By Sarah Sawler | July 30, 2013

You likely know that Halifax is Canada’s largest city east of Quebec. It was founded in 1749 by Governor Edward Cornwallis and has more pubs per capita than any other city in Canada. (Although Montreal and St. John’s occasionally challenge that claim). There’s a cannon on Citadel Hill that fires every day at noon and a cartoon tugboat ambles around the harbour. But even though most of us know quite a bit about our fascinating, historic city, there are a lot of things you don’t know. Here’s 50 of them.

1. The Halifax-Dartmouth ferry service is the oldest continually operational saltwater ferry service in North America.

2. Until 1844, the Royal Navy hung pirates at Point Pleasant Park’s Black Rock Beach.

Photo: Gerry Lunn

3. In 1847, Andrew Downs purchased land near the Northwest Arm where, shortly after, he established North America’s first zoological garden.

4. Until the mid-1970s, men and women weren’t legally allowed to drink together in public.

5. On May 15, 1750, the first divorce in the colonies that would become Canada was registered in Halifax, between Lieutenant William Williams and Amy Williams. The court ruled in favour of Lieutenant Williams. Not only was his wife forbidden to remarry while he was still living, she was also ordered to leave the province within 10 days.

6. In 1937, Mary T. King was elected to represent District 27 (the rural north of Halifax County), making her Canada’s first female councillor in a rural municipality.

7. From 1996 to 1999, Halifax Pop Explosion was called “Halifax on Music.”

8. In 1912, people gathered in the Orpheus Theatre on Granville Street to watch 1,000 feet of “motion photographs” called Scenes Incidental to the Awful Titanic Disaster.

9. There are some 32 Volvos on the floor of the Bedford Basin. They sunk in 1969 after the container ship that was transporting them sustained water damage.

10. On February 18, 1919, six popular Chinese restaurants on Gottingen, Brunswick and Barrington streets were attacked and looted by hundreds of rioters. Newspaper editorials blamed returned soldiers, bootleggers and even German spies.

11. The first Halifax City Council spent their first two meetings debating the legitimacy of some of the candidates and whether or not all of the results were accurate.

12. In 1982, Bryson-Lysen released the song “MicMac Rotary Blues” (Solar Records), based on Dartmouth’s MicMac Rotary, which was replaced in the late 1980s by the Parclo.

13. The first black Canadian woman to receive the Governor General Award (1983), Dr. Marie Hamilton, is originally from Beechville.

14. On the evenings of October 8 and 9 in 1882, Oscar Wilde lectured at the Academy of Music, which stood where the Maritime Centre is now. More than 1,900 Haligonians attended the two lectures.

15. The first African Nova Scotian to be elected to the Halifax City Council was Thomas J. Johnson. He represented Preston Township from 1899 until 1901.

16. In the early days of its existence, Rockhead City Prison, which was located in the North End of Halifax, was a working farm.

17. One of Halifax’s early harbour ferries used a team of eight horses to turn its paddlewheels. In 1871, a drunken passenger caused an uproar and interrupted ferry service when he stabbed all eight horses.

18. In 1809, the Royal Navy hung pirate Edward Jordan at Black Rock Beach. They coated his body in tar and left the remains up for almost 20 years.

19. A 1952 city directory lists 44 Chinese-owned restaurants in the most bustling areas of Halifax and Dartmouth, including Gottingen Street.

20. In the 1960s, Dartmouth had a youth-elected Junior Council that met occasionally with Mayor Joe Zatzman.

- Read all 50 at HalifaxMagazine.com -

Writer’s note: I had a lot of help with this article. I began by contacting a variety of people, including archivists, professors and bartenders. My appreciation goes out to the following people who shared their knowledge and helped with research.
• Richard S. MacMichael, senior heritage interpreter, Maritime Museum of the Atlantic
• Joanne McCarthy O’Leary, local history and genealogy librarian, and the Reference Department at Spring Garden Road Memorial Public Library, Halifax Public Libraries
• Albert Lee, research associate at the Gorsebrook Research Institute for Atlantic Canada Studies, Saint Mary’s University
• Susan McClure, archivist, HRM Municipal Archives
• Jonny Stevens, executive director, Halifax Pop Explosion
Additional sources include A Collection of Nova Scotia Firsts by Ruth A. MacDonald, The Journey Continues: An Atlantic Canadian Black Experience by Craig Marshall Smith, Maritime Firsts by Dan Soucoup, Halifax’s Vital Signs 2012by The Community Foundation of Nova Scotia, Halifax Street Names, edited by Shelagh MacKenzie.