Doors Open Halifax

'Remember what Bilbo used to say: It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step out onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to' (J. R. R. Tolkien) 

   This weekend despite the downpour that visited Halifax I was able to muster the courage to lead the apartment, head out into the storm and participate in Halifax Doors Open 2013 and I have to say I wasn’t disappointed, only wet. So very, very wet. 

   Halifax Doors Open was the first of its kind in the city, taking after events that have been taking place in previous years in New York, Toronto and Ottawa. The idea is that places that are usually not open to the public, or at least not open in a come in and look at everything perspective are for one weekend not only open but staffed by volunteers who are happy to tell you the history, significance and general awesomeness of the building. I personally love visiting buildings old and new, as long as there is a story, quirk or draw behind them. So, having found out about this event the night before, I vowed to visit as many as possible. 

   I actually managed to visit over 2/3rds of the offerings, despite the rain (although I cheated and spread out my viewings over Saturday AND Sunday) and I have to say they were all pretty great. This post is going to feature the highlights of the places I went to that I have pictures for. I’m also going to mention two or three buildings that my camera ran out of battery for but were still really great. 

The life preserver was a recent addition to save people from the rain

   To start off I headed to the Maritime Command Museum hoping it could combine my interest in war memorabilia with models of boats, and I wasn’t disappointed! The Museum was originally the house of the Admiral in charge of Maritime Command, but was commissioned into a museum in 1974, as it turns out the Department of Defense operates fifty five museums across the country with the mandate to maintain the heritage of the Canadian Forces. Obviously the MCM focuses on naval history, complete with regalia, insignia’s and torpedoes.  

I can only imagine what kind of fights those sailors would get into over insignias. "Yeah well our boat is represented by a Viking!' 'Oh yeah, well our boat is represented by an arm out of water... SHUT UP'

   The first thing I noticed was the big table commanding a presence in the center of the first room. It turns out to be the table from the Officers Mess aboard the HMCS Uganda, which is notable for being the only ship to vote itself out of World War II. The idea was that it was mostly manned by conscripted personnel, and when the Allied forces won in Europe, Maritime Command was going to redeploy them on the Pacific Front. The conscripts however, had specified terms to serve until hostilities in Europe were ended. When the seamen made note of this, the officers put it to a vote among the service members, and they astonishingly voted themselves out of the conflict. This made them the only shop to vote itself out of a war without mutiny ever.

Well I guess that's that then, we're out of the war!

   The Museum was also full of really neat art and war memorabilia, there were models of ships and beautiful paintings that were owned by naval staff or donated at some point or another. There was also a model of an Aircraft Carrier which I discovered actually belonged to the Royal Canadian Navy, as it turns out during World War Two Canada possessed two Aircraft Carriers: The HMCS Warrior and the HMCS Magnificent both of which were transferred from the UK to Canada during World War Two. There was also the HMCS Bonaventure but she came later.

The HMCS Niobe, the first ship in the Canadian Navy, and the actual Captains desk!

   There were Torpedoes, Machinery, Pictures, Art but what really caught me off guard was the propaganda. Now I know that the World Wars were famous for their propaganda, but I always think of it in terms of the Great Powers. I never put much thought into what Canadian propaganda might look like, and it was hilarious. They had a whole section on the theme of how idle gossip could help spies, but of course the caricature portrayed them as Hitler and Mussolini actually listening into a conversation. I understand the implication but a picture with two ladies on the bus with the two dictators leaning in behind them conjures up the image of a doting mother saying to her kids ‘now be careful what you say in Public dears, you never know when Hitler might be listening!’

Also Hitler perpetually looks disgusted by everything you say, so there is also that.

   The next notable stop was the St. George Round Church, which turned out to indeed be very round. I thought it was interesting that it was not only celebrating the patron Saint George, but it was commissioned by King George the III. I have to say I unfortunately fall under the category of being overexposed to American culture and figure the ‘mad’ King wasn’t much a ruler, but his son the Duke of Kent was apparently a great contributor to interesting buildings in the New World, including the Round Church. 

