Steven Archibald recently posted Reckless Pedestrians where he looks at old photographs of Halifax, and compares how much more pedestrian-friendly they were in the days of the horse, before the car. This didn’t seem right to me, and caused me to go searching for urban transportation pre-automobile.

When you look at the photos, the people look posed. The streets are also relatively empty. It doesn’t feel like the hustle and bustle of a city. The reason for this lies in the technology used to take the images. Wet plate processes had existed since the 1850s but had 10 second exposure times. Dry plate processes in the 1870s improved exposure times greatly, but they still could be long enough that moving objects are not captured. The result of this, is that moving objects are not seen in the photos.

People and wagons are posed. The blurs are moving people, who could not be exposed properly.

The horse itself was the cause for a great deal of muck on the streets. Each horse produced 15-30lbs of manure per day, and a quart of urine. Most of this would be deposited on the street. The horse-powered trams required 11 horses per day to run. The Sherbrooke, the Dartmouth ferry Team Boat, required 9 horses to power the vessel across the harbour, and the ferry company maintained multiple sets.  Besides the muck itself, as it dried, it would form dust, and be swept into the air by the wind. The manure also attracted and became breeding grounds for common flies, which were discovered to carry numerous diseases, including typhoid. By the turn of the century, the motor car was seen as a savior from the muck, and a tool to improve the heath of cities.

On-street parking and horse drawn tram

Horse powered trams existed before the electric streetcar. The rails allowed for a smoother ride for passengers, and reduced resistance, which allowed the horse team to pull a larger load. The Halifax City Railroad was inaugurated in June 1866 , and ran from the foot of Inglis Street to Duffus Street in the north, terminating at the Nova Scotia Railway station in Richmond. Cars ran on the line every fifteen minutes from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. until 1874, when frequency increased to every ten minutes between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. The service was unprofitable, and the move of the train station to downtown (at the foot of North Street) caused the service to shutdown in 1876. The Halifax City Railroad stable and car barn was located at the corner of Hanover Street and Campbell Road. At the time of dissolution, they owned 50 horses, which were sold, along with the cars.

After 1876, Haligonians were forced to rely on Omnibuses. Omnibuses were a horse-powered wheeled bus. They were more expensive to use then the street railway, the ride was rougher, on account they were wheeled, and they had a lower capacity.

The Halifax Street Railway was formed in 1886. They purchased 15 new cars from the John Stevenson Company, as well as the stable and car barn used by the Halifax City Railway. They also purchased the omnibus service to eliminate competition. The Halifax Street Railway went bankrupt in 1889. it was purchased by the Nova Scotia Power Company, who intended to electrify the service. They too went bankrupt and and were purchased by the Halifax Electric Tramway Company in 1895.  Electric trams started running in February 1896.

The other assertion is that the horse-powered vehicle is smaller then the modern car. However, this is not the case  – the oxcarts in the photo of the market  (2 above) appear to be 15-20′ in length, and the NSMMA has a Sloven on display, a type of typical Halifax freight wagon that by itself is 20′ long, not including the team. For comparison, my Nissan Rogue is 15′ long.

Cities included massive multi-level livery stables to accommodate the horses and carriages – analogous to our modern parking garages. Halifax had the Metropolitan Livery Stable on Hollis Street, across from the Halifax Hotel,  Robinson’s Livery Stable on Doyle Street, and the Bengal Lancers Stable, which still exists as a stable, though in abbreviated form. Robinson’s Stable on Doyle still exists, though in much modified form. When the horse went out of common use after the First World War, the stable was converted to various other uses, including a car dealer, parking garage and most recently, office and retail space.

In NYC in 1900, 200 people were killed by horse and horse-drawn vehicles. There were 270 auto related deaths in 2012 (pedestrian and vehicle collisions). New York’s 2012 population was 8.3 million, it was 3.4 million in 1900. The roads in the time of the horse were much deadlier places to be. Chicago had similar stats. I was curious if I could find out what the stats for Halifax were, however I discovered that there were no death records kept in Nova Scotia between 1877 and 1908, though there is a ledger for Halifax.

