80 years in
Acadia, prior to the British Siege
of Port Royal in 1710. After the
Conquest, they lived under British rule for the next forty-five years. During
the French and Indian
War (the North American theatre of the Seven Years' War), British colonial
officers suspected they were aiding the French. The British, together with New
England legislators and militia, carried out the Great Expulsion of 1755–1764 during
and after the war years. They deported approximately 11,500 Acadians from the
maritime region. Approximately one-third perished from disease and drowning.
Although one historian compared this event to contemporary ethnic cleansing, other historians
suggested that the event is comparable with other deportations in history.
Many Acadians migrated to Spanish colonial Luisiana, present day Louisianastate,
where they developed what became known as Cajun culture. Others were
transported to France. Some of
those were settled secondarily to Louisiana by Henri Peyroux de la Coudreniere. Later on, many
Acadians returned to the Maritime provinces of Canada, most specifically New
Brunswick. Most who returned ended up in New Brunswick because they were barred
by the British from resettling their lands and villages in the land that became Nova Scotia. Before the U.S.
Revolutionary War, the Crown settled New England Planters then after the war,
Loyalists (including nearly 3,000 Black Loyalists - freed slaves) in
former Acadian communities and farmland. British policy was to assimilate
Acadians with the local populations where they resettled.
Acadians speak a dialect of French called Acadian French. Many of those in
the Moncton, New Brunswick area speak Chiac
and English. The Louisiana Cajun descendants speak a
dialect of American English called Cajun English, with several also
speaking Cajun French, a close relative of
the original dialect from Canada later influenced by Spanish and West African languages.
Halifax (/ˈhælɨfæks/), formally the Halifax
Regional Municipality(HRM), is the capital of the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. The metropolitan area had a population of 390,096 in 2011 with
297,943 in the urban area centred
around Halifax Harbour. Halifax is
considered a global city[6] and is a major economic centre in eastern
Canada with a large concentration of government services and private sector
companies. Major employers and economic generators include the Department of National Defence, Dalhousie University, the
Halifax Shipyard, various levels of government, and the Port of
Halifax.Agriculture, fishing, mining, forestry and natural gas extraction are major resource industries
found in the rural areas of the municipality. Halifax was ranked by MoneySense magazine as the fourth
best place to live in Canada for 2012, placed first on a list of
"large cities by quality of life" and placed second in a list of
"large cities of the future", both conducted by fDi Magazine for North and South
American cities.
The establishment of Halifax
marked the beginning of Father Le
Loutre's War. The war began when Edward Cornwallis arrived to establish
Halifax with 13 transports and a sloop of war on June 21, 1749. By unilaterally
establishing Halifax the British were violating earlier treaties with the
Mi'kmaq (1726), which were signed after Father Rale's War. Cornwallis
brought along 1,176 settlers and their families. To guard against Mi'kmaq,
Acadian, and French attacks on the new Protestant settlements, British
fortifications were erected in Halifax (Citadel
Hill) (1749), Bedford (Fort
Sackville) (1749), Dartmouth (1750), and Lawrencetown (1754),
all areas within the modern-day Regional Municipality. St.
Margaret's Baywas first settled by French-speaking Foreign Protestants at French
Village, Nova Scotia who migrated from Lunenburg,
Nova Scotia during the American Revolution.
December 1917 saw one of the
greatest disasters in Canadian history, when the SS Mont-Blanc, a French cargo ship carrying
munitions, collided with the Belgian Relief vessel SS Imo in "The Narrows" between upper
Halifax Harbour and Bedford Basin. The resulting explosion, the Halifax Explosion, devastated the Richmond District of
Halifax, killing approximately 2,000 people and injuring nearly 9,000 others. The
blast was the largest artificial explosion before the development
of nuclear weapons.
