Description of Historic Place

Melville Island and Deadman’s Island National Historic Site of Canada is located on the south shore near the head of Northwest Arm, Halifax, Nova Scotia. Deadman’s Island is a small, treed park with no buildings. Melville Island features a yacht club with a club house in landscaped grounds, out-buildings, and wharves. Both islands are small peninsulas connected to the mainland. Melville Island was the site of prisoner of war camps during the Napoleonic Wars, the War of 1812, and the First World War. Deadman’s Island, separated from Melville Island by Deadman’s Cove, is the likely burial site of prisoners of war who died while detained on Melville Island. Remaining original structures are the 1805 officers’ house, incorporated within Armdale yacht club clubhouse, and a small stone prison from 1884. Official recognition refers to the peninsulas and historic built remains, excluding causeways and mainland portions.

Heritage Value

Melville Island and Deadman’s Island was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 2014. They are recognized because:

- they represent Nova Scotia’s role in a system of war prisons, established by the British Admiralty, based upon international agreements on the treatment of prisoners of war. As such it is the only known site in this country of such an establishment during the French Revolutionary wars and the War of 1812;
- as a wartime internment centre and a military prison, as well as the likely burial place of nearly 400 individuals, this area offers a rare glimpse of prisoner of war conditions and military detention for over a century and a half.

Melville Island is the only site known to date in North America of an establishment for housing prisoners of war during the Napoleonic wars and the War of 1812. Melville Island’s geography made it an ideal isolated detention and quarantine facility. Deadman’s Island was used to inter prisoners that died from wartime injury or disease. Following the War of 1812, formerly enslaved African American refugees were fed, clothed, and received medical care on Melville Island. Melville Island also played a role in early migration and immigration into this country, receiving Irish refugees in 1847, many suffering from typhus. Evidence suggests approximately 400 people died on Melville Island between 1795 and 1855. Beginning in 1856 and for the next 50 years, Melville Island served as a British military prison for soldiers charged with military offences. In 1905 the facility transferred from the navy to the British army and the Canadian permanent force assumed charge. During the First World War German and Austro-Hungarian prisoners were interned on Melville Island. A 1935 fire and later reconstruction and demolitions removed most historic buildings. In the Second World War Melville Island was used for ammunition storage. The officers` building, serving as the clubhouse of Armdale yacht club since 1945, remained relatively unchanged until enlarged in 1952 and 1960. Deadman’s Island, the likely burial place of many of those who died during internment, was designated a municipal park in 1999.

Source: Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, Minutes, December 2011.

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements contributing to the heritage value of this site include:
- the site’s location on the south shore near the head of Northwest Arm, Halifax;
- the coastal setting;
- the geography and visual character of Melville Island’s 1.7 hectares with small hill rising 10-12 metres above sea level located west of Deadman’s Cove;
- the geography and visual character of Deadman’s island, a small peninsula of 1.01 hectares, with a treed hill, rising 12 metres above sea level, located east of Deadman’s Cove;
- remaining original interior and exterior elements of the 1805-1806 officers’ building, including the upper floor, upper floor window openings, the steeply pitched gable roofline, east facing central dormer, and two brick chimneys;
- the small, two-storey 1884 stone prison approximately 30x10 metres, with rubble stone walls, flat roof, dark stone quoins, stone and red brick detailing, and small jail cell windows with original iron gratings in the longer elevations;
- any remaining undiscovered features or remains relating to the island’s period of use as a holding centre;
- unimpeded viewscapes between Melville Island and Deadman’s Island, and to and from the site.