Not Your Grandfathers Mining Industry, Nova Scotia, Canada

Halifax County Court House

Mining built Nova Scotia!

Halifax was founded in 1749 and its first court house is reported to have been built by 1754 on the north-eastern corner of Buckingham and Argyle streets. After the building burned in 1789, the courts were temporarily housed in various buildings.

In April 1851, a bill to provide Halifax with a county court house was passed and H.G. Hill, a Halifax architect, prepared a plan for a wooden building.

However, since the records of the county, wills, deeds and other papers of public office were to be stored in the court house, it was important that the building be fire-proof. Also, a number of serious fires in Halifax in 1857 led to the passage of a bylaw that required large buildings be made of stone or brick, so Hill's plans for a wooden building were abandoned.

New plans for a stone building were prepared by Architects W. Thomas & Sons of Toronto and George Laing, a prominent builder in Halifax during the late 1850s and 1860s, was chosen to build it.

Laing was born in Scotland and immigrated to Halifax in 1858 after spending some time living in both Newfoundland and New Brunswick. He operated the Albert Freestone Quarries in New Brunswick. His Halifax buildings include the Halifax Club and Keith Hall for brewer and politician, Alexander Keith.

Laing also made the monument in St. Paul’s Cemetery (aka the Old Burying Ground) which commemorated the Crimean War, specifically Major Augustus Welsford of the 97th Regiment and Captain William Parker of the 77th Regiment, who both died in 1855 at the storming of the Redan fortification at Sevastopol, known at the time as Sebastopol. Welsford and Parker were two of a number of Nova Scotians who volunteered to serve in the war. The Sebastopol Monument is pictured below with its distinctive lion statue on top.

The Halifax County Court House (aka the Halifax Provincial Court at 5250 Spring Garden Road), was made of sandstone from Wallace, Cumberland County, and was completed in 1862.

Sandstone from the Wallace area has been used in many of Nova Scotia’s most beautiful historic buildings, including Government House, the office and residence of the lieutenant governor, Nova Scotia’s legislature and countless others. In the modern era, Wallace sandstone has been used in buildings like Queen’s Marque in downtown Halifax.

Sandstone production began in the early 1800s on the east side of the Wallace River, just north and south of where the Wallace River Railway Swing Bridge was later built in 1883. The focus of production in the Wallace area later shifted to what are now called the Wallace Quarries, about four miles east of the Wallace River, in the village of Wallace.

The Halifax County Court House has six courtrooms, judges’ chambers, administration offices and the Provincial Crown. The historic character of the court house remains and ongoing renovations and upgrades are designed ensure they honour the original architecture design while at the same time providing efficient modern-day court functions.