From this angle it looks a bit like they built a round church and then tried to convert it into a power turbine

   The original building was completely round, and there were additions added to it later that lessened its roundness, but the actual worship area is quite stunning. The whole thing burned down in the 90’s and was the subject of a massive community fundraising effort to restore it, which I’m glad took place because it would have been terrible to consign this jewel to the history bin. 

It's like a legislative building, but with more Jesus praising and less character assassination, only a little less though.

   After the church, the next entry worth mentioning was Government House, which is the official residence of the Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia. Nestled between Barrington and Hollis streets, I’ve often walked or ridden past it and wondered what it was like inside and on Saturday I got that chance. As it turns out it was just as grand as I imagined. 

I'm going to build my own mansion, with hookers! And Blackjack! Actually... just forget the mansion

   It was actually built on the plot of land that was assigned for the provincial legislature building to be built on. This is in holding to the tradition that colonial administrators were jerks and really didn’t care about Responsible Government, the Lieutenant Governor commissioned Government House because the existing mansion wasn’t ‘grand enough’ for an officer of the monarchy. The provincial government would not only have to backstop the cost overruns of the extravagant Government House, they also had the convert the mansion vacated by the Lieutenant Governor into what is today Province House, the seat of government, and delayed their getting of a legislature by several years. 

Look at this guy, he's the kind of guy who would smile while he confiscated your family's livelihood. That's right, ALL the chickens

   Government House still operates as the residence of the current Lieutenant Governor and is the site of several gala’s and formal balls a year. It also houses foreign dignitaries when they come to visit, including Queen Elizabeth II (which is why I think so many people wanted to get into it even braving the pouring rain on Saturday).

   The house itself was very grand, featuring many rooms that only had one use and playing out like a Clue House (It had a Ball Room, a library, a bedroom, etc). Most notably we got to see the bedroom where Queen Elizabeth II actually slept in during her most recent 2008 visit to Canada. Many people oohed and ahhed about it, I simply took a picture. 

If you listen really closely, you can still hear Rule Britannia playing from the bedsheets

   I think what I liked most about it was the portraits, this building was full of them, including a great one of Queen Elizabeth the II but also featuring a very nice coastal scene in the main lobby. I also enjoyed the story that they had to reverse the entrance to the building from Hollis Street to Barrington Street because of activities that sailors on shore leave would be involved in. 

That's a great portrait of a face I see every day on the $20 bill

   Finally, I braved the trip across the bridge into Dartmouth and visited Environment Canada’s Weather Prediction Centre and Hurricane Centre (try saying that three times fast!) which was really cool because of the post tropical depression that was swinging by Halifax on that day. 

   The actual centre was pretty low key, but they had some pretty interesting tech there. They had a room that was directly wired into all the major networks so that reporters can just sit down and get an interview with whatever forecasting scientist they can get their hands on. 

This just in, weather is cool!

   There was also the actual prediction centre, which can house up to eight forecasters at once, which apparently they do get in there sometimes. The centre predicts weather for all of Atlantic Canada, so if there is a winter storm in New Brunswick, and freezing rain in PEI and blowing snow in Nova Scotia they have to track and report on all that. It was all very neat. 

I swear the Federal Government must have some sort of standing pool to see which department can come up with the longest name and get away with it

   Some other noteworthy sites were City Hall, Halifax Club and The Dominion Building. The Dominion Building stands out because it was Halifax’s first Skyscraper but also because it was one of the few public buildings dedicated to King Edward VIII, the Nazi sympathising monarch who reigned for only one year. As well, the Paramount Apartments had their penthouse suite open, and it was enormous. My camera had already died but I cannot impress you that for $4900 a month, you can have all the space in the centre of town on the 17^th floor, it was pretty impressive.

   Overall I was able to visit the Maritime Command Museum, The St. George Round Church, St. Patrick’s Church, The Jesuit Religious Education Centre, the Little Dutch Church, City Hall, Government House, The Scotiabank HQ, Halifax Club, University Club, The Halifax Women’s Centre, The Granary Apartments, The Penthouse of the Paramount Apartments and the Atlantic Hurricane Centre. It was a great experience and I hope they do it again next year to I can encourage more people to go!