William Phelps Eno  was trained as an architect, however went on to become the Father of Traffic Control. In his books, he writes of the chaos he experienced in streets of New York, Paris and Italy, and how pedestrians had few safe places of refuge. As a boy, He rode velocipedes, early pedal-less bicycles in Paris.  Though he died in 1945, he never possessed a driver license and was unable to drive himself.

Eno is  credited with the creation of the first traffic code, which he did in 1903 for New York City. He is also credited with  the invention of the crosswalk, stop sign, stop light, yield sign, the pedestrian island, the traffic circle and the one way street. Born in 1851, more then half his life was spent before the widespread adoption of the automobile. His primary goal in traffic control was to reduce the number of accidents caused by horse-drawn vehicles.

His code for New York explicitly gave right of way to road traffic.

Article IX. The Respective Rights and Duties at Drivers and Pedestrians.
The roadbeds of highways and streets are primarily intended for vehicles, but pedestrians have the right to cross them in safety, and drivers of vehicles and street cars must exercise all possible care not to injure pedestrians. Pedestrians should, on their part, never step from the sidewalk to the roadbed without first looking to see what is approaching, and should not, needlessly, interfere with the passage of vehicles or street cars.

By crossing a street as nearly as possible at right angles, preferably at a regular crossing, and when a traffic policeman is stationed there, by waiting for his signal, pedestrians will greatly add to their own safety, facilitate the movement of traffic, and make it much less difficult for the horses, which often have to be reined in suddenly and painfully to avoid careless and un­thinking pedestrians. Nothing in the foregoing should excuse drivers from constant vigilance to avoid injury to pedestrians under all conditions.

The Tramway Building was built in 1916, after a fire destroyed the previous building on the site. It is named Tramway, after its tenant, the Halifax Electric Tramway Company, Which operated Halifax’s streetcars until they were converted to trolly coaches in 1949. The 2 Storefronts are original to the building, Housing Tip Top tailors 1921-41 until they moved next door, and then Chas brown Furriers from 1942- 1983.

Designed by Andrew Cobb, in a Modern Neo-Gothic Style. It was one of the first all concrete buildings in Halifax (The first being the 1903 A.M. Bell Building on Granville St.) Cobb studied at Acadia , MIT and the Ecole des Beaux Arts, and Setup Shop in Halifax in 1909. He also worked as a partner with S.P Dumerasq. Cobb had his office in Tramway from 1938 until his death in 1943.

The building features a clear hierarchy of forms, separated by wide concrete banding, which separates the Retail street level from the second floor, and again form the second floor to the roof line. Octagonal turrets line the top of the building, though the Barrington street ones have been removed due to their poor condition. As of 2020 the building is undergoing a restoration which will restore it to its original appearance.

Located on Bedford Row at the corner of Prince Street, the No 4. Engine House was built to replace an older station also on Bedford Row, that in 1905 was declared unfit for men to live in by the Fire Chief. In May 1904, City Council: “Resolved, that the City Engineer be and is hereby instructed to draw and submit to this Council plans for the erection of an engine house on the property known as the Little Fuel Yard in this city.”

F.W.W. Doane, the city engineer, promptly advised council that his staff were too busy to prepare plans. Council then directed the city architects to submit plans, with acceptance of the plans determined on the merit (ie best plan wins). Council set the architects’ fee to 5% of construction cost for chosen plans, for plans and construction supervision. The budget was $10,000.

Sealed plans were received in November 1904, with coded submission forms. The plans from “Square and Compass” were chosen, and referred to Council for final approval.  Plans were also received from Bluenose, Como, Salamanda, Cambria, Experience, and Citizen. The successful submission was that of  R.A Johnson. Richard Arthur Johnson was a partner in the firm of Hopson Brothers, architects, and originally headed the Sydney NS office of the firm, but practiced in Halifax after that firm dissolved.

The building was influenced by the Chicago style of architecture with ornamentation, tall pilasters and wide Romanesque arches. The arches on the front Bedford Row elevation originally acted as the doors for fire apparatus.

By June 1905, plans were complete, and the project was put to tender. Five responses were received in July – two were non-compliant, and were rejected. Geo. B. Lowe was recommended with a cost of $16,535, and proposed to construct the station of concrete block. Council decided to send the tender back to the works committee, as the plans were to be for a $10,000 building and the lowest bid was $7000 more. Council also want to know if it was advisable to build with concrete block.

