Pier 21

Coordinates: 44°38′16″N 63°33′57″W / 44.63778°N 63.56583°W / 44.63778; -63.56583
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Pier 21
Pier 21 in 1934 with RMS Majestic
LocationHalifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Coordinates44°38′16″N 63°33′57″W / 44.63778°N 63.56583°W / 44.63778; -63.56583
Area221,000 square feet (20,500 m2)
Built1928
Official namePier 21 National Historic Site of Canada
DesignatedSeptember 22, 1997
Pier 21 is located in Nova Scotia
Pier 21
Location of Pier 21 in Nova Scotia
Pier 21 is located in Canada
Pier 21
Pier 21 (Canada)
Pier 21 is located in North America
Pier 21
Pier 21 (North America)

Pier 21 is a former

Nova Scotia College of Art and Design
as well as various retail and studio tenants.

Background

hospital ships in World War I. However, by 1913, the peak year of immigration in Canada, it was clear that the growing size of ocean liners and increase in immigration would require a larger facility. Plans were made for a new integrated ocean liner and railway facility in the South End of Halifax.[3]

Construction

Construction was delayed by World War I and the Halifax Explosion. However, by 1928 the Halifax Harbour Commission oversaw the completion of ocean terminals, a large complex of freight piers, grain elevators, a new train station and a 600-foot (183 m), two-story shed that would be home to Pier 21. The shed had an area of 221,000 square feet (20,500 m2)[4] for freight, and was built of steel truss-work with brick walls and wood roofs. It was divided into Pier 20, 21, and 22, and faced a long sea wall which could handle the biggest ocean liners in operation.

The Red Cross Nursery in the Pier 21 Annex, 1948

The immigration facility on the second floor of the shed at Pier 21 housed the assembly hall for immigrants, as well as medical and detention quarters. Adjacent to the Pier 21 shed was a two-story, brick annex building connected to the shed by an overhead walkway. The annex contained immigration offices, customs, a railway booking office and telegraph office as well as offices for immigration charities such as the

Ocean Limited.[5]

History

New arrivals at Pier 21 in 1952

Pier 21 opened on March 8, 1928, and the Holland America liner SS Nieuw Amsterdam (1905) became the first ship to bring immigrants to Canada through the new terminal. Pier 21 opened for business at the same time that Canada launched a fleet of ocean liners called "the Lady Boats" based at Pier 21 and operated by the Canadian National Steamship Line, introduced to the public at a special lunch, press conference and tour for travel agents hosted by RMS Lady Nelson at Pier 21 on November 27, 1928 where the immigration facility was acclaimed as "the finest on the continent" designed to give Canada a competitive presence in Atlantic travel routes.[6]

Pier 21 would serve as a passenger terminal for trans-Atlantic Ocean liners from 1928 until 1971. The Pier was the primary point of entry for nearly one million immigrants[4] and refugees from Europe and elsewhere, as well as the departure point for 496,000 military personnel Canadian troops during World War II. The facility became known informally as the 'Gateway to Canada.'

In its first years of operation, Pier 21 greeted many Dutch and English immigrants as well as workers sponsored by employers. However the Great Depression led to severe restrictions in immigration, and so arrival numbers fell. Pier 21 became a cruise ship destination during the Depression as giant liners were employed in summer recreational cruises from New York to Halifax, Nova Scotia during slack periods of Trans-Atlantic crossings. Pier 21 hosted the largest White Star liners such as RMS Olympic and RMS Majestic[7] as well as the Cunard liners RMS Berengaria, RMS Mauretania, RMS Aquitania and the Red Star Line's Belgenland.[8]

World War II

Letitia as a hospital ship arriving at Pier 21

The war almost completely halted immigration, but Pier 21 quickly became a major embarkation port for troop ships. Canadians and other

war brides. A large fire heavily damaged Pier 21 on March 5, 1944 causing the central portion of the facility to be rebuilt in time to handle returning soldiers and war brides in 1945.[11]

Postwar

The Pier 21 complex in 2014 with a cruise ship docked at the former immigration shed and assembly hall. The immigration annex can be seen in the foreground, connected by an overhead walkway, through which immigrants walked from customs to the trains that took them across Canada.

Following the war brides, several major waves of immigrants arrived at Pier 21 beginning with the

Holocaust
survivors. These refugees were followed by large numbers of post war economic immigrants from several European countries such as Britain, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands.

