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Swimming on Black Rock Beach in Point Pleasant Park in the 1970s.
[City of Halifax tourism slide]
Swimming in the Harbour is back, but what may not return to Black Rock Beach is day-long sun-tanning.
[City of Halifax tourism slide, 1970s]
Over on the Northwest Arm, the beach in Fairy's Cove at Sanford Fleming Park was a popular swimming spot.
[City of Halifax tourism slide, 1970s].
Beach near the Dingle, 1970s
[City of Halifax tourism slide]
Kids jumped from the seawall below the Memorial (Dingle) Tower
at Sanford Fleming Park in the 1970s.
[City of Halifax tourism slide, 1970s]
Earlier "Bathing" Facilities
With much of the Northwest Arm the preserve of private clubs and estates, public bathing houses were popular recreational destinations. Many city-dwellers took the tram down to the bottom of Quinpool Road to swim off Horseshoe Island.
Bathers enjoy the waters of Northwest Arm at Horseshoe Island on Regatta Day, 1912
[HRM Archives 102-106-1-7 (cropped from original)]
Below are plans from 1926 for the Bathing Beach at Horseshoe Island, and the Municipal Archives also holds plans for bathing houses from the 1870s and 1890s at Chain Rocks and off "the North Ferry Dock", where the Dockyards are now. These earlier municipal changing facilities probably encouraged hygiene as much as later efforts supported fitness and recreation.
Bathing Beach at Horseshoe Island, Jan. 20, 1926.
[City of Halifax Engineering Office plan #CC-8-5920]
This City Engineer's Office plan from 1926 shows where the changerooms, swimming platform with diving tower, and the docking wharves were. There was capacity for 50 women's and 50 men's changing rooms.
Detail from Bathing House at Horseshoe Island, January, 1926.
[City of Halifax Engineering Office plan #CC-8-5921]
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