Rehabilitation Programme and Halifax Hall

Council approved in 1980 a five-year City Hall Rehabilitation Programme. Its purpose was to undertake much-needed work in a comprehensive manner, as opposed to the piecemeal approach of the past. On the exterior, the stonework was repaired and the windows replaced. In the interior, extensive changes were made to ensure space was better used and generally to improve civic operations.

One of the recommendations of a 1983 report by a citizens Advisory Committee on City Hall Renovations was for a reception hall. Council accepted this recommendation. Vacant space on the main floor at the east end, formerly used by Halifax Transit, was completely renovated to create Halifax Hall. Interior finishes for it were purchased from around the globe: pewter chandeliers from Spain; main hallway lights from Alabama; chairs manufactured in Quebec, while the laser die for the Halifax crests on them came from Czechoslovakia; and the carpet from the Crossley carpet factory in nearby Truro.

For a decade and an half Halifax Hall has been the setting for such civic receptions as the annual New Years Day levee and the Mayor’s teas for visiting tourists. Organizations like the Halifax Charitable Irish Society, founded in 1786, hold their meetings in the hall. As well, the hall has been used for such varied purposes as book launchings and blood clinics. Halifax Hall has become as much a public space as the Grand Parade.

In 1998, structural repairs were done to the roof and tower and both re-coppered. A year later the Halifax Foundation, a community foundation serving the Halifax Regional Municipality, placed two clock faces in the tower, one permanently fixed at the exact moment, 9:04.35 on the morning of 6 December 1917, of the Halifax Explosion.

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