In 1996 the provincial
government amalgamated all
municipal governments within Halifax
County to create the Halifax Regional Municipality, a regional
municipality comprising approximately 200 individual identified communities. The
municipal boundary thus now includes all of Halifax County except for several
First Nation reserves.
Since amalgamation, the region
has officially been known as theHalifax Regional Municipality (HRM),
although "Halifax" has remained in common usage for brevity. On April
15, 2014, the HRM regional council approved the implementation of a new
branding campaign for the region developed by the local firm Revolve Marketing.
In particular, the campaign would see the region referred to in promotional
materials as simply "Halifax" — although "Halifax Regional
Municipality" would remain the region's official name. The proposed
rebranding was met with mixed reaction from residents, some of whom felt that
the change would alienate other communities in the municipality through a
perception that the marketing scheme would focus on Metropolitan Halifax only,
while others expressed relief that the longer formal name would no longer be
primary. Mayor Mike Savage defended the decision, saying that "I'm a Westpha lguy,
I'm a Dartmouth man,
but Halifax is my city, we’re all part of Halifax. Why does that matter?
Because when I go and travel on behalf of this municipality, there isn’t a
person out there who really cares what HRM means.
Metropolitan Halifax
Metropolitan Halifax is a
term used to roughly describe the urban concentration surrounding Halifax Harbour, and includes the Halifax
Peninsula, the core of Dartmouth, and the Bedford-Sackville areas. It is the
Statistics Canada "population centre" of Halifax (2011 pop: 297,943).
The dense urban core is centred on theHalifax Peninsula and the area of Dartmouth inside
of the Circumferential
Highway. The suburban area stretches into areas known as Mainland Halifax to the west, Cole Harbour to the
east, and Bedford, Lower
Sackville and Windsor Junction areas to the north. This urban area is the
most populous urban area on Canada's Atlantic coast, and the second largest
coastal population centre in the country, after Vancouver, British Columbia. Halifax currently accounts
for 40% of Nova Scotia's population, and 15% of that of Atlantic Canada.
Architecture
Halifax's urban core is home
to a number of regional landmark buildings and retains significant historic
buildings and districts. The downtown's office towers are overlooked by the
fortress of Citadel Hill with
its iconic Halifax Town Clock.
The architecture of
Halifax's South End is
renowned for its grand Victorian houses while the West End and North End, Halifax have many
blocks of well preserved wooden residential houses with notable features such
as the "Halifax Porch". Dalhousie University's campus is
often featured in films and documentaries. Dartmouth also has its share of
historic neighbourhoods.
The urban core is home to
several blocks of typical North American high-rise office buildings, however
segments of the downtown are governed by height restrictions which prevent
buildings from obstructing certain sight lines between Citadel Hill and Halifax Harbour. This has resulted in some
modern high rises being built at unusual angles or locations.
Some of the sites we visited in Halifax included Fairview Cemetery, Peggys Cove, Arcadian Maple where we were shown Maple production and sampled many Maple products, the Public Gardens and Citadel Hill.
Fairview Cemetery in Halifax, Nova Scotia, is a Canadian cemetery that is perhaps best known as the
final resting place for over one hundred victims of the sinking of the RMS Titanic. Officially known as Fairview Lawn Cemetery,
the non-denominational cemetery is run by the Parks Department of the Halifax
Regional Municipality.
Fairview Lawn Cemetery is
located in the North End of
Halifax at the Northern End of Windsor Street. It is bordered by the Saint John
Anglican cemetery on one side and the Baron de
Hirsch Cemetery on another.
A blockhouse was built at the site in the 1750s to
protect Halifax from attacks by the Mi'kmaq people. The land was subsequently
developed as small farms. In 1893, the land was acquired by a private company,
the Fairview Lawn Cemetery Limited, for a non-denominational cemetery because
the Camp Hill Cemetery in the
center of the city was running out of room. The city of Halifax took over the
cemetery in 1944. Fairview contains a cross section of Halifax's 20th century
residents including a Greek section and a Chinese section as well as a mass
grave of victims from the Halifax Explosion and many other graves.
