"Halifax's South End Railway Cut", by Barry Copp
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HERITAGE LOST Halifax’s South End Railway Cut Barry Copp Having grown up in Halifax’s South End across the street from the Oakland Road bridge, I knew well the effects of the city’s railway cut. Countless nights, I heard the rumble of freight trains passing by on their way to the Ocean Terminals. I also lived less than 200 metres from where the Oaklands grand man- sion, owned by Samuel Cunard’s second eldest son, once stood. I had always been curious about the impact that the railway cut had on Oaklands and a num- ber of estates that were expropriated and demolished by the government of Canada for the new South End terminals Oaklands, William Cunard’s Residence, Halifax, Nova Scotia, n.d. (Courtesy of Nova Scotia Archives, and rail lines along the route. Notman Studio, NSARM accession no. 1983-310 number 50203) The desire for an enlarged Ocean Terminal had been talked about before the turn of the century. Conservative Sir a mechanic’s district”; however, this op- met sometime in the fall of 1917. Robert Borden was an avid supporter of position didn’t last. Jubilee, the former estate of West this cause, and when he became prime On August 21, 1913, the Herald Indian merchant William Pryor, which minister in 1911, he began to make this reported, “Thirty-eight dumping cars, existed in the area of today’s Woodlawn dream a reality. two locomotives and two steam shovels” Terrace and Dunvegan Drive, was one of There was a great deal of specula- were on their way to the city. the first properties to be destroyed. Built tive real estate activity in areas expected Crews proceeded from the north, in 1810, the property was eventually to be subject to expropriation before with trains hauling the rock to the taken over by a well-known philanthro- the actual plan for a railway and ship- southwest corner of Bedford Basin pist, Isabella Binney Cogswell. Now, that ping terminal at Greenbank near Point where it was dumped in front of Mount house and Rosebank Estate, just above Pleasant Park was announced at a Board St. Vincent College to create the ICR’s it, were in the way of the railway align- of Trade luncheon on October 30, 1912. new classification yard. Three Mile House ment. Many routes were studied, but the was demolished in 1918 after the railway The railway cut passed through one chosen by F.W. Cowie, the federal ran very close to the inn, and much of its western Coburg Road and the rear of government engineer, was a double- waterfront property was expropriated. It Coburg Cottage, the former estate of track line branching off the Intercolonial was located near the present-day Wind- William Pryor, and the large twin houses Railway (ICR) at Three Mile House, Fair- sor Exchange beside the Fairview Cove of Levi Hart’s Oakville, now home to Dal- view on Bedford Basin. The track was to Container Terminal. housie University’s president, and John T. curve southwest around the city and run Crews working from the south Wylde’s Armbrae, which was eventually through the most attractive, residential hauled the rock to dump into Halifax demolished and is now Armbrae Acad- district bordering on the Northwest Arm, harbour, creating new deepwater ship- emy. The opposite side of the railway a distance of roughly eight kilometres ping piers and dockside warehouses cut was Fred W. Bowes’s hotel, Birchdale, Surprisingly, the largest opposition that were called the Halifax Ocean and Sandford Fleming’s Blenheim. The did not come from rich landowners, but Terminals. Area residents suffered not cut passed through Brinton Collins’s from Liberal supporters, led by The Morn- only from the noise and dirt, but also land and the former estate of Cunard’s ing Chronicle and small property owners, from an interruption in their water sup- Oaklands. as noted in the Cowie Report, who feared ply caused by the blasting. Temporary Oaklands Mansion was also in the that level crossings, smoke, and noise trestle bridges and footbridges were way, and the government of Canada ex- would reduce their neighbourhood from constructed at street crossings much to propriated the estate. The Mansion was “a good residential, aristocratic district to the residents’ annoyance. The two crews bought from Roderick Macdonald for 12 The Griffin • Heritage Trust of Nova Scotia only $1,250 by