Upgrades coming to Camp Hill Cemetery and Central Library

Upgrades are coming to Halifax’s Camp Hill Cemetery and Central Library on Spring Garden Road.

A municipal spokesperson said Wednesday the old iron fence on the perimeter of the cemetery needs fixing, which will include replacing parts of it.

“This work is required as sections of the fence are deteriorating,” Klara Needler told CityNews Halifax via email.

She said part of the goal is to retain “as much of the original material as possible.” The approved budget for the project is $650,000, Needler said.

The fence rehabilitation should be finished this year or next, she said.

Wrought iron fencing surrounding the site has replaced a long-gone wooden fence. The current fence includes granite posts marking entrances to the graveyard.

Work at the downtown library is being done on the courtyard behind the building. The makeover is expected to be completed by the end of this month.

A spokesperson for Halifax Public Libraries said the public plaza’s original design “did not invite people to stay and enjoy the outdoor space.”

Senior service manager Kathleen Peverill said the improvement project “involves adding new greenery, lighting, bench seating and sun sails for shade.” The plaza in the immediate future will be a fresh-air site for the library’s summer programming.

“The use of outdoor spaces has become increasingly important to help reduce the spread of COVID-19, another reason why this project is so important,” Peverill said in an email.

She said the cost of the refurbishment is about $260,000.

Roughly half of that “has been covered by donations from community members and organizations and the other half is funded through the library’s operating budget,” said Peverill.

At Camp Hill Cemetery, which the former City of Halifax opened in 1844, the site has seen more than 30,000 burials; about 5,000 graves are marked.

“Less fortunate and marginalized members of the public were not always provided grave markers,” a 2021 municipal staff report said, “and inconsistent record keeping means that there are many thousands more people buried in the cemetery than are presently documented.”

In 2019, Halifax Regional Municipality closed the graveyard temporarily due to damage caused by hurricane-force winds from post-tropical storm Dorian. Headstones were roughed up, trees were uprooted and much debris was left after the storm.

At least two gaps in the cemetery’s fence were temporarily filled with chain-link fencing following Dorian’s arrival.

The municipality’s Central Library, which cost around $57 million, opened in 2014. It has two public plazas, one on the north side of the building and another on the south side.

Peverill said the library’s back plaza “has not been well used” compared to the one facing Spring Garden Road.

“It is a large piece of real estate in a busy downtown neighbourhood and it was a missed opportunity,” she said, of the design and construction of the rear courtyard.

“We are looking forward to using the (upgraded) space, with added greenery and seating” for various events for adults and children, Peverill said.

Michael Lightstone is a freelance reporter living in Dartmouth