Disasters and Loss - When Built Heritage is Destroyed

Built heritage is a tangible but fragile resource, constantly under assault from owner neglect, inclement weather, the costs of upkeep and maintenance, insufficient public interest or support, urban renewal, property development, fires, floods, disasters and other sundry acts of God. Nova Scotia has escaped none of these threats and catastrophes — no major community in the province, for example, has avoided at least one devastating fire responsible for obliterating entire town blocks or neighbourhoods.

The built heritage of Halifax, the capital city, has been shaped, scarred or otherwise eroded by three noteworthy events over the last century. On 6 December 1917, the Richmond district in the city's north end was completely flattened and destroyed. Over a square mile of homes, businesses, schools, churches and factories, valued at an estimated $35,000,000, was obliterated in a moment, the result of an horrific mid-harbour collision between a munitions ship — the Mont Blanc — and a Belgian Relief vessel, the Imo. To further explore the Halifax Harbour Explosion and the 'new' built heritage created in its aftermath, visit the 'Vision of Regeneration' area of our Website.

During the 1960s 'urban renewal' arrived in Halifax, leaving a legacy of ambiguous outcomes. In 1962, civic officials decided to eliminate the long-established community of Africville, located on the northern tip of the urban peninsula, and distribute its residents elsewhere in the city. Relocation began in 1964; demolition was largely complete by the end of 1967; and in January 1970 the last homestead was razed.

Today, the land on which Africville once stood remains symbolically empty — a national historic site forming part of Seaview Memorial Park, named for the community's also-demolished United Baptist Church. 'Gone but Never Forgotten: Bob Brook's Photographic Portrait of Africville in the 1960s' explores the vernacular architecture and vibrant way of life that shaped this community and its residents in the days before its disappearance.

Similarly, many streets, residences and long-established businesses in Halifax's downtown core were destroyed in the name of urban development during construction of Scotia Square and the Cogswell Street Interchange in the late 1960s. It was the threatened loss of significant heritage structures to the traffic-flow improvements promised by the latter which finally rallied local citizens to action — without enlightened conservancy, the city's remaining built-heritage treasures might soon disappear forever.