Provincial Registry of Heritage Property · Nova Scotia
Bank of Nova Scotia (Hollis)
Halifax, Halifax, Nova Scotia
The record
- Designation
- Provincially registered heritage property
- Type
- commercial
- Year built
- 1931
- Decade built
- 1930-1939
- Architect/designer
- Bank of Nova Scotia
- Builder
- Ira Lake
- Notice of registration date
- 11 September 1986
- Civic address
- 1709 Hollis Street
- Community
- Halifax
- County
- Halifax
- Province
- Nova Scotia
- Country
- Canada
- Coordinates
- 44.64785, -63.57257
- File number
- Prov_file_52
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, David Rumsey Map Center, Stanford LibrariesRoe Brothers, Atlas of the Maritime Provinces (1879) / Internet ArchiveDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries
5 historical maps cover this location, the earliest the 1763 map "Plan De La Baye De Chibouctou : nommée par les Anglois Halifax" (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).
Historical maps covering this location
- 1763 · Plan De La Baye De Chibouctou : nommée par les Anglois Halifax (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
- 1878 · Halifax, N.S. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
- 1879 · County of Halifax, Nova Scotia (Roe Brothers Atlas of the Maritime Provinces) (David Rumsey Map Collection, David Rumsey Map Center, Stanford Libraries)
- 1879 · County of Hants, Nova Scotia (Roe Brothers Atlas of the Maritime Provinces) (Roe Brothers, Atlas of the Maritime Provinces (1879) / Internet Archive)
- 1906 · No. 39, Halifax (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
The Province of Nova Scotia's Registered Heritage Properties dataset ↗
The Province's registration record
Reason for registration
is one of the finest Canadian Art Deco buildings, in which the architect, John Lyle, successfully combined the spirit of Canadian nationalism, with that of modernism, to design what is considered as a "complex and rich a building as has ever been built in this country.
Character-defining elements
The character-defining elements of the Bank of Nova Scotia relate to its Art Deco style and include:
- six-storey, steel frame construction, with exterior walls of Bedford limestone;
- central location and form and massing that complement neighbouring buildings;
- exterior stone carvings and metal castings depicting the fauna and flora of the Maritimes and symbols appropriate for a bank;
- large, bronze front doors;
- traditional pilasters rising from channeled stonework;
- symetrically placed, slightly inset windows;
- codfish incorporated into window grilles;
- stone panels depicting the workings of the Sydney steel plant and a clipper ship in full sail on the Prince Street side;
- mammoth Canadian coins emblazoned on the central frieze beneath the roof cornice.
Nearby in the register
- Prince & Hollis Buildings (Halifax)commercialunder 1 mi
- Art Gallery of Nova Scotiamuseumunder 1 mi
- Province Housepublicunder 1 mi
- St. Paul's Anglican Churchchurchunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.