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Canadian Historic Sites: Occasional Papers in Archaeology and History No. 9
by Susan Buggey The Restoration SiteThe Site For more than two centuries, the restoration site has reflected the physical, commercial, and urban development of Halifax. In its history may be seen the extension of waterfront properties to meet the demands of a busy shipping centre in the ages of sail and steam. The contraction of the wharfs in the mid-20th century also records the transition from sea to air travel. When Halifax was founded in 1749, the present wharf property was part of the harbour. On the site to the north which was later the Ordnance Yard, a nine-gun battery was soon erected as part of the town's defences.1 The area along the shore south of the battery, however, remained unfilled as far as Ephraim Cooke's wharf at the foot of Duke Street (Fig. 3). In 1753 Cooke sold to John Creighton the southern portion of his extensive waterfront lot, 210 ft. by 96 ft. east of Hollis and between Duke and Buckingham streets.2 In the same year Cooke returned to England where he turned over all his remaining property in Halifax to his creditor, Stephen T. Janson. Three years later the remaining waterfront portion of his lands returned to Haligonian ownership in the hands of Governor Charles Lawrence who, in turn, sold it three years later to Thomas Saul, one of his ardent political supporters as well as the prosperous army provisioner and navy victualler at Halifax. The property, 134 ft. x 81 ft., was north of Creighton's and apparently extended from Hollis Street to the water's edge.3 In front of it, Saul obtained permission of the governor's council in 1759 "to erect or build a Wharf or breastwork, to begin from the Battery and to extend Southward before [the] said Saul's House One hundred and sixty nine feet."4 In 1779, having been resident in England nearly 20 years, Saul transferred his property in Halifax, including the waterfront lot and the breastwork in front of it, to Alexander Brymer, one of the principal merchants of the town.5 Although the wharf then standing between the battery and Cooke's wharf appears to have been south of Brymer's acquisition (Fig. 4), by the mid-1780s, the new owner had erected two wharfs on his property as well as a number of stores (Fig. 5). These two wharfs constituted the basic form of the wharfs which stand today, although they have been both broadened and extended in the succeeding two centuries. In 1790 Brymer, not only an eminent merchant but also son-in-law of Lieutenant-Governor John Parr, obtained the grant of a wharf lot opposite the property which he had purchased from Saul. This extension of his lands measured
The grant represented the first transfer of ownership of this property from the crown to a private citizen. As well, it superseded the restrictive clause of Saul's authority of 1759 which had not granted ownership and which had made the wharf subject to stringent regulations of the governor and council.7 The definition therefore encompassed the wharfs which Brymer had already erected and extended his property 300 ft. east of Water Street into the harbour. A decade later Brymer sold the lot he had purchased from Saul and the wharf lot granted him in 1790 to the influential Haligonian merchants Thomas, James, and William Cochran.8 Shortly after the death of their senior partner, James and William Cochran transferred the property, in settlement of their debts, to William Smith of Smith, Forsyth & Company who sold it immediately to Robert Lester and Robert Morrogh, merchants of Quebec and part of the Phyn, Ellice & Inglis mercantile network of London, with which Smith, Forsyth & Company was also connected. The property transferred in 1803 to Lester and Morrogh did not, however, include the 134 ft. by 81 ft. block west of Water Street; it encompassed only the wharf lot east of the thoroughfare. It is this land which was sold in 1806 to Charles Prescott and William Lawson in common and later divided between John Clark and Enos Collins.9 The wharf property granted to Brymer in 1790, and not the earlier land belonging to Cooke, Lawrence and Saul, therefore constitutes the western portion of the present wharfs. The eastern portion of the wharfs falls within four later water-lot grants — one to Prescott and Lawson in 1809, two to Pickford & Black in the late 19th century, and one to Margaret E. Wood by the early 20th century (Fig. 21)10 By 1803 the wharf later known as Collins' — that is, the southerly portion of Brymer's Wharf — had already been extended beyond the eastern property boundary, and in 1809 it was partially filled on the north side to enable Prescott and Lawson to construct the stone foundation of the building which was only 17 ft. south of the property line drawn the following year.11 At the same time Prescott and Lawson had the bar of the ell-shaped wharf of 1803 removed and the wharf lengthened an additional 50 ft. (Fig. 7). From 1810 until Confederation, the wharf remained at this length, about 400 ft., from the east side of Water Street (Figs. 10. 11, 13, 14). Shortly thereafter the Seetons, owners since 1865, increased it about 225 ft. further, at which length it remained until nearly the mid-20th century (Fig. 15).12 In the early 1950s when Pickford & Black quitted the steamship business, they had the wharf cut back to its present size. At that time they estimated that its annual upkeep was costing the firm $10,000.13 The wharf later known as Clark's — that is, the northerly portion of Brymer's Wharf — had many more, though shorter, extensions than had Collins' Wharf. By 1803 it had already been considerably extended beyond its length of 20 years earlier to about 300 ft., and in 1809 a further extension was intended. If erected, it had been cut back to its length of 1803 before 1830, and in the following 30 years it was increased only about 50 ft. (Figs. 