Founding a New Town and The Grand Parade

During that summer of 1749, surveyors laid out a gridiron pattern of streets running up the side of a broad steep hill, on which in the next century would arise the massive fortification, the Halifax Citadel. In the town’s centre the surveyors placed “The Parade”, which they envisaged to be anchored at its north and south ends by public buildings. Saint Paul’s Church was built on the south end with the first service held on 2 September 1750, but the north end would remain vacant until the construction of Dalhousie College in 1821.

1750 Plan of Halifax (Click to see full photo)
Courtesy of the National Archives of Canada, NMC 1012(B74331)

Next: Struggle for Civic Incorporation