Court ruling saves century-old Halifax heritage home from the wrecking ball

The heritage house at 1245 Edward Street in Halifax, N.S., is pictured.

HALIFAX — A heritage preservation group in Halifax is applauding a court decision that prevents Dalhousie University from demolishing a 128-year-old house registered as a heritage site in 2022.

The Heritage Trust of Nova Scotia issued a statement Wednesday saying the decision from the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal highlights the importance of heritage registrations.

“It’s more than 120 years old and it’s stood the test of time,” said former president Sandra Barss, whose non-profit group was an intervener in the case. “It has features that we look for when we’re looking at heritage properties.”

The court heard that after the elegant house at 1245 Edward St. was purchased by Dalhousie in July 2021, the university decided it was in a poor condition and too expensive to maintain. It applied for a demolition permit on May 2, 2022, and had begun to clear out the home’s interior and remove asbestos.

A week later, the Halifax University Neighbourhood Association applied under the provincial Heritage Property Act to have the home registered as a heritage property. The community group also submitted a 5,700-signature petition to the municipal heritage committee.

On July 15, 2022, the committee held a public meeting, which included disclosure of a heritage criteria study that showed the home, built in 1897, scored 64 out of a possible 100 points. It received high marks for its historical importance and architectural integrity.

In a written submission, Dalhousie criticized the process.

“There have been years to consider the heritage attributes of this building and to seek to have the property registered,” the university said. “It appears that only once it became known that Dalhousie had applied for a demolition permit, that (the municipality) has taken extraordinary steps to ensure that Dalhousie’s demolition permit could be rendered ineffective.”

Still, the committee asked council to grant the home heritage status, which council approved on Oct.18, 2022.

The university challenged that decision in the province’s Supreme Court, which in November 2023 agreed with Dalhousie’s arguments. The court decided council had been biased, its procedures were unfair and it had wrongly decided that a heritage registration could be granted to a party other than the property owner.

In response, the municipality sought a judicial review from the Court of Appeal, which dismissed the university’s claims, saying council’s decision was fair and reasonable.

The province’s highest court also confirmed that the city council could award heritage status to someone other than the property owner, even though the process is not spelled out in provincial law. As well, the court ordered that home’s heritage registration be reinstated.

Barss said the court’s decision was important because potential heritage properties have been disappearing at an alarming rate in Nova Scotia. “One after another, they’ve just been mowed down,” she said in an interview Wednesday.

The three-storey home’s exterior elements include arched windows, a large covered porch and finely crafted dentil mouldings.

It remains unclear what will happen to the house, said Barss.

A spokesperson for the university could not be reached for comment.

In July 2022, Dalhousie released a statement saying the house did not have genuine heritage value.

“Dalhousie’s goal is to build a sustainable, accessible campus that supports modern housing options (and) 1245 Edward St. does not meet these objectives,” the statement said.

In November 2022, after council approved the home’s heritage status, the university issued another statement saying it was committed to “finding the right balance between preservation of our most iconic buildings and development that supports continued university and city growth.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 21, 2025.

Michael MacDonald, The Canadian Press