First on our list is 2435 Brunswick Street (photo below from about 1967) which was a Dutch cottage built in about 1800.
As you can see from the photo we took, it has undergone many renovations and expansions over the years - it is currently known as Hope Cottage, a soup kitchen for the homeless.
We next came across a small classic-looking church. Brunswick Street was the original main street of Halifax and had a lot of German-speaking settlers. This church is referred to as "The Little Dutch Church" and it was built in 1756.
There was quite a bit of historical information on site regarding the church, including old photos:
Behind the church was a beautiful little graveyard - we didn't even know it was there because you can't really see it from the street. I'm sure people that live in the area are familiar with it but we normally just drive past it. We wandered among the stones and it reminded me of when as a child we used to ramble through cemeteries trying to find the best epitaphs. I love the ones that have stories about heroic deeds or poems about their lives or details about how they died.
Apparently severe bodily pain can purify you - not sure if you have to suffer for 12 months or if you can be purified sooner than that, though...
Rapture, or zombies?
The West House (2319-2323 Brunswick St) was built around 1865 and housed the West family who were prominent merchants in Halifax at that time.
It looks virtually the same now as in the above photo (taken about 1967) and we were particularly captivated by the sculptured heads on top of the windowsills.
We then looked for this house - 2309 Brunswick Street, which apparently was an example of a "Halifax House", a distinct regional type of domestic architecture. This picture was also taken around 1967:
When we reached this location we were disappointed to find that this civic address now belongs to Ocean Towers and the original building appears to be long gone.
We passed by the Jesuit Centre, which was very colourful - there were a lot of churches in this area, some we didn't take photos of since that wasn't really the purpose of today's stroll through the town.
This intriguing monument was also here:
Our next stop was 2229 Brunswick Street (photo below from 1967). It was built around 1850 for Maria Ott Beamish who was the aunt of two Nova Scotia historians.
It looks little changed now from the old photo, however I think it looked more stately with the wrought iron fence than it does now. It also looked smaller to me than the photo - perhaps the columns make it look bigger than it really is?
Our last stop was St George's Round Church which was built by Edward Duke of Kent around 1825 who apparently came to Halifax and kept building things that were shaped like breasts. He was inspired by the Palladian style of architecture and had a mistress here that may have inspired him to build the rotunda and the Citadel Hill Town Clock, the Music Pavillion (rotunda) and heart-shaped pond at the Prince's Lodge Estate, and the Martello Tower in Point Pleasant Park.
The church is quite large and has some historical information outside on boards:
There was a fire here in 1994 which caused significant damage to the church. The community pulled together at the time and donations came in from all over Canada to fund renovations in order to keep this historical building.
It got darker and we started to head home when we saw a sign that appeared to be for a Russian church though we had a hard time figuring out which building it belonged to - maybe it was for several connected properties?
I was surprised at what we found as I have been up and down Brunswick Street many many times over the years. Things look so different from behind the wheel of a car.
