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Originally Posted by Keith P.
Fairly remarkable that in the 1941 shot that streetcars were routed in two directions on the narrow tunnel of Granville St back then. Interesting to see that Granville was a shopping street at the time.
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When you look at the parked cars, it appears that there wouldn't be much clearance, but it seemed to work nonetheless.
That block isn't much of a shopping destination now, as it has been almost completely been taken over by offices (mostly banks). Unfortunately it is
now mostly a dead zone that you walk through in order to get to somewhere else.
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In the 1895 shot the second building in from the corner on the west (left) side is clad in unattractive wide clapboards and is already sagging in the middle. The mustachioed gentlemen with their bowler hats and cigars, and the newsies standing for the photo, are worth a smile.
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I guess there's no mystery as to why in the 1941 photo it had already been replaced with a masonry structure.
One thing that strikes me as interesting are all the overhead wires present in the 1895 photo. Some were for electrical, for sure, as
Halifax had its first generating station running in 1885 - which is interesting in its own as New York City had only received its first power generating station 3 years earlier (more evidence that Halifax was a vibrant city on the forefront in the late 1800s). Some were likely for
telegraph/telephone as well - each pole looks like it has the capacity to carry 80 wires, even more if they were able to be paired up. There were no rails on the street then as the rail service would have still been horse powered at the time - the Halifax Electric Tramway Company Limited was formed in 1895 as well. Also noted the dirt street surface, no cobblestones to be found in that area - one can just imagine how messy the muddy streets would have been just after the spring thaw...
It's interesting to note how grimy everything looks in both photos - especially the stone buildings. One would have to assume that most of it was due to the fact that most buildings were still heated by coal at the time.
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at least it used to be well-known until it was torn down to build the current "Roy" building) and well-known architect. I just find it interesting when I run across little bits of information like this:
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