One hundred and twenty-one
victims of the RMS Titanic sinking
are interred at Fairview, more than any other cemetery in the world. Most of
them are memorialized with small gray granite markers with the name and date of
death. Some families paid for larger markers with more inscriptions. The
occupants of a third of the graves, however, have never been identified and
their markers contain just the date of death and marker number. Surveyor E. W.
Christie laid out three long lines of graves in gentle curves following
the contours of the
sloping site. By co-incidence, the curved shape suggests the outline of the bow
of a ship.
One of the better-known Titanic markers
is for an unidentified child victim, known for decades as The Unknown
Child. No one claimed the body, so he was buried with funds provided by
sailors of the CS Mackay-Bennett, the cable ship that
recovered his body. The marker bears the inscription 'Erected to the memory of
an unknown child whose remains were recovered after the disaster of the
"Titanic" April 15th 1912'. In November 2002, the child was initially
identified as 13-month-old Eino Viljami Panula of
Finland. Eino, his mother, and four brothers all died in the Titanic disaster.
After additional forensic testing, the unknown child was re-identified as
19-month-old Sidney Leslie Goodwin, an English
child who perished with his entire family. A grave marked "J. Dawson"
gained fame following the release of the 1997 film Titanic, since the
name of Leonardo DiCaprio's character
in the film is Jack Dawson. Many filmgoers, moved by the story, left flowers
and ticket stubs at Dawson's grave when the film was first released, and
flowers continue to be left today. Film director James Cameron has said the character's
name was not in fact inspired by the grave. More recent research has revealed
that the grave actually belongs to Joseph Dawson, an Irishman who worked in Titanic's
boiler room as a coal trimmer.
The Fairview Titanic graves
also include the burial place and marker of William Denton Cox, a heroic
steward who died while escorting third class passengers to the lifeboats.
The cemetery also contains
29 war graves of
Commonwealth service personnel, 20 from World War I and 9 from World War II.
The Bandstand
The Public Gardens encompass
16 acres and are bounded by Spring Garden Road, South Park Street, Summer
Street and Sackville Street. They are open annually from approximately May 1
until November 1. The landscaping style is Victorian formal and provides a
popular setting for wedding and prom photos. In addition to statues and
extensive flower beds, there are three fountains, two stone bridges, three
ponds (one large and two small), and a small concession building (located in
the original Horticultural Hall).[3] The gardens also feature a bandstand that is used for free public concerts on
Sunday afternoons during the summer. There are celebrations in the gardens
every year on Canada day (July 1) and Natal Day (the first Monday in August).
In the past, many people
enjoyed feeding the ducks who make the gardens their home, although it is now
prohibited. The Public Gardens were badly damaged byHurricane Juan in 2003. Many trees were
destroyed, necessitating the early closure of the gardens and some redesign.
The gardens reopened on Canada Day, 2004 after a restoration aided in part by $1
million which was raised during a radio telethon.
The Halifax Public Gardens was
established in 1874 by the amalgamation of two older gardens, the Nova Scotia
Horticultural Society Garden (laid out in 1837) and an adjacent public park
(opened in 1866). In 1872, Robert Power was hired as the park’s superintendent.
He introduced an axially symmetrical plan which governs the overall design of
the site. Over the years, he oversaw the introduction of the bandstand
(designed by architect Henry Busch), fountains, statues, and wrought iron gates
as well as establishing the bedding out of annuals in highly designed carpet
beds, redesigned Griffin’s Pond and introduced water fowl.
The gardens were designated a
National Historic Site in 1984, and a Municipally Registered Property under
the Heritage
Property Act in 1991.
I continued there for more
than a week, delivering nine lectures. I had an opportunity of addressing the
famous 42nd Regiment of Foot, then
stationed at Halifax. An English paper stated, three years after, that
"many of the men were all the better for it."
