In the Citadel’s Shadow

The Citadel has always dominated Halifax, casting quite a shadow over not only the city but also its history. In his classic study of Halifax, written in 1948 to commemorate the city’s 200th anniversary, Thomas Head Raddall saw the imposing fortress as a defining characteristic of the country’s largest Atlantic seaport. Like earlier chroniclers, Raddall presented Halifax as a “warrior city” known for its military and naval establishment and evolving through distinct imperial and Canadian stages of development. What he added was a colourful and alluring gallery of characters ranging from princes, privateers and soldiers to the “Brahmin” class of local aristocrats and assorted “riff-raff” on the waterfront. It was Raddall who, more than anyone else, explained Halifax to native Haligonians as well as to the wider world. Since then, Nova Scotia’s provincial capital has retained much of its “garrison mentality,” placing it outside the mainstream of Canadian urban development...