Halifax City Hall
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Halifax City Hall is home to Halifax Regional Council in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Located on Duke Street, the building was designed by Edward Elliot and erected ibetween 1887 and 1890. It is one of the oldest and largest public buildings in Nova Scotia. It is a plaqued National Historic Site.
The building is of cream and red sandstone, designed in an eclectic, monumental style. It features granite construction on the ground floor and in the tower. The seven-storey tower with clock faces on the north and south sides. The northern face of the clock, visible in the photograph, is fixed at four minutes past nine to commemorate the Halifax Explosion of 1917.
Council sits every second Tuesday.
[edit] History
The building sits at the northern end of the Grand Parade, an historic parade square dating from the founding of Halifax in 1749. In the nineteenth century, Dalhousie University was situated on the site, and for many years, the town and later city council argued for the public use of the site. Finally, an compromise was engineered by the then Premier of Nova Scotia Sir William Young to facilitate turnover of the site. The Province gave money to the university to erect a new building and the city granted the university a five acre parcel of land elsewhere in the city to permit the university to expand. The university building was demolished to make way for the new structure and timbers from the old building were incorporated into the new one.
Today the building is too small for most civic work. Most functions are in support of Councillors and the business of government occurs in other buildings, mainly Duke Tower (across the street) and Alderney Gate in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.
