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…

During his service as a soldier in World War One, Private Harold Benjamin Watts wrote two postcards to his friend, Harold Homans, of Port Mouton, Nova Scotia. Together with his service record in Library Archives Canada, these wartime postcards offer…

By the end of the summer 1918, Halifax and Dartmouth were still rebuilding and recovering from the deadly Halifax Explosion that claimed nearly 2,000 lives and devastated both communities. By all appearances, the First World War was slowly drawing…

The Pentagon Building in downtown Halifax was somewhat of a landmark in its day. Erected in 1860 at the foot of Buckingham Street where Granville, Hollis, and Upper Water converged, the odd-shaped building looked from one angle to be a miniature…

In 1862, the Halifax Skating Club was formed by a winter-hardy group of 'fancy skating' enthusiasts. They first took to the ice to perform the Lancers on Griffin's Pond in the Horticultural Society's Grounds, now commonly known as the Public…

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…

In 1947, the City of Halifax was preparing to celebrate the bicentenary of the founding of Halifax in 1749. As a symbolic gift to the city, the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) arranged to have a huge Douglas Fir tree cut from the forests of British…

On the evening of Tuesday, February 18, 1919, a returned soldier dining at the Crown Cafe on Gottingen Street refused to pay his bill. According to the February 19 issue of The Evening Mail, the soldier then "abused the Chinese proprietor."…

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,…