HISTORY
of
EASTERN PASSAGE


EASTERN PASSAGE ,Halifax County - This place is located on the eastern side of the Eastern Passage of Halifax Harbour and takes its name from this water-way. Surveys were made in 1772 for Joseph Chadwick, Benjamin Gerrish, Jacob Hurd at South East Passage. Most of the land in the area was granted about 1785. Land at South Eastern Passage was surveyed for Martin Soward, Lieutenant Joseph Hawkins, and Colonel Hamilton.

A combined school-house-meeting hall was erected at South East Passage in 1827.

St.Peter's Anglican Church, Eastern Passage, was built about1832. It was destroyed by fire on August 19, 1960. The new St.Peter's Church was opened and dedicated on November 1, 1965. St. Andrew's Roman Catholic Church was dedicated on June 20, 1850.

A school, with Daniel Sutherland as teacher, was established on November 1,1821, and a building used for school and worship was built in 1827. There was an "unfinished" school at South East Passage in November, 1857. A new 2-room school was built at South East Passage in 1949. In Wellington section, which included all, or part of Imperoyal, and was sometimes called Wellington, Eastern Passage, schools were built in 1919 and in 1945. The new ,seven-room Tallahassee school was in operation by December,1958. Ocean View School was built at Eastern Passage in 1965-66.

A Postal Way Office was established at South Eastern Passage in 1866. A Post Office building in Eastern Passage was built in 1965.

In the summer of 1918 the Canadian Government built an airbase for the use of American naval aircraft. In 1919 it was turned over to the Canadians and became Shearwater Naval Air Station. In 1955, one hundred new homes for personnel were begun, and an independant post office was established.

In 1864 the Confederate raider,Tallahassee, became trapped in Halifax Harbour by Union ships waiting outside the harbour until she finished restocking and refitting. She escaped sucessfully, however, through the Eastern Passage, under the expert piloting of Jock Fleming.

Fairey Aviation Limited began operations in April, 1949 in a building which had been used by the R.C.A.F. and Clark-Ruse Aircraft Company since 1941. The new Texaco Oil Refinery was opened in June ,1964.

The new Ocean View Municipal Home was officially opened in January, 1968.

The population in 1956 was : Eastern Passage, 682, South East Passage, 543.

Source: PLACE NAMES AND PLACES OF NOVA SCOTIA (1967)
� Dr. C. B. Ferguson and the Public Archives of Nova Scotia.
Used with permission.



For additional information, try the link below which will take you to the
Halifax County site. Anna MacDonald has transcribed articles that appeared
in the Dartmouth Patriot in 1901 by H.E. Hewitt .


Hewitt Histories


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