Halifax, Nova Scotia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This page is currently protected from editing until disputes have been resolved. Protection is not an endorsement of the current version (protection log). Please discuss changes on the talk page or request unprotection. You may use {{editprotected}} on the talk page to ask for an administrator to make an edit for you. |
- This article is about the city of Halifax, specifically. For the area of local governance, see Halifax Regional Municipality.
| Part of a series about Communities in Nova Scotia |
|
 |
 |
| Communities in Halifax Regional Municipality | |
| Halifax | |
Halifax in the Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia. |
|
| Community Statistics | |
| Area | 97.23 km² |
| Population | 119,292 * |
| Year Founded | 1749 |
| Other Information | |
| Postal Code FSA Range | B3H to B3S |
| Neighbourhoods in Community | |
| Downtown Halifax, The Hydrostone, North End Halifax, Quinpool district, Richmond, South End Halifax, Spring Garden, Armdale, Bayer's Lake, Beechwood Park, Birch Cove,Boulderwood, Bridgeview, Clayton Park, Convoy Place, Cowie Hill, Fairmount, Fairview, Fernleigh, Green Acres, Jollimore, Kent Park, Leiblin Park, Melville Cove, Mulgrave Park, Princes Lodge, Rockingham, Sherwood Heights, Sherwood Park, Spryfield, Thornhill, Wedgewood | |
| Governing Councils | |
| Halifax Regional Council | |
| Chebucto Community | |
| Peninsula Community | |
| Adjacent Counties | |
| NORTH | |
| Hants | |
| WEST | EAST |
| Lunenburg, | Guysbourgh |
| SOUTH | |
| Atlantic Ocean | |
| Nova Scotia Counties | |
| Annapolis, Antigonish, Cape Breton, Colchester, Cumberland, Digby, Guysbourgh, Lunenburg, Halifax, Hants, Inverness, Kings,Pictou, Queens, Richmond, Shelburne, Victoria, Yarmouth | |
| Footnotes | |
| * According to StatCan Census Year 2001 | |
Halifax (2001 pop.: 119,292 [1]) is the capital city of the province of Nova Scotia, Canada.
Halifax was founded by the British army [2] under the command of Edward Cornwallis in 1749 and incorporated as a city in 1841. Historically it was the shire town of Halifax County. Since 1 April 1996, though, the city has been an unincorporated "Metropolitan Area". On that date, the government of Nova Scotia dissolved all the municipalities within Halifax County, among them the City of Halifax, and formed Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM), a single-tier regional government covering that whole area. Thereupon, the City of Halifax ceased to be a legal entity, but Halifax was given its new status of by the provincial government.[3] Residents of Halifax are called Haligonians.
Contents |
History
- For information since 1996, consult the History of the Halifax Regional Municipality.
Rudyard Kipling paid homage to Halifax in his poem The Song of Cities:
-
- Into the mist my guardian prows put forth,
- Behind the mist my virgin ramparts lie,
- The Warden of the Honour of the North,
- Sleepless and veiled am I!
Halifax was established by the British to counter-balance the French presence in Québec and Acadia, which at the time included present-day New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton Island and the Gaspe Peninsula. For most of its early history, Halifax was the primary North Atlantic base for the Royal Navy, it prospered during times of conflict and languished during times of peace. Despite Halifax's status as the regional centre and colonial capital, the city had difficulty sustaining peacetime economic success in its early years.
Halifax only began to benefit from a process of increased rural depopulation and corresponding urban growth in Atlantic Canada during the late 20th century — a demographic shift that was delayed several decades in the region compared with other parts of North America. Today, Halifax is the centre of HRM's urban core and is benefiting from increased cultural and economic diversity.
Geography
The original settlements of Halifax occupied a small stretch of land inside a palisade at the foot of Citadel Hill on the Halifax Peninsula, a sub-peninsula of the much larger Chebucto Peninsula that extends into Halifax Harbour. Halifax subsequently grew to incorporate all of the north, south, and west ends of the peninsula with a central business district concentrated in the southeastern end along "The Narrows".
In 1969, the City of Halifax grew westward of the peninsula by amalgamating several communities from the surrounding Halifax County; namely Fairview, Rockingham, Spryfield, Purcell's Cove, and Armdale. These communities saw a number of modern subdivision developments during the late 1960s through to the 1990s, one of the earliest being the Clayton Park development at the southwestern edge of Rockingham.
Since amalgamation into HRM, "Halifax" has carried on meaning the area that was covered by the dissolved city government, Halifax Peninsula and Mainland Halifax, now officially a Metropolitan Area. The communities of Mainland Halifax that were amalgamated into the City of Halifax in 1969 are reasserting their identities, though.[citation needed]
Present-day neighbourhoods
Colloquial neighbourhood names
- Downtown Halifax
- North End Halifax
- West End, Halifax
- Quinpool district
- South End Halifax
- Spring Garden
Official neighbourhood names
- Armdale
- Bayer's Lake
- Beechwood Park
- Boulderwood
- Bridgeview
- Clayton Park
- Convoy Place
- Cowie Hill
- Fairmount
- Fairview
- Fernleigh
- Green Acres
- Hydrostone
- Jollimore
- Kent Park
- Leiblin Park
- Melville Cove
- Mulgrave Park
- Rockingham
- Sherwood Heights
- Sherwood Park
- Spryfield
- Thornhill
- Wedgewood
