Pier 21

Day 2 was my day to discover Pier 21 the very site where my father had arrived as a landed immigrant on July 13, 1949.

Canadian Museum of Immigration Pier 21



Pier 21 is a National Historic Site which was the gateway to Canada for one million immigrants between 1928 and 1971. It also served as the departure point for 500,000 Canadian Military personnel during the Second World War. Today, Pier 21 hosts the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21—Atlantic Canada’s only national museum!

 The T.S. Arosa Klum was the passenger ship my mother travelled on when she arrived in Quebec City.

 My father's ship was the General J.H. McRae. The resettlement officer issued his immigration visa from Munich Germany on June 2, 1949. He was to travel to the country of milk and honey to seek freedom from oppression. Entering and looking on to the harbour of Halifax, I can only imagine how he must of curiously observed his new homeland with much reverence.

After spending a day or two in Halifax seeing the sights, he boarded a train bound for the farmlands outside of Ottawa where he worked for a year as a farmhand and then on to Toronto.

Halifax, Nova Scotia Canada 2011

In July and August Peter was hired as the camera operator for a CBC pilot series called Mr. D. that was being filmed in Halifax. So I surprised him by flying out to spend a week with him while he was working. I had never been to the east coast before so I was anxious to see the city and visit Pier 21 where my father had landed some 70 odd years ago.
My walking tour began at Citadel Hill or more historically known as Fort George. The Citadel sits on the highest point of land looking down onto the harbour. It was actually completed not to long ago in 1856 after twenty eight years of construction.

Everyday at noon there is a ceremonial firing of the noon gun.

Fort George has a living history program featuring animators portraying life in the fort where soldiers of the 78th Highland Regiment, the Third Brigade of the Royal Artillery, soldiers wives, and civilian tradespersons re-enact life in 1869....not for the faint of heart I'm sure!

My next stop was the Public Gardens that is by far one of the best displays of a Victorian public park in North America.

The park has iron railings, a bandstand, winding paths, green lawns, trees, shrubs and elaborate carpet bedding displays. Today this park still remains one of the best escapes, a timeless reminder of what life was like before we all got too busy to smell the roses.

Proceeding on my walking tour I headed south and then on to Spring Garden Road and found myself infront of a magnificent granite faced church with a very tall spiral called St. Mary's Basilica.

St. Mary's Basilica

St. Mary's was consecrated on October 19, 1899. It was made a basilica by Pope Pius XII in 1950 and is the catholic church of the Archdiocese of Halifax.

Directly across from St. Mary's is a very interesting graveyard.

Located at the intersecting streets of Spring Garden and Barrington, The Old Burying Ground is a public park where walking between headstones is encouraged by the well kept green spaces. Over the decades some 12,000 people were interred but today only 1,200 headstones exist.