The Grand Parade (sometimes incorrectly referred to as "Parade Square") is an historic military parade square dating from the founding of Halifax in 1749. At the north end of the Grand Parade is the Halifax City Hall, the seat of municipal government in Nova Scotia's Halifax Regional Municipality. At the south end is St. Paul's Church. In the middle of Grand Parade is the cenotaph built originally to commemorate the soldiers who served in World War I.
Centrally located in Downtown Halifax, the square remains an important civic space used for numerous events including musical performances, political demonstrations, the annual New Year's Eve celebrations, Remembrance Day ceremonies, and Christmas tree lighting.
History
18th century
The first contingent of British settlers in Halifax arrived in June 1749 and completed 300 houses by October 1749. Lieutenant John Brewse, a military engineer, sited the town within a defensive perimeter while Charles Morris, appointed Chief Surveyor on 25 September 1749, worked on the town layout and probably conducted the actual surveying. Moses Harris, a settler skilled in draughting, published the town plan for Halifax in 1749. It comprised an urban grid made up of oblong, rectangular city blocks with the Grand Parade at the centre of the town. The plan stipulated a church at one end of the square (opened 1750), and a courthouse and prison at the northern end. However, the north end remained vacant.
Shortly after arriving in Halifax, Governor Cornwallis ordered framing from Boston for the construction of a church. The cornerstone for the church was laid on 13 June 1750. It was named St. Paul's in 1759 when a parish of that name was established. The building was modeled off Marybone Chapel in London.
In 1794 Prince Edward arrived in Halifax to command the military in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. He set about improving the military facilities around the city, and had the Grand Parade leveled to improve its usefulness. As Barrington Street slopes down toward the north of Grand Parade, a retaining wall was built here to keep the square level. The retaining wall is tall enough to accommodate inhabitable space underneath the square, with frontage on Barrington. This space originally accommodated ice houses for Mrs. Jane Donaldson, a Granville Street merchant.
19th century
The original building of Dalhousie College (now Dalhousie University) opened at the north end of the Grand Parade in 1821. It was a Georgian four storey building separated from the square by a dry moat to allow light to the lower floors. As the 19th century progressed the Grand Parade deteriorated. Dalhousie claimed to lack the funds to upkeep the space while the city claimed it could not take responsibility for the square without undisputed ownership of it. Meanwhile, city offices and council chambers were located at premises on Water Street described at the time as "a trifle porous", "disreputable looking", and "a dirty hole". In 1872 the council asked E.H. Keating, the city engineer, to investigate ways to improve the Grand Parade. Keating suggested building a new city hall at the south end of the site. Public opinion preferred the Dalhousie site, at the north end of the square. In the end, Dalhousie agreed to relocated to the city's South End and a decision was made to build a "respectable building" on the site of the college. At this time Mayor James MacIntosh suggested renaming the square after Queen Victoria as the name Grand Parade bore connotations to a "condition of decay". This was not pursued.
A new edifice was designed by Edward Elliot. Demolition of the old college began in 1886. The cornerstone of the new city hall was laid in 1888. Following the completion of the building, Keating completely redesigned the layout of the square to more suitably reflect its new civic role. He built a circular carriage drive that began at Barrington Street and looped in front of City Hall. The retaining wall on Barrington was rebuilt at this time.
20th century
Keating's plan also specified a circular fountain that was not built until 1905. It was removed to make way for the Cenotaph, officially unveiled on July 1, 1929 by Sir Robert Borden. The Cenotaph, honouring Canada's war dead, was designed by Scottish sculptor J. Massey Rhind.
In 1907 the retaining wall on Barrington Street was augmented to include a stable. There were also plans to build public toilets south of the stable but these were not proceeded with. Later this undercroft space became a police patrol station that operated until 1952. This space is currently walled off and unused.