In 1887 (the same year that
the Bandstand was built), the estate of chief justice Sir William Young, donated
three statues from Roman mythology and six urns from his own garden, to the Halifax Public Gardens. Ceres, the Roman goddess representing agriculture and fertility; Flora the goddess of flowers and spring, and Diana the goddess of the woodland and wild animals, all reside along the
Petit Allée. The six urns were placed around the Bandstand within the ‘floating
beds’.[14]Griffin Pond, on which floats a model of the
Titanic, is named after a young Irishman Frederick Griffin. Griffin was charged
with murder and the legal proceedings took seven months. Under the authority of
the Lt. Governor James Kempt, Griffin
was wrongfully convicted and hanged for murder on October 24, 1821 on the east
side of the pond.
Peggys Cove is 43 kilometers (26 miles) southwest
of downtown Halifax and comprises one of the numerous small fishing communities
located around the perimeter of the Chebucto Peninsula. The community is named after the cove of the same name, a name
also shared with Peggy's Point, immediately to the east of the cove. The
village marks the eastern point of St. Margaret's Bay.
The first recorded name of the cove was Eastern
Point Harbour or Peggs Harbour in 1766. The village is likely named after Saint
Margaret's Bay (Peggy being the nickname for Margaret), which Samuel de Champlain named after his mother Marguerite. There has
been much folklore created to explain the name. One story suggests the village
may have been named after the wife of an early settler. The popular legend
claims that the name came from the sole survivor of a shipwreck at Halibut Rock near the cove. Artist and
resident William deGarthe said she was a young woman while others claim she was a little
girl too young to remember her name and the family who adopted her called her
Peggy. The young shipwreck survivor married a resident of the cove in 1800 and
became known as "Peggy of the Cove" attracting visitors from around
the bay who eventually named the village, Peggy's Cove, after her nickname. The
village was formally founded in 1811 when the Province of Nova Scotia issued a
land grant of more than 800 acres (320 ha) to six families of German descent. The settlers relied on fishing
as the mainstay of their economy but also farmed where the soil was fertile.
They used surrounding lands to pasture cattle. In the early 1900s the
population peaked at about 300. The community supported a schoolhouse, church,
general store, lobster cannery and boats of all sizes that were nestled in the
Cove.
Many artists and photographers flocked to Peggys
Cove. As roads improved, the number of tourists increased. Today the population
is smaller but Peggys Cove remains an active fishing village and a favourite
tourist destination.
Roads and several homes were badly damaged at
Peggys Cove in 2003 by the extensive flooding that accompanied Hurricane Juan which also damaged the
cove's breakwater. The breakwater was further washed away by Hurricane Bill in
2009, allowing waves to seriously damage a home and gift shop, and washed away
one of the cove's characteristic wooden fish sheds.
The Cove
From its inception, the community's economy
revolved around the fishery. However, tourism began to overtake fishing in
economic importance following the Second World War. Today, Peggys Cove is primarily
a tourist attraction although its inhabitants still fish for lobster, and the community maintains a
rustic undeveloped appearance. The regional municipality and the provincial
government have strict land-use regulations in the vicinity of Peggys Cove,
with most property development being prohibited. Similarly there are
restrictions on who can live in the community to prevent inflation of property
values for year-round residents.
The first public art gallery, tea-room, and gift
shop was opened in a shack in Peggys Cove in 1937.
