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While the new Central Library is a hive of activity, the disused hulk of its predecessor sits down the street quiet as a grave. Fitting, as there’s an actual graveyard underneath the old library property on Spring Garden Road.
That may come as a surprise to some, since there’s no interpretative panel, plaque or marker to give away what lies somewhere beneath Winston Churchill’s striding feet—and there never has been.
The people buried beneath the old library plot–which some historians estimate might number as many as 4,500—include former residents of the Spring Garden Road Poor House, the main building which sat roughly where Doyle Street now runs. When inmates of the poor house died in the 18th and 19th centuries, they were buried without a marker on their graves, says local historian Cynthia Simpson.
No markers might sound callous, though Canadian law was more compassionate than the customs in Europe, where marking pauper’s graves at the time was prohibited. But Simpson, who wrote her Master’s thesis researching the treatment of Halifax’s poor house dead during the 19th and 20th centuries, says she was surprised at how much respect was accorded the dead.
Records suggest that inmates were covered in cloth and buried in coffins (which they built themselves); that they had funeral services in their own denominations; and if they had final requests—as one inmate did, requesting that his body be donated to Dalhousie—they were honoured.
Prior to 1996, Nova Scotia’s Anatomy Act dictated that any unclaimed body found within city limits was to be interred at the expense of the municipality. That task has since shifted to the province. The Medical Examiner now works with the Department of Community Services, who tasks funeral homes around Nova Scotia with conducting the burial. If a body is unidentified, information is shared with law enforcement and the Medical Examiner holds on to the body indefinitely.
For those who can’t afford funerals—including those without families to claim them—expenses are covered as part of the Employment Support and Income Assistance program. In 2014-15, the department spent $1,520,000 on 450 funerals. That averages out to just $3,375 per person; a paltry sum in interment terms. This means that many funeral homes perform these duties at a loss, says Jonathan DeMont, President of the Funeral Service Association of Nova Scotia. And it means that a gravestone is out of the question. In the end, unclaimed deceased today, like the poor house inmates before them, are laid to rest in unmarked graves. These lonely souls are never cremated, just in case, at long last, someone comes to claim them.
The cemetery on Spring Garden Road was closed in the late 19th century and turned into a park, before a library was built on top. Nothing now marks the final resting place of those unfortunate folks, while the contemporaneous Old Burying Ground across the street—paupers definitely not welcome—occupies a place of pride in Halifax’s self-image.
It’s an indifference that carries over from a time when prevailing attitudes about poverty meant that a pauper’s funeral was “the final stamp of failure,” says Simpson. “The failure was that they never left the poor house, no kin claimed them upon their death, and no marker was placed on their grave. The stigma followed them.”
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This article appears in Oct 29 – Nov 4, 2015.
This is a little known bit of history. I’ve gotten looks of shock when I’ve told people about the graves under the library grounds. They think it can’t be true because of the lack of a plaque or marker.
You’d think after this length of time the city would put up some sort of plaque. Maybe they’re concerned the public won’t want to walk on the grounds once they learn it’s a burial site.
Well, squeamish people would have to stop driving on parts of Spring Garden, Grafton, Barrington, walking on the sidewalk, or parking in the hobby shop lot if that really bothered them. The original grounds were 2 and a quarter acres, and there’s over ten thousand bodies down there(I think there’s a few hanged pirates near where Bud parks).
It’s way over due Halifax should respect the dead under the old library. Put up a marker and if they decide they don’t want the old library any more then they should turn the grounds to a square..
Fact is there is 12 thousand souls buried in the Old buring ground in Halifax which from 1749 -1844 covered the streets surrounding what remains of the burial ground present day.So we are in fact walking and driving upon graves of ancestors. Not all were paupers there is in fact a Hessian soldier buried under the streets.The soldiers name was Johann he faught in the American Revolution for the British for Canada.According to the nova scotia archives Johann was buried in the Old burial ground in Halifax in 2017 family have been told that there would have been nothing left of his body by the time roads were constructed which is not the point and doesn’t make it ok. The city of Halifax did in fact take into consideration the upper class noteworthy persons before the streets were built and made sure those graves were protected.The original graveyard extended to under the library.Maybe this Canada Day we can all think of Johann Michael Leuthauser- Hessian soldier.
Should we then conclude that unmarked residential school graves are not due to racism, but are, unfortunately, ( to our 21st century sensibilities) how the poor and destitute of all races were handled in the past…?