developer F. B. McCurdy. McCurdy thought he had a deal. He arranged for the house to be taken to a new site 400 metres away in Marlbor- ough Woods for $15,000. On the night of December 28, 1914, as it was perched on giant steel girders and two hundred jacks waiting to be moved, a fire broke out and raced through the building. The once grand home was now reduced to rubble. Workers continued their way through the Honourable Judge Ritchie’s Belmont property and the former Mather Byles’s Almon properties. The cut passed very near Elizabeth Cogswell’s house, The Oaks, later occupied by Premier Robert L. Stanfield, now owned by Saint Mary’s University, and through what was then Bowery Road, now part of Rogers Drive and Pine Hill Drive. Mrs. J. E. H. Binney’s Bridal Party, Rosebank, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1888. (Courtesy of Nova Scotia The railway cut through Tower Archives. Notman Studio NSARM accession no. 1983-310 number 65816) Road, necessitating the relocation of 764 Tower Road, once a farmhouse, a short directly in the path of the railway cut- Club and a number of buildings on distance from its original site to where ting. The Young Avenue bridge now Pleasant Street opposite Pleasant Av- it now stands. The cut passed between stands where Pine Grove House was enue near Freshwater were demolished Owen and Clarence Streets as well as once located. to make way for the shipping terminals. the rich, residential Young Avenue, In the early 1900s, few homes ex- By 1917, one track was completed which at the time had few homes. isted in the area, known as Greenbank, through the cut to the proposed site of Clarence Street, now known as the area between Young Avenue and the new train station -- fortunate timing, Harbourview Drive, on the east side of the harbour. The piers were constructed as relief trains were able to use it after Young Avenue, was obliterated. The end on the harbour side of Greenbank. By the Halifax Explosion in December 1917. of Plover Street, now South Bland Street, 1915, Greenbank had become a tarpa- The first train arrived at the temporary was cut off, as was the end of Acadia per village when the ICR built a railway station a year and a half later on De- Street, now McLean Street. Owen Street, shantytown without running water for cember 23, 1918. By 1920, much of the now Southwood Drive, was cut off at the workers near Brussels and Clarence construction had been completed. the eastern side of Young Avenue. Most Streets. The building of the railway cut of these streets, as well as View Street, In the Greenbank area, contractor resulted in geographically isolating parts were buried under the South End rail Sam Manners Brookfield’s Brookhurst, of the peninsula, creating opportuni- yard. View Street ran from Owen Street which stood at the south corner of ties for wealthy neighbourhoods to south to Miller Street, now Point Pleas- Pleasant Street, now Barrington Street develop on the Northwest Arm side ant Drive. Brussels Street, likewise, ran and Owen Street, was torn down from of the tracks because of their proxim- from Inglis Street to Miller Street, but the spot it had stood since 1898. The ity to that picturesque body of water. now ends at Atlantic Street. Pleasant Av- Parkside mansion, built the same year by Several great estates were cut up, and a enue, which once extended from Plover Henry G. Bauld, a former grocer and tea number of beautiful homes destroyed. Street to Pleasant Street, saw a number merchant, on the opposite north corner, Furthermore, the blasting out of mil- of homes on the south side of the street was also razed. lions of tons of bedrock led to infilling demolished. Mrs. William Bauld’s expansive white of parts of Halifax harbour and Bedford Pine Grove House, once owned mansion, next to Parkside, and John H. Basin to create railway yards and freight by Hon. Charles H. Cahan, Secretary of Bauld’s former house north of Parkside, and passenger ship docks. For all these State in the Bennett Government, but were similarly demolished. As well, the reasons, the railway cut has left a deep now belonging to D. MacDonald, was Trider family homes on Pleasant Street and permanent scar along the western demolished. It stood between Clarence were torn down in 1914. The Queen side of the city. and Owen Streets at 35 Young Avenue, Anne Revival Style Royal Halifax Yacht March 2013 13.