More than 400 million years ago, in the Devonian Period, the plate tectonics movement of the Earth's crust
allowed molten material to bubble up from the Earth's interior. This formed the
rocks we see today and are part of the Great Nova Scotia batholith. The unique landscape of Peggys
Cove and surrounding areas was subsequently carved by the migration of glaciers
and the ocean tides. About 20,000 years ago, an ice ridge moved south from
Canada’s Arctic region covering much of North America. Along with the ebb and
flow of the glaciers, the ice ridge eventually melted and shifted and in the
process scooped away and scoured large sections of rock, vegetation, and
topsoil. As melted land glaciers flowed back to the oceans the changing tidal
flows and rising sea levels filled the scarred areas with water, forming coves
and inlets. Large boulders composed of 415-million-year-old Devonian granite,
called glacial erratics, were lifted by the ice and carried for long distances before being
deposited upon the landscape as the ice receded, leaving rugged barrens. The
movement of the glacial ice and rocks left scouring marks in the bedrock that
are still visible.
Peggys Cove has been declared a preservation area
to protect its rugged beauty. The Peggys Cove Commission Act, passed in 1962,
prohibits development in and around the surrounding village and restricts
development within Peggys Cove. The area comprised about 2,000 acres
(8.1 km2) stretching from Indian Harbour
to West Dover and includes barrens, bogs, inland ponds, and rocky coastline.
The Atlantic tide runs about 1.5–2 metres (4 ft
11 in–6 ft 7 in). The ocean temperature ranges between 12 and 20
degrees Celsius (54 to 68 degrees Fahrenheit) in the summer and falls to
between 0.5 and 4.5 degrees Celsius (33 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit) in the
winter. The ocean moderates the air temperature over the land year round. The
shape of the ocean floor and the numerous ocean currents facilitate a rich
diversity of marine life along the Atlantic coastline. The Labrador Current flowing south from the
Arctic cools the ocean during the summer months. Offshore, the Gulf Stream, travelling northwest from the
Caribbean to the northern Europe warms the ocean waters. The confluence of
currents off Nova Scotia brings unusual Arctic and tropical species to St.
Margarets Bay. Marine life includes Atlantic bluefin tuna,white-sided and white-beaked dolphins, and pinnipeds. Endangered Atlantic leatherback sea turtles are seen in the waters near shore. Endangered right whales and many other species are
found in the waters.
Sculptor and painter William E. deGarthe lived in Peggys Cove. A gallery exhibiting his work is open to the
public between May 1 and October 31 each year. Outside the gallery, in the
William E. deGarthe Provincial Park, is a carved granite outcropping. This
30 m (100 ft) sculpture was carved by deGarthe as "a lasting
monument to Nova Scotian fishermen." It depicts 32 fishermen, their wives,
and children enveloped by the wings of St. Elmo, the patron saint of sailors,
as well as the legendary Peggy.
On 2 September 1998, Swissair Flight 111 crashed
into St. Margaret’s Bay with the loss of all aboard. One of two memorials to
the victims of the disaster is located at The Whalesback, a promontory
approximately 1 km northwest of Peggy’s Cove. The other is located
at Bayswater, Nova Scotia, on the Aspotogan Peninsula on
the western shore of the bay. The two monuments and the actual crash site are
at the vertices of a roughly equilateral triangle across the bay.
The monument at Whalesback reads in English and
French: "In memory of the 229 men, women and children aboard Swissair
Flight 111 who perished off these shores September 2nd, 1998. They have been
joined to the sea, and the sky. May they rest in peace." The three notches
represent the numerals 111. The sight line from the three grooves in the stone
points to the crash site, while the markings on the facing stone point to the
memorial at Bayswater. The memorial wall at Bayswater contains the names of the
229 passengers and crew of flight 111. The facing stone points to the crash
site.
Fort George (named
after King George II of
Great Britain) is the fortified summit of Citadel Hill, a National
Historic Site of Canada in Halifax, Nova
Scotia,Canada. First established in 1749, as a counterbalance to the French
stronghold of Louisbourg, which the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748) returned
to France, Halifax played a pivotal role over the next decade in the
Anglo-French rivalry in the region.[1] One historian calls that era Father Le
Loutre's War. The various fortifications at Halifax were to protect the Protestant
settlers against raids by the French, Acadians, and Wabanaki
Confederacy (primarily the Mi'kmaq). Those fortifications,
including the one at the summit of the hill, were successively rebuilt to
defend the town from various enemies.