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 13). In the mid-1860s, however, it was lengthened to reach about 340 ft. from the east side of Water Street, and before 1878 a further approximate 80 ft. into the harbour. Two later additions of about 80 ft. each extended it to about 500 ft. by 1895 and about 580 ft. by 1914 (Figs. 14. 15, 16, 17, 18), which appears to have been its greatest length. By 1939 it had been cut back to about 375 ft. from Water Street.14 Streets and Sidewalks Initially a mere path along the beach which must either have traversed Cooke's property or run along the beach at the water's edge, Water Street by 1779 ran east of the town blocks including that owned by Saul and Creighton southwest of the Ordnance Yard (Figs. 3, 4). Its route remained unchanged until 1811-12 when the way through the yard was blocked and the street rerouted to its present location. No alteration appears, however, to have occurred to the road in front of Clark's, Prescott's, Collins', and Creighton's wharfs at this time.15 In the years following the rerouting, citizens frequently complained about the impassable state of the thoroughfare which was laden with mud and sometimes under water. As a result, in 1816-17, the street was regraded and apparently raised. A decade later, however, the improvements had been worn away by heavy traffic, and in 1830 Water Street was again repaired and the surface lines permanently fixed. At this time the street Commissioners reported that they had required all obstacles such as steps, porches and cellar doors to be removed from within the bounds of the road.16 By 1830 Captain William Moorsom stated that the roads in Halifax were generally macadamized. As early as 1810, 200 tons of paving stones had been demanded for the repair of the streets, and 15 years later 1,000 tons of stones as well as sand and gravel were needed. In 1839 Hugh Murray kindly described the roads as "now generally spacious, the principal one well paved, and the others macadamized," although in the mid-1850s the disgruntled F. S. Cozzens considered that "the middle street was in its original and aboriginal clay." In the early 1840s J. S. Buckingham found the streets dusty and remarked upon them being mostly unpaved. Isabella Lucy Bird, an Englishwoman, discovered them at mid-century to be not only littered but sometimes in an "almost impassable state," as when she "waded through them ankle-deep in mud."17 Making allowances for poetic licence in the travellers' journals, it is evident that Halifax had attempted, if not very successfully, to put a more or less permanent covering upon most of the streets in the central portion of the town. In 1850 some streets, however, still did not have sidewalks, and those which existed were mostly made of wood, as was common in Canadian towns. Buckingham complained that many of them were in "a most dilapidated and neglected state," while Cozzens observed that they were neither bricked nor paved with flags as they would have been in an American seaboard city.18 An experiment with flagstones reputedly imported from Scotland was made, but disintegration of the stones under heavy frost apparently caused it to be abandoned.19 During the latter half of the 19th century, both road building and sidewalk construction were controversial subjects in Halifax.20 New legislation of 1861 provided both a structure and a mode of financing to replace the former road taxes and nearly independent street commissioners. The new appointees, for the first time fully responsible to city council and financed from city revenues, initiated the use of broken stone for road building in place of the "worse than useless material" employed in the past. They also put into effect for the first time legislation providing for the construction of brick sidewalks. Although it is not clear that brick sidewalks were in fact laid in Water Street, the importance and the heavy traffic of the thoroughfare suggest that during the long period of their continuance such walks were installed along the waterfront road. Because of the frequent and costly repairs required for the bricks, however, gravel sidewalks were also introduced in the town, and by the mid-1880s some experiments, under the direction of City Engineer E. H. Keating, were performed with asphalt and other materials. In the early 1890s when the street was paved, new tar and concrete sidewalks with granite curbs were laid on both sides of Water Street. These again proved short-lived and expensive to maintain, and by the early 1900s the city engineer recommended cement concrete in their place. By 1907 this building material was extensively used, and by 1915 a cement concrete sidewalk 5 to 6 ft. wide extended at least to the southern edge of the Pickford & Black property. Road building presents a similar story of debate and experiment, although fewer changes were actually put into operation. After more than 18,500 bu. of broken stone were used in the repair of Water Street in 1861-62, macadamizing with stone broken by city and prison labour remained the principal mode of road building in Halifax for the next 30 years. Keeping the streets in good repair required constant and expensive upkeep within a limited budget. To this end, Water Street was watered daily, cleaned weekly, and