{"id":363,"date":"2024-03-17T16:50:09","date_gmt":"2024-03-17T16:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lucyshyn.ca\/?page_id=363"},"modified":"2024-04-07T21:38:34","modified_gmt":"2024-04-07T21:38:34","slug":"pier-21-nope-pier-2-or-pier-3","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/lucyshyn.ca\/?page_id=363","title":{"rendered":"Pier 21 … nope Pier 2 or Pier 3?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

(excerpt from “Arriving at Halifax Before Pier 21” by Steve Schwinghamer, Historian) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The early arrangements for receiving passengers were rudimentary. Even a decade after the completion of the inland rail link, ocean passengers still usually landed in a cargo shed. The flow of people and baggage in and out of the shed meant that the shed doors were often left open, and in Halifax \u2013 mainly a winter port \u2013 this was a miserable situation for passengers waiting to be admitted, or to join their trains. Although the small waiting area was none too comfortable, the site did offer immigrants access to washrooms, and baggage and ticketing facilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Immigration officials looked to improve the accommodations in 1889. At the time, passengers disembarking at Halifax usually used the Deep Water Terminus, a number of wharves and sheds set up for freight and passenger transit from ship to rail by the Intercolonial Railway. It was at the edge of the North End of Halifax along the waterfront, near the city centre and just down the hill from the Halifax Commons and St. Patrick\u2019s Church. At the Deep Water Terminus, the rails curved away from the rough road running along the waterfront to serve the piers, including Piers 2 and 3. This left a triangle of open ground at the top of the piers, in which immigration authorities cooperated with railway agents to build a 200-foot-long immigration shed. The shed was complemented by an additional small out-building, offering a kitchen, dining rooms, and sleeping accommodations. This new facility for immigration at Pier 2 was completed in the winter of 1890.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In February 1897, the Intercolonial Railway opened new immigration quarters at Pier 2. The new pier was short and angled, making it not suitable for larger passenger liners. Given this shortcoming, steamship companies preferred to land their passengers at Pier 3, next to Pier 2. It was longer and served on one side by a wider basin \u2013 the basin shared with Pier 2 was narrow enough that having two ships in at once was the cause of damaging accidents. Although Pier 3 was better for ships, it was not suited for passenger arrival. People who disembarked at Pier 3 had to walk across railway tracks and through busy freight handling areas between the piers to reach the immigration quarters. It was also easy for authorities to lose track of arrivals as Pier 3 was not a secure space in any way \u2013 it was merely an open shed. Someone could very easily disembark and simply walk out without being examined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Besides the pier, the new building had some problems in its own right. Perhaps the chief complaint was the lack of detention quarters for inadmissible passengers. The building was also accessible to the general public, so immigration agents complained that \u201cidlers and loafers\u201d were a nuisance at the site, ranging through the entire facility and peering in the windows. During ship arrivals, the immigration officers complained that \u201ccrowds of people surround the building.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pier 2 was an important site of entry for many who arrived by sea to Canada during the period of time between the completion of the Halifax Rail Line and the opening of Pier 21. Early facilities were rudimentary, and complicated by factors such as winter weather and lack of detention quarters. Renovations undertaken before the First World War improved the space just in time to accommodate a surge of immigration, and the building became an embarkation point for Canadian service personnel until the War\u2019s end. Immigration operations moved to Pier 21 in 1928.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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(newspaper clipping “The Arcadia Arrives” from The Halifax Herald<\/em> – May 30, 1902)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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(excerpt from passengers list of the Arcadia May 13-29, 1902)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(excerpt from “Arriving at Halifax Before Pier 21” by Steve Schwinghamer, Historian) The early arrangements for receiving passengers were rudimentary. Even a decade after the completion of the inland rail link, ocean passengers still usually landed in a cargo shed. The flow of people and baggage in and out of the shed meant that the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-363","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lucyshyn.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lucyshyn.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lucyshyn.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lucyshyn.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lucyshyn.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=363"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lucyshyn.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":572,"href":"https:\/\/lucyshyn.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/363\/revisions\/572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lucyshyn.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}