On August 15, the city works committee reported back to council. The architects who submitted plans all felt that $10,000 was too low a budget for a building; those who gave an estimate felt $14000 was the bare minimum price for the station. The proposed construction material – concrete block – was also addressed. It was initially thought that brick would be cheaper, and a petition against the use of concrete was received from the bricklayers’ union. Concrete block was a modern material and felt to be unproven, and was considered to be a cheaper material then stone (though concrete block was in wide use in cities west of Halifax). The blocks were proposed to be made by city labour, and laid by union masons.

In the end, Council accepted the tender of Edward Maxwell at a cost of $17,764 for a brick building with concrete trimmings. The building was complete by May 1906, and the final payment was released to the contractor.

After the station was completed, the architect made an unsuccessful attempt to collect a fee of 5% of the final construction cost of $17,764. The city ruled that the fee was to a maximum of $500, and this was clear when the design was awarded. R.A Johnston was paid $441.70 for his design and supervision services.

After opening, the roof leaked, and by February 1908 the contractor was unresponsive to requests from the city for warranty repair. The city solicitor was authorized to take action.

4 engine circa 1940.

Firefighters from this station would have responded to the fire that led to the Halifax Explosion. Ironically the re-construction of the devastated area would be done primarily with Hydrostone – a brand of concrete block manufactured in Eastern Passage, and 10 years prior considered too modern for the fire station.

Appearance in 1969 before closure. The arched doors were restored, and some brick uncovered after conversion.

The Station just after conversion.

The Bedford Row Fire Station served Halifax for over 50 years. In 1969, the Fire Station was closed, and converted to restaurant and office space and staff were moved to the new West St. Headquarters. The Current appearance is faithful to the original, though the rustication at the base has been lost, as has some of the detail of the brick work.

The Welsford-Parker Monument is a triumphal arch located in the Old Burying Ground. This is the second oldest war monument in Canada  and the only monument to the Crimean War in North America.

The Monument was inaugurated in a ceremony on July 17th 1860, and the committee that erected it was composed of H. Pryor, A.M. Uniacke, W.J. Almon, J. Duffus, B. Binney, and J.C. Cogswell.

The Acadian Recorder for 21 July reported on the Inauguration:

The afternoon was clear, but uncomfortably warm. A little after 2 o’clock, the procession formed on the Grand Parade. It consisted of all the Halifax and Dartmouth Volunteer Companies, a large number of the Masonic body, and various public officials. These, paraded by bands of music, marched down Barrington Street to the old Cemetery, where detachments of the Regular troops of the garrison were already stationed. The military portion of the assemblage formed a hollow square around the Monument, within which ticket holders were admitted. A large assemblage, especially of the fair sex, were present to witness the proceedings; and the gloomy old graveyard for once presented a gay appearance. The ceremonies commenced with prayer by the Rev. John Scott. His Excellency the Lieutenant Governor, Lord Mulgrave then addressed the assemblage at some length and, in concluding, introduced the Rev. George Hill, the Orator of the day. Mr. Hill’s oration was an able and eloquent effort, and is, we understand, to be printed. Major General Charles Trollope also spoke in his usual popular and humorous style, and Rear Admiral Sir Alexander Milne made a few remarks. A great deal of cheering was done and the proceedings concluded by the Volunteer Artillery under the command of Captain Tremain, firing13 minute guns, and by the bands playing and the whole assemblage singing the National Anthem. We find that while the ceremonies were going on, Chase, the clever photographer succeeded in taking an excellent photographic view of the whole scene, a copy of which we have no doubt many people will hasten to secure, as a memento of the day and the event.

The arch and lion were constructed under the direction of George Lang to commemorate the British victory in the Crimean war and the Nova Scotians who had fought in the war. George Lang also was responsible for the Federal Building which is now part of the AGNS.

The memorial is named after two Haligonians, Major Augustus F. Welsford of the 97th Regiment and Captain William B.C.A. Parker of the 77 Regiment, who both died in the Battle of the Great Redan in 1855 during the Siege of Sevastopol.