thoroughly macadamized in 1875-78 and again in 1883-85. Yet the roads were still, depending on the weather, either muddy or dusty. In 1880, pointing out that the maintenance of Water Street alone required thousands of loads of hand-broken stone every year, the city engineer recommended that it be paved with blocks of wood or stone, preferably with granite. During the next decade, however, Water Street was ordered not paved but gravelled. The experiment proved a failure, as the city engineer advised the mayor and council late in 1889: "It would be cheaper and better to remove the so called gravel that is now being landed for that street, at once from the wharf to the dumping ground, rather than to spread it over the roadway to form the intolerable nuisance it does on the first wet day."21 In the early 1890s two experiments were performed in paving with granite blocks, and in 1895 the more satisfactory mode was applied to Water Street between the Ordnance Yard and Morris Street. Porphyry was laid upon a concrete foundation and topped with granite paving blocks (setts) brought from the Shelburne quarry. At this time the whole street was brought to proper grade and the curbs were straightened. This surface remained well into the 20th century until the present road surface was laid, mainly over the granite blocks. A 6-in. granite step in front of the Simon's Building is said to have been covered over at this time.22 The Wharf No early descriptions of either Collins' or Clark's wharfs have been found. Some picture of them can, however, be derived from newspaper advertisements offering their stores to let and from descriptions of other wharfs advertised for rent or sale.23 In the early 19th century and until Collins began erecting the ranges of stone stores near Water Street in the mid-1820s, the south wharf was headed on either side by a house and shop or office, while east of these structures there were stores. Elsewhere there were a cooperage, a blacksmith shop, a store with "an excellent fish screw," and, perhaps housing one of them, a red store.24 From 1825 the Halifax Bank stood at the north head of the wharf, while opposite and beyond it were stone and wooden stores. Firms of importance, like Fairbanks & Allison and Pickford & Black, usually occupied the south head, and commission merchants, auctioneers and sailmakers regularly leased the more easterly premises. A variety of tradesmen probably also rented portions of the wharf stores. By 1812 Clark's Wharf to the north had a small ell-shaped building at the south head and by 1831 a large enclosed yard extending around the Privateer's Warehouse from about the centre of the wharf to the harbour. On the north side were two wooden stores (Fig. 11). Isabella Lucy Bird, landing from a Cunard steamer in the 1850s, has provided a vivid if jaundiced glimpse of the physical form of a wharf and its bustling activity.
Gates at the heads of wharfs do not appear to have been uncommon. In 1855, for instance, James Forman's Wharf could be "completely closed in when required from the Street side."26 Ten years later Collins' Wharf had a gate which ran from near the east end of the Pickford & Black Building to the southeastern corner of the Collins' Warehouse. It may, however, have been removed before 1876,27 and its appearance is unknown. A type of gate in use along Water Street is illustrated in a late 19th-century photograph of Dwyer's Wharf (Fig. 45). Like the Cunard Wharf, the Pickford & Black Wharf sloped toward the harbour (Fig. 39). By the late 19th century, the surface between the Pickford & Black Building and Collins' Bank and Warehouse, running east from Water Street, appears to have been packed earth or gravel (Figs. 25, 30, 39). Beyond the two buildings, however, the wharf was planked (Figs. 30, 33, 36). Planks 10 in. wide running east and west overlaid 18 in. by 18 in. timbers, which were laid in earth and ran north and south. The timbers were waterlogged so did not rot, but the planked deck required annual repair. This surface remained until the mid-1940s when earth was laid on top and the wharf paved east from Water Street.28 The earth surface of the Central Wharf, on the other hand, dated from at least the early 20th century (Fig. 43).29 The levels of the wharfs have been altered during the past 150 years to accommodate the recorded rise of mean sea level at Halifax by about one foot per century.30 Although there was no sidewalk north of the Simon's Building (Fig. 43), by the 1890s wooden sidewalks ran along the Pickford & Black Building, the Bank, and the Red Store. By the turn of the century they had been extended in front of Collins' Warehouse. The entrances to the bank and warehouse and the Red Store were two steps above the level of the wharf, although those of the Pickford & Black Building were level with it. Posts for tethering horses stood on either side of the wharf near Water Street, where about 1890 an old lamp standard remained. Farther down the wharf, the head of a cannon protruded from the decking at the southwest corner of the Red Store to protect it from the heavy wagon traffic. The wharf appears normally to have been kept clear of obstacles except for an occasional barrel (Figs. 25, 30, 39), although in the early 20th century lumber merchants who occupied premises in the stores left their lumber stacked outside.31 By the 1850s both Collins' and Clark's wharfs had private fire plugs, and during the many waterfront fires of the early 20th century a fire engine was regularly stationed on Pickford & Black's wharf.32
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