A series of
four different defensive fortifications have occupied the summit of Citadel
Hill since this time, with the construction and levelling resulting in the
summit of the hill being dropped by ten to twelve metres. Whilst never
attacked, the Citadel was long the keystone to the defence of the strategically
importantHalifax Harbour and
its Royal Navy
Dockyard.
Father Le
Loutre's War
The Square at the top of the Hill is finished.
These squares are done with double picquets, each picquet ten foot long and six
inches thick. They likewise clear a Space of 30 feet without the Line and throw
up the Trees by way of Barricade. When this work is compleated [sic] I shall think the Town as
secure against Indians as if it was regularly fortify'd.
The first fort was simply a small redoubt which
stood near the summit with a flagstaff and guardhouse.[5] It was part of the western
perimeter wall for the old city which was protected by five stockaded forts.
The others were Horsemans Fort, Cornwallis Fort, Fort Lutrell and Grenadier
Fort. (The British built Fort Charlotte - named after King George's wife Charlotte - on Georges Island the following year in 1750.)
By unilaterally establishing Halifax the British
were violating earlier treaties with the Mi'kmaq (1726), which were signed
after Father Rale's War. Cornwallis initially brought along 1,176 settlers and their
families. To guard against Mi'kmaq, Acadian, and French attacks on the new
Protestant settlements, British fortifications were erected in Halifax, Bedford (Fort Sackville) (1749), Dartmouth (1750), Lunenburg(1753)
and Lawrencetown (1754).
During Father Le Loutre's War, the soldiers at Fort George were in a constant
state of alert. The Mi'kmaq and Acadians raided the capital region (Halifax and
Dartmouth) 12 times. The worst of these raids was the Dartmouth Massacre (1751). Four of these raids were
against Halifax. The first raid was in July 1750: in the woods on peninsular
Halifax, the Mi'kmaq scalped Cornwallis' gardener, his son, and four others.
They buried the son, left the gardener's body exposed, and carried off the
other four bodies.
In 1751, there were two attacks on blockhouses
surrounding Halifax. Mi'kmaq attacked the North Blockhouse (located at the
north end of Joseph Howe Drive) and killed the men on guard. They also attacked
near the South Blockhouse (located at the south end of Joseph Howe Drive), at a
saw-mill on a stream flowing out of Chocolate Lake into the Northwest Arm. They killed two men. In 1753,
when Lawrence became governor, the Mi'kmaq attacked again upon the sawmills
near the South Blockhouse on the Northwest Arm, where they killed three
British. The Mi'kmaq made three attempts to retrieve the bodies for their
scalps. Prominent Halifax business person Michael
Francklin was
captured by a Mi'kmaw raiding
party in 1754 and held captive for three months.
The Seven
Years War
Fort George was also instrumental to the British
during the French and Indian War (the North American theatre of the Seven Years
War). The Fort was used to help facilitate the Expulsion of the Acadians, many Acadians being imprisoned
on Georges Island in Halifax Harbour. During the war, the
Mi'kmaq and Acadians resisted the British throughout the province. On 2 April
1756, Mi'kmaq received payment from the Governor of Quebec for 12 British
scalps taken at Halifax. Acadian Pierre Gautier, son of Joseph-Nicolas Gautier, led Mi’kmaq warriors from Louisbourg on three
raids against Halifax in
1757. In each raid, Gautier took prisoners or scalps or both. The last raid
happened in September and Gautier went with four Mi’kmaq and killed and scalped
two British men at the foot of Citadel Hill. In July 1759, Mi'kmaq and Acadians
killed five British in Dartmouth, opposite McNabb's Island. There were
also numerous raids against the British in the province such as the Raid on Lunenburg (1756).
