There is evidence that coasting, or tobogganing, was taking place on Halifax’s steep streets in the mid 1820s. The English name, “toboggan,” likely derives from the word for “sled” in one of the Eastern Algonquian languages – possibly the Mi’kmaq…

Bravo, Straw Hat:In 1825, a Halifax Turf Club was established, and races were held on the Common the last week of every August for twenty years. In 1827, a cocked-hat sweepstakes for untrained horses was added to the programme, for which no handicap…

Built in 1787, Cossit House is one of the oldest surviving houses in Sydney. It was built by Anglican minister, Reverend Ranna Cossit, a loyalist from New Hampshire who settled in Sydney in 1786. When Cossit agreed to the post, the…

Before we had online dating services, a young woman might turn to creative sources for a potential mate - why not to the Mayor of a respectable town like Halifax, Nova Scotia? In the spring of 1939, an "attractive 22 year-old English girl" wrote to…

Halifax’s Historic Properties are situated next to the waterfront just north of where Upper Water meets Duke Street. The series of old stone and wooden buildings were largely constructed in the nineteenth century. Now occupied by boutiques,…

As part of Halifax’s urban renewal in the 1960s, the City of Halifax planned to build an expressway in the central business district. Following the Second World War, families began moving to the suburbs, which was considered a more desirable place…

Scotia Square and Duke Tower are landmarks in Halifax’s downtown. The area they occupy originally contained many streets: Buckingham, Starr, Hurd, Jacob, Poplar, and Hare Lane plus the tail ends of Market, Grafton, and Argyle Streets. As Halifax…

August 13, 1955: with thousands of spectators watching and participating, one hundred bagpipers led a parade across the Canso Causeway, officially opening the road connection between Cape Breton Island and mainland Nova Scotia. Ninety-nine of those…