This article is about the history of the former city of Dartmouth. For current information see Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia.
Dartmouth, founded in 1750, is a community and former city in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia.
Located on the eastern shore of Halifax Harbour, Dartmouth was a twin city to Halifax and was nicknamed the "City of Lakes." In 1996 the provincial government amalgamated all municipalities in Halifax County into a single tier regional government named Halifax Regional Municipality, commonly referred to as HRM. While Dartmouth, its neighbouring city of Halifax and the town of Bedford were disincorporated at this time, the former city forms part of the urban core of the larger HRM.
Residents of Dartmouth are known as Dartmouthians. The city population before amalgamation was 65,741.
Transportation
Dartmouth has been linked to Halifax by the oldest salt water ferry service in North America, with the first crossing created in 1752. During the early 1900s, ferries were used to shuttle between the downtown areas of Halifax and Dartmouth and carried both pedestrians and vehicles at the time. A railway trestle was built across Halifax Harbour in the late 1800s to bring rail service to Dartmouth however it was destroyed by a storm, requiring the present railway connection built around Bedford Basin.
In the early 1950s, construction started on the Angus L. Macdonald Bridge, one of Canada's longest suspension bridges, across Halifax Harbour. It opened in 1955, ushering in an unprecedented development boom in Dartmouth which continues to this day. New subdivisions, shopping centres, and office complexes and industrial parks have been built in recent decades. A second traffic crossing, the A. Murray MacKay Bridge was opened in 1970 and the Highway 111 circumferential freeway was built around Dartmouth to Eastern Passage at this time.
Geography
Neighbourhoods in Dartmouth
Military
Dartmouth has been home to several Department of National Defence installations:
- CFB Shearwater, an air force base, formerly known as Naval Air Station Halifax, RCAF Station Dartmouth, RCAF Station Shearwater, HMCS Shearwater, and RCNAS Shearwater.
- HMC Naval Radio Station Albro Lake, a radio transmitter/receiver facility.
- CFB Halifax adjunct, an area on the Dartmouth waterfront opposite HMC Dockyard.
- Wallis Heights, a military housing area in north-end Dartmouth
- Shannon Park, unused military housing area in north-end Dartmouth (the site for Halifax's bid for the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
- Canadian Forces Ammunition Depot Bedford, a munitions magazine for Maritime Forces Atlantic, located on the border between Dartmouth and Bedford.
History
In 1750, the sailing ship Alderney arrived with 151 immigrants. Municipal officials at Halifax decided that these new arrivals should be settled on the opposite side of Halifax Harbour in an area known to the Mi'kmaq as "Boonamoogwaddy" or "Tomcod Ground". The community was later given the English name of Dartmouth in honour of William Legge, the first Earl of Dartmouth and a former nobleman in the court of Queen Anne. By 1752, 53 families consisting of 193 people lived in the community.
Dartmouth continued to develop slowly. In 1785, at the end of the American Revolution, a group of Quakers from Nantucket arrived in Dartmouth to set up a whaling trade. They built homes, a Quaker meeting house, a wharf for their vessels and a factory to produce spermaceti candles and other products made from whale oil and carcasses. It was a profitable venture and the Quakers employed many local residents, but within ten years, around 1795, the whalers moved their operation to Wales. Other families soon arrived in the village of Dartmouth. The Hartshorne family, Loyalists who arrived in 1785, received a grant that included land bordering present-day Portland, King and Wentworth Streets. Their meeting house still exists, and is believed to be the oldest standing building in Dartmouth
By the early 1800s, Dartmouth consisted of about twenty-five families. Within twenty years, there were sixty houses, a church, gristmill, shipyards, saw mill, two inns and a bakery located near the harbour. In 1860, Starr Manufacturing Company was situated near the Shubenacadie Canal. The factory employed over 150 workers and manufactured ice skates, cut nails, vault doors, iron bridge work and other heavy iron products. The Mott's candy and soap factory, employing 100, opened at Hazelhurst (near present-day Hazelhurst and Newcastle Streets). Consumer Cordage, a rope factory on Wyse Road (which still stands, and barely survived the Halifax Explosion, and is now a pub), offered work to over 300, and the Symonds Foundry employed a further 50 to 100 people.
As the population grew, more houses were erected and new businesses established. Subdivisions such as Woodlawn, Woodside and Westphal developed on the outskirts of the town. Woodlawn was once part of the land purchased by a Loyalist, named Ebenezer Allen who became a prominent Dartmouth businessman. In 1786, he donated land near his estate to be used as a cemetery. Many early settlers are interred in the Woodlawn cemetery including the remains of the "Babes in the Woods," two sisters who wandered into the forest and perished.
