Susanne Our guide went on to explain that in order to qualify for a formal Victorian garden, a green space would have to meet the following requirements:
– it would have to be more than 10 acres in size
– bridges would need to be wide enough to accommodate two women in hoop skirts, a high Victorian fashion
– the facility would need to have a bandstand, and
– two mated swans in a pond would be required to make it a true Victorian Garden.
The Bandstand
He pointed out that Hurricane Juan devastated the Halifax area; many of the old established trees in different parts of the city including the Public Gardens were destroyed. This public garden is a very historic place: its origins date back all the way to 1836 when the Nova Scotia Horticultural Society set out to create a public garden that would be “accessible to all classes”. The bandstand was erected in 1887 to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee while the Jubilee (Nymph) Fountain was erected in 1897 to honour Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee.
Jubilee Fountain
The pond in the heart of the gardens is called Griffin’s Pond and was named after a young Irishman who was actually hanged for murder on the east side of the pond in the 1830s. Allen pointed out a miniature model of the Titanic ocean liner that was floating on the pond which years ago was actually remote-controlled and could be directed all over this waterway. Halifax has a huge connection to the Titanic, as you will hear shortly.
After our 20 minute stopover at the Public Gardens we headed towards our next stop, another place of great historical significance: the Halifax Citadel. Again we had about 20 or 30 minutes to get out of the bus and explore the Citadel on foot. The admission price was included in the city tour. The Halifax Citadel is Canada’s is one of Canada’s most visited historic sites. Due to the strategic location of this hill overlooking the harbour, Citadel Hill was singled out very early on as a location for a fortress. The first fortification was built in 1761 while the current version was completed in 1856, after 30 years of construction.
The Halifax Citadel
The Citadel is a phenomenal vantage point for overlooking the city. The entire harbour area comes into view, and you can see all the way across the bay to Dartmouth. Allen pointed out that the Halifax Citadel was considered the “most terrible fortification” in British North America, and indeed no attempts to attack it were ever made.
Our group arrived just in time for the rifle presentation. Several “soldiers” (in reality they are Halifax university students) were dressed up in full historic military costumes, carrying rifles, and our group would get an actual demonstration of a real rifle shooting during our brief stopover. One of the young soldiers explained that the rifles weigh 8 to 9 pounds, and with the bayonette attached the weight goes up to about 13 pounds. He allowed me to lift the rifle which made me realize that this was definitely not light-weight combat. Then he proceeded to shoot the rifle several times against the citadel’s wall, creating several loud bangs that reverberated throughout the entire walled-in fortress.
After this quick stop we proceeded westwards through town where Allen pointed out Dalhousie University, one of the 5 major universities in town. We passed through a west-end neighbourhood where houses cost somewhere between C$800,000 and C$1,500,000 according to Allen. Our next and final stop during the tour was the Fairview Cemetery where Halifax’ connection to the Titanic disaster became most evident.
On the night of April 14, 1912, the Titanic, a brand-new and supposedly “unsinkable” ship, was on its maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City. The ship, the largest and most luxurious ocean liner of the day, was carrying about 2200 passengers and crew when the ship collided about 11:30 pm with an iceberg. The Titanic carried enough lifeboats for just about half the number of people which surprisingly was in compliance with legislation in force at that time. Many of the lifeboats were lowered into the ice-cold Atlantic only half full, and at about 2 am in the morning of April 15, 1912, the unfathomable happened: the ship’s stern rose up and the world’s first unsinkable ocean liner went down into the cold depths of the North Atlantic.
Fairview Lawn Cemetery, largest burial site of Titanic victims
Of a total of 2,223 people, only 706 survived while 1517 perished. Some of the famous victims included John Jacob Astor IV and most of the ship’s crew, including the entire orchestra who had played tunes on deck until the ship’s sinking. First class passengers had a much higher rate of survival than second and especially third class passengers. Some of the exits from the lower decks for the third class passengers were even locked, preventing many of those passengers from accessing the lifeboats.
In the aftermath of the disaster, at about 4:10 am, the RMS Carpathia picked up the first lifeboat and continued to rescue survivors. The survivors were eventually taken to New York City while a total of 328 bodies were eventually recovered. Many of those were taken to Halifax where they were meticulously registered with all descriptive features and personal possessions stored in a canvas bag. Halifax therefore became a key location in the aftermath of the Titanic disaster. 121 of these victims were buried at the Fairview Cemetery while 29 other victims were buried at the Roman Catholic Mount Olivet Cemetery and the Jewish Baron de Hirsch Cemetery.
Allen explains the history of the cemetery
