"Something More Durable. . .": The British Military’s Building of Wellington Barracks and Brick Construction in 19th-Century Halifax

FOR MORE THAN A CENTURY AFTER ITS FOUNDING in 1749, Halifax was built mostly of wood. Some brick and stone buildings were constructed over the years, especially along the waterfront. Most of these were stone, as were a few prominent public buildings, such as the lieutenant-governor's residence (completed in 1808), the legislature (completed in 1819), and St. Mary's Cathedral (completed in 1827).1 The majority of the city's buildings, however, were constructed of relatively cheap, plentifully available wood and covered with wooden shingles. Crowded along the downtown streets, these buildings were subject deterioration due the weather and liable destruction by fire, though Halifax escaped the sweeping conflagrations that devasted Quebec, Saint John and St. John's.2 Building construction changed in the second half of the 19th century as the city expanded and the economic base diversified following a period of unprecedented prosperity in the 1850s and 1860s. Expansion required more and larger buildings and, as Susan Buggey has noted, growing civic pride and social conscience resulted in efforts to upgrade the quality of the urban fabric.3 A series of devastating fires in the downtown between 1857 and 1861 was, perhaps, of most immediate impact. This impelled civic authorities pass stringent new fire regulations requiring builders use fire-resistant materials such as cast iron, stone and brick. The latter proved the most popular.4 Bricks became increasingly common as a building material in mid19th-century North America; Halifax, as well as Nova Scotia generally, was about join the mainstream. First, though, it needed an adequate supply of brick at reasonable prices.

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