Assorted Information
- Dartmouthians have celebrated a civic holiday known as "Natal Day" since August 1895. The concept originated as a means to celebrate the arrival of the railway, but construction of the railway tracks was incomplete on the appointed day. Since all the preparations for the festivities were ready, organizers decided to go ahead with a celebration of the municipality's birthday instead.
- In 1941 the Dartmouth Natal Committee decided to erect a cairn in honour of the spirit and courage of the first settlers to Dartmouth's shore. It is situated in Leighton Dillman Park, part of the common lands left to the community by the Quakers, and it overlooks the harbour where the first settlers built their homes. The monument stands three meters high and is constructed from rocks gathered on Martinique Beach. A plaque in front of the cairn is inscribed and describes the arrival of the Alderney "on August 12th, 1750 with 353 settlers."
- The oldest structure in Dartmouth is the house of William Ray, one of the whalers. It is located at 59 Ochterloney Street and is believed to have been built around 1785 or 1786. Today it is a museum, furnished as a typical modest dwelling of a merchant of that time. Guided tours are available during summer months.
- In February of 1752, the Connor family of Dartmouth started a ferry service. It was a large rowboat with sails, and passengers were summoned by a crewmember blowing on a conch shell. Improvements were made in 1816 with the arrival of the Sherbrooke, a 20-meter boat, powered by eight horses harnessed to iron stanchions that rotated the propeller sending the boat forward. The horses rested if the winds were favorable and sails could be raised. Samuel Cunard of the Cunard Shipping Lines managed to convince the city fathers in 1830 to trade in the horses for a steam-driven ferry. Ferries still criss-cross the harbour, but completion of the Angus L. MacDonald Bridge in 1955 provided an alternate method for travel between the two cities.
- Westphal was named for two brothers, Philip and George, who were born on the old Preston Road (Now known as Main Street/Prince Albert Road). During the 1790s both boys left home to join the navy, eventually becoming British Admirals.
- In 1955 the Angus L. MacDonald Bridge was opened. The bridge, named in honour of a former premier of the province, gave families greater access to the Dartmouth side of the harbour. New homes, businesses and factories were constructed in the growing town. In 1961, some of the smaller communities that bordered Dartmouth officially amalgamated with it, creating the city of Dartmouth. Dartmouth's population doubled in the next ten years as boundaries were extended farther and as new residents and businesses arrived following the opening of the A. Murray MacKay Bridge across the Narrows in 1969. In 1996, the City of Dartmouth became a part of the Halifax Regional Municipality.
- The city was not only a bedroom community for Halifax but also had commerce and small industries of its own, including a molasses plant dating back to the days of the "triangular trade" with the West Indies.
- Dartmouth is nicknamed "The City of Lakes". Boasting 23 lakes within its boundaries, Dartmouthians take special pride in the chain of lakes within its boundaries that form part of the Shubenacadie Canal. Most famous amongst these is Lake Banook, which provides an excellent location for recreation as well as attractive vistas. Dartmouth's most historic lake is the artificial Sullivan's Pond, located north-east of the downtown area on Ochterloney Street. It was dug in the 1830s as part of the Shubenacadie Canal to connect Halifax Harbour with Cobequid Bay on the Bay of Fundy.
- Gloria McCluskey was the last Mayor of Dartmouth, and now serves as a Councillor on HRM council representing District 5.
- Acclaimed playwright Wendy Lill represented Dartmouth as a two-term NDP Member of Parliament in the House of Commons in Ottawa.
- Matt Mays, a Canadian singer, is from Dartmouth and wrote the song "City of Lakes" as a tribute to his home.
- Joel Plaskett, a Canadian rocker, lives in Dartmouth.
- NHL referee Don Koharski is a Dartmouth native.
- Former NHL bruiser Hilliard Graves (California Golden Seals) hails from Dartmouth.
- Former MLB pitcher Vince Horsman (Oakland A's) is from Dartmouth.
- NHL goaltender Olaf Kolzig (Washington Capitals) played his midget league minor hockey in Dartmouth.
- Rock star Myles Goodwyn, of April Wine renown, hails from Waverley, a Dartmouth area neighbourhood.
- NHL player Sidney Crosby hails from Cole Harbour, a part of the Dartmouth area.
- The television show Trailer Park Boys is set in a fictional Dartmouth trailer park and filmed in Dartmouth and its environs. The show features actors (such as Robb Wells) and writers from Dartmouth. A documentary film about the creation and production of the Trailer Park Boys series is entitled Hearts of Dartmouth.
- To Haligonians, Dartmouth is often referred to "The Dirty D". This is because the people of Halifax believe Dartmouth is inferior and due to the crime/poverty of the area.