Displaced Person refugee with baby at Pier 21, 1948

One of the smallest ships to ever come to Pier 21, the former minesweeper

Italian-Canadians.[13] A large two-story addition was built onto the immigration annex building in the 1950s to handle the heavy traffic of postwar European immigration. The Hungarian Uprising in 1956 brought another group of refugees to Pier 21, although some from this wave were now arriving by aircraft. The decline in ocean liner travel due to the rise of jet airliner travel during the 1960s caused immigration to shift to airports. With few ships calling at Pier 21, the terminal was used more often in its final years to handle overflow from airport immigration offices.[14] The last major group of immigrants were 100 Cuban refugees from the Gander International Airport who were transferred to Pier 21 in 1970 to be accommodated while their refugee claims were processed.[15] The last ship to bring immigrants to Pier 21 was the SS Cristoforo Colombo on March 30, 1971. Pier 21 closed its doors on March 31, 1971. A few other ships arrived in Halifax with immigrants after Pier 21 closed, but they were received by immigration officials working out of a downtown office.[16]

Post-immigration use

Pier 21 Museum in 2015

From the 1970s until 1991, the former immigration facility at Pier 21 housed the Nova Scotia Nautical Institute, a training facility for professional mariners. During the 1990s, the space provided studio and workshop space for artists.[17] The Immigration annex was used by customs officials and the Halifax port's police. The growth of the cruise ship industry in the 1980s led to the return of large passenger ships to the Pier 21 wharves, however only for short recreational visits. Some of the former immigration terminal areas in Shed 20 and 22 was converted in stages to cruise ship passenger reception and retail spaces.

On September 22, 1997, the Pier 21 facility was designated a

Nova Scotia College of Art and Design's seaport campus took over Pier 21's former medical, detention and accommodation wing in 2011. The Garrison brewing company leased a large portion of the immigration annex building in May 2006.[19]
A variety of retail shops as well as artists' and architects' studios and cultural organizations occupy the remainder of the immigration annex.

In late 2005, Pier 21's Carrie-Anne Smith and Vice Admiral Duncan "Dusty" Miller contributed wood from the building's rafters to the Six String Nation project. Part of that material now forms the X-brace on the interior of Voyageur, the guitar at the heart of the project.[20]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Parks Canada Building the Legacy - Commemorating our History". www.collectionscanada.gc.ca. Archived from the original on 2015-09-24. Retrieved 2020-07-16.
  2. Grosse Isle, Quebec
    (1832–1932) also shares the Canada's Ellis Island comparison.
  3. ^ Alexa Thompson and Debi van de Wiel, Pier 21: An Illustrated History of Canada's gateway Halifax: Nimbus Publishing (2002), p. 15
  4. ^ a b "The Pier 21 Story" (PDF). pier21.ca. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2014-02-07. Retrieved 2019-08-13.
  5. ^ Thompson, van de Wiel, p. 31
  6. ^ "Ticket Agents Dine on Liner", Halifax Chronicle November 28, 1928, LAC RG 76, Vol. 666, File C1594, pt. 2
  7. ^ ""SS Bismark/RMS Majestic", Monsters of the Sea: The Great Ocean Liners of Time". Archived from the original on November 9, 2014.
  8. ^ "Website Update | Nova Scotia Archives". novascotia.ca. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2017-09-08.
  9. ^ Wiliam Naftel, Halifax at War: Searchlights, Squadrons and Submarines 1939-1945, Halifax: Formac Publishing (2008), p. 113
  10. ^ Naftel, p. 106
  11. ^ "Website Update | Nova Scotia Archives". novascotia.ca. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2017-09-08.
  12. ^ "Baltic Refugees, Canadian Immigration Policy and the Arrival of SS Walnut | Pier 21". pier21.ca. Archived from the original on 2018-08-09. Retrieved 2020-07-16.
  13. ^ Smith, Carrie-Ann. "Italian Immigration at Pier 21" (PDF). pier21.ca. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-08-16. Retrieved 20 August 2017.
  14. ^ "Pier 21 | Pier 21". pier21.ca. Archived from the original on 2019-08-13. Retrieved 2019-08-13.
  15. ^ Thompson, van de Wiel, p. 120
  16. ^ Steven Schwinghamer and Jan Raska, Pier 21: A History, University of Ottawa Press (2020), p. 192.
  17. ^ Schwinghamer, Steven. "Historic Pier 21" Archived 2016-04-04 at the Wayback Machine. Web blog entry accessed 2 April 2016.
  18. ^ Pier 21. Canadian Register of Historic Places. Retrieved 11 September 2014.
  19. ^ ""Garrison Today", Garrison Brewing Company". Archived from the original on 2014-08-12. Retrieved 2014-08-12.
  20. OCLC 302060380
    .

Further reading

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pier 21.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pier_21&oldid=1203686521"