Adams Plan for Glebe Lands

Ross had no problem with the Commission; the same did not hold true for Adams. He experienced initial success in extending the authority of the Commission, but his reputation could not guarantee that his actual plans would receive full endorsement. He appears to have taken his reconstruction work as a mandate to lay out a plan for the whole north end extending into undeveloped tracts.





Pre-Explosion Richmond District





Adams' maps outline new streets in the glebe lands of St. Paul's Church, an area where few buildings had existed before the explosion. In the Richmond district proper, the explosion had left intact streets as well as water and sewer lines. Here, therefore, Adams' freedom came under practical limits, but in the glebe direction no pre-established services interfered with his axioms of planning. Hence he laid out curving streets and diagonal arteries; this portion of the plan was determined by topography and broke with the grid pattern. As a planner, Adams maintained that there should be no standard plan for towns, rather plans should be adapted to the locale.

Since he had greater freedom for innovation in the north half of his plans, he wrote that 'with regard to the part of the plan lying north of Duffus Street, I personally think this is more important than even the land nearer the city.' (30) Unfortunately for Adams but understandably, the Commission insisted that funds and authority had to be committed to immediate relief measures and could not be used to support innovation for its own sake.

Commission Chairman, T. Sherman Rogers warned Adams about this part of the proposed scheme. 'I have always felt somewhat embarrassed in dealing with this part of the Richmond district. In connection with our settlements we have dealt with a not inconsiderable part required for the diagonal street, but the carrying through of the whole idea is, I am afraid, rather beyond the scope of the Commission's work.'

Neither the Intercolonial Railroad nor the City showed much interest and they both held land in the area (31). Given the slump in housing construction that was to affect Halifax from 1920 until the early 1940's, the scheme for an elaborate suburb beyond the requirements for relief would have proven impractical.





Adams' Plan for Reconstruction





Though his grand design had to be trimmed, the portion remaining demonstrated what Adams could accomplish even within the confines of an existing grid. His plans deliberately avoided elaborate public buildings, ornate lamp standards, and fountains. Adams was no advocate of 'city beautiful.' In a 1914 article, 'What Town Planning Really Means,' he stated that decorations might be 'essential in the life of a great community ... but only ... after you have seen after the real essentials of the home life of the people.' (32)

It was for functional, not decorative reasons, for example, that he introduced diagonal boulevards. The terrain of the devastated area rose abruptly with a steep grade from the harbour to a plateau where the row houses were to be constructed. Streets ran directly up the grade. Adams wrote in his preliminary report that 'the greatest need was for two new connecting roads running at the north and south ends of the area ... to the high ground ... to provide proper access both to the area itself and to the large table land.' These diagonals would provide easier access for auto traffic (33).

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This document was last modified on March 8, 2000.