American
Revolution]
The first major permanent fortification appeared on
Citadel Hill in the American Revolution. The possibility of attack during the Revolution
required a larger fortification to protect the city from an American or French
attack. Built in 1776, the new fort on Citadel Hill was composed of multiple
lines of overlapping earthen redans backing a large outer palisade
wall. At the centre was a three-story octagonal blockhouse mounting a
fourteen-gun battery and accommodating 100 troops. The entire fortress mounted
72 guns. Citadel Hill and the associated harbour defence fortifications
afforded the Royal Navy the
most secure and strategic base in eastern North America from its Halifax Dockyard commanding the Great Circle Route to western Europe and gave Halifax the nickname "Warden of
The North". The massive British military presence in Halifax focused
through Citadel Hill and the Royal Navy's dockyard is thought to be one of the
main reasons that Nova Scotia—the fourteenth British colony—remained loyal to
the Crown throughout and after the American Revolutionary War.
Neither French nor American forces attacked Citadel
Hill during the American Revolution. However, the garrison remained on guard
because there were numerous American privateer raids on villages around the
province (e.g., Raid on Lunenburg (1782)), as well as naval battles just
off shore, such as the Naval battle off Halifax.
French
Revolutionary Wars
The French Revolutionary Wars that began in 1793 raised a
new threat to Halifax. A new citadel was designed in 1794 and was completed by
1800. The top of the hill was leveled and lowered to accommodate a larger
fortress on the summit. It resembled the outline of the final Citadel, comprising
four bastions surrounding a central barracks and magazine, but used mainly
earthwork walls.[16] One bastion was constructed
with labour from Jamaican Maroons.
Town
clock
Prince Edward,
Duke of Kent commissioned
a clock tower in 1800 prior to his return to England. The Town Clock opened
on October 20, 1803, at a location on the east slope of Citadel Hill on Barrack
(now Brunswick) Street and has kept time for the community ever since.
The War
of 1812
The Third citadel received hasty repairs and a new
magazine during the War of 1812 in case of an American raid
but a new fortification was not constructed as naval superiority provided by
the British Royal Navy precluded
any chance of an American siege.
The current star-shaped fortress, or citadel, is
formally known as Fort George and was completed in 1856,
during the Victorian Era,
following twenty-eight years of construction. This massive masonry-construction
fort was designed to repel a land-based attack by United States forces and was inspired by
the designs of Louis XIV's commissary of fortifications Sébastien Le Prestre,
Seigneur de Vauban–a
star-shaped hillock citadel with internal courtyard and clear harbour view from
armoured ramparts. Between 1820 and 1831 the British had constructed a similar
albeit larger citadel in Quebec City known as the Citadel of
Quebec.
Centrepiece
of the Halifax Defence Complex
Fort George and its predecessors were the focal
point of the British military's "Halifax Defence Complex" which
included (at various years):
·
Fort
Needham
·
Fort George (Citadel
Hill)
·
Fort
Massey
·
Fort
Ogilvie
·
Prince of
Wales Tower
·
Connaught
Battery
·
Practice
Battery
·
Sandwich
Point
·
Camperdown
·
Fort
Chebucto
·
Fort
Clarence
·
Devil's
Battery / Hartlen Point
·
Fort Ives
·
Fort
Hugonin
·
Sherbrooke
Tower
·
Strawberry
Hill
·
Fort
McNab
Fort George was constructed to defend against smoothbore weaponry; it became
obsolete following the introduction of more powerful rifled guns in the 1860s.
British forces upgraded Fort George's armaments to permit it to defend the
harbour as well as land approaches, using heavier and more accurate long-range
artillery. Fort George's two large ammunition magazines also served as the
central explosive store for Halifax defences making Citadel Hill, according to
the historian and novelist Thomas Head Raddall, "like Vesuvius over
Pompeii, a smiling monster with havoc in its belly".By the end of the 19th
century, the role of Fort George in the defense of Halifax Harbour evolved to
become a command centre for other, more distant harbour defensive works, as
well as providing barrack accommodations.
