Description of Historic Place

1724 Granville Street is a three-storey brick, stone and cast iron commercial building on Granville Street in downtown Halifax, Nova Scotia. Its early twentieth-century eclectic architectural style, incorporating Neo-Classical/Beaux Arts and Art Nouveau/Arts and Crafts influences, makes the building an important feature of downtown Halifax. The municipal designation extends to the building and the parcel of land it occupies.

Heritage Value

1724 Granville Street is valued for its association with the “Acadian Recorder” newspaper and its founding editor, Anthony Holland,; and for its mix of Classical Revival and Art Nouveau architecture.

1724 Granville Street was the headquarters of the “Acadian Recorder” from 1900 to 1930. One of the longest-running newspapers in Nova Scotia, it was founded in 1813 by Anthony Holland. There were about 80 newspapers operating in Nova Scotia between 1840 and 1867, but the Recorder was a trailblazer for providing political commentary and criticism. Holland modelled the paper after London’s “Political Register,” which exposed the misdemeanours of politicians for public scrutiny. He also established the Acadian Paper Mill on the Bedford Basin in the 1820s, which supplied paper for the newspaper.

Architecturally, 1724 Granville Street displays a mix of Neo-Classical/Beaux Arts and Art Nouveau/Arts and Crafts styles, which is uncommon in Halifax. The building’s Neo-Classical/Beaux Arts influence is illustrated in its classical symmetry and proportions, and details including cornices, pilasters, rooftop balustrade, entablatures over second-storey windows, and ornamental carvings and scrollwork. The Art Nouveau/Arts and Crafts details include canted bay windows and stylized geometric designs on the matching roof parapets.

Source: HRM Community Development Department, Heritage Property Program, 1724 Granville Street property file.

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of 1724 Granville Street include:

- three-storeys with flat roof;
- symmetrical four-bay façade with recessed centre bays;
- side bays (brick) culminate in parapets with stylized geometric designs;
- centre bays (cast iron) divided by central column/pilaster (brick);
- rooftop entablature with frieze (brick), projecting cornice (copper clad) and balustrade (cast iron);
- light coloured brick on side bays in alternating wide and narrow courses with channelled joints culminating in radiating voussoirs with central keystones over third storey arched windows;
- second storey windows on side bays have classical entablature caps with scroll brackets, and sills, all in sandstone;
- central bays have canted bay windows with transoms, thick mullions, and wide, panelled spandrels, in cast iron;
- central column/pilaster with Ionic capital with carved human head motif;
- central bays framed by Ionic pilasters;
- first floor level defined by cornice and frieze with carved animal head and brackets, all in sandstone;
- structural bays on ground floor defined by brick piers with granite plinths.