Provincial Registry of Heritage Property · Nova Scotia
Province House
Halifax, Halifax, Nova Scotia
The record
- Designation
- Provincially registered heritage property
- Type
- public
- Year built
- 1819
- Decade built
- 1810-1819
- Architect/designer
- Merrick, John
- Builder
- Scott, Richard
- Cultural association
- British Colonial
- Notice of registration date
- 11 March 1983
- Civic address
- 1726 Hollis Street
- Community
- Halifax
- County
- Halifax
- Province
- Nova Scotia
- Country
- Canada
- Coordinates
- 44.64800, -63.57335
- File number
- Prov_file_8
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
the building's 164 year history of service to this Province, the country's oldest and smallest seat of government, Nova Scotia's "Province House" survives as a witness to some of the most important legislative and judicial actions which have shaped the history of Nova Scotia, Canada and the entire British Commonwealth.
Character-defining elements
Exterior character-defining elements of Province House include:
- formal Classical Revival massing of a raised central bay with side wings;
- sandstone (quarried in Wallace, NS) façades with rusticated ground floor;
- central bay features six unfluted Ionic columns supporting pediments containing coat-of-arms (east side) and circular window (west side);
- side bays framed with Ionic pilasters supporting pediments containing oriel windows;
- Palladian symmetry, rhythm and reduced proportions in composition of three-storey façades;
- Palladian windows, Ionic pilasters and pediments on north and south elevations;
- round-headed, rectangular and false (niches) windows on east and west façades;
- dentil bracketing under eaves and pediments;
- sandstone veneer on rubblestone backup, with brick interior walls;
- semi-circular transom lights over front doors;
- truncated hipped roof;
- Boer War memorial statue in north yard;
- Joseph Howe memorial statue in south yard.
Nearby in the register
- Bank of Nova Scotia (Hollis)commercialunder 1 mi
- Art Gallery of Nova Scotiamuseumunder 1 mi
- Prince & Hollis Buildings (Halifax)commercialunder 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.