American
Civil War
78th
(Highlanders) Regiment of Foot
The renowned 78th (Highlanders) Regiment of
Foot were
stationed at Halifax for almost three years (1869-1871). The regiment arrived
in Halifax on the afternoon of May 14 aboard the troopship HMS Crocodile. A total of 765 men disembarked in full dress
uniform. The Regiment was divided into two depots and eight service companies,
consisting in all of 34 officers, 49 sergeants, 21 drummers, 6 pipers, and 600
rank and file.
For two years, the regiment spent its time billeted
at the Halifax Citadel and at Wellington Barracks. The latter is now known as
Stadacona and is part of Canadian Forces Base Halifax. Each summer, men from
the regiment camped at Bedford to practice musketry at the military range.
On their departure in 1871, a farewell ball
complete with a musical tribute was composed in their honour. It was hosted by
the famous brewmaster and
then Grandmaster of the Mason Lodge of Nova Scotia, Alexander Keith.
On November 25, the regiment set sail for Ireland
on board the troopship Orontes. With them went 17 young Nova
Scotian women who had married members of the regiment.[20]
First and
Second World Wars
When the Great War began in 1914, there was
widespread suspicion in Canada that immigrants from enemy countries might be
disloyal. In response, the federal government passed regulations allowing it to
monitor and intern anyone who had not become naturalized British subjects. These
people were labelled “enemy aliens.” In total 8,579 men were prisoners of war
in 24 camps across the country. There were three Internment camps in Nova
Scotia: Amherst Internment Camp (April 1915 to September 1919); one on Melville Island in the Northwest Arm of Halifax Harbour and
in Citadel Hill (Fort George) (September 1914 to October 1918).[22] Unlike the rest of Canada,
where internees were mostly of Eastern European origin, the internees in Nova
Scotia were mainly German reservists. Fort George's final military role was to
provide temporary barracks, signalling and the central coordinating point for
the city's anti-aircraft defences during the Second World War.
Preservation
In 1935, the hill and fortifications were
designated a National Historic Site and received some stabilization as a works
project during the Depression. However the fort was not restored and began
to decay after the end of the Second World War. In the late 1940s, Halifax
downtown business interests advocated demolishing the fort and leveling Citadel
Hill to provide parking and encourage development. However recognition of the
fort's historical significance and tourism potential led to the fort's
preservation and gradual restoration. Research by historian Harry Piers published in his final
book The Evolution of
the Halifax Fortress, 1749-1928 in 1947 played a key role in making the case
and providing resources to restore Fort George. In 1956, the partially restored
fort opened as a historic site and home to the Halifax Army museum and, in the
years before they constructed their own museums, as home to the Nova Scotia Museum and the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic.
Today the site is under the responsibility of Parks Canada. Fort George has been restored
to the mid-Victorian period.
The Citadel is among the top five most visited National Historic Sites in
Canada.
There are guided and self-guided tours available as
well as audio-visual presentations and exhibits which serve to communicate the
Citadel's role in shaping Halifax's and North America's history.
One of the most enduring and recognized symbols of
Citadel Hill's role in shaping Halifax is the year-round daily ceremonial
firing of the noon gun. The artillery is also used for formal occasions such
as 21-gun salutes.
The "Army Museum", located in the
Citadel's Cavalier Block, displays a rare collection of weapons, medals and
uniforms exploring Nova Scotia's army history. It is an independent non-profit
museum but works in close partnership with the Citadel staff of Parks Canada.
In July 2006, Halifax Citadel celebrated the 100th
anniversary of the withdrawal of the last British military forces from Canada.
The citadel hosted over 1,000 re-enactors from around the world.
Approaching the Christmas season, Citadel Hill
annually hosts a "Victorian Christmas". Visitors are treated to
crafts, carollers and games.
