The Zonta Club of Halifax, founded in 1951, is part of Zonta International, a worldwide organization of executives in business and the professions working together to advance the status of women. There are approximately 34,000 members in more than 1,200 clubs in 71 countries. The organization was founded in 1919 in Buffalo, New York. Zonta takes its name from a Sioux Indian word meaning "honest and trustworthy". The individual Zonta Club is the basic organizational unit of Zonta International. Clubs exist to promote the objectives of Zonta International, and to initiate, adopt, and implement policies and procedures to attain these ends in their own communities, and throughout the world. Members volunteer their time, talents, skills, and energy to local and international service projects designed to advance the status of women. Halifax Club projects have included preschool classes for hard-of-hearing children, shut-in library service, Meals-on-Wheels, second-stage housing for women and children fleeing violence; a self-managed resource centre for women in a public housing complex; and a scholarship encouraging young women to enter careers of influence. Notable past presidents of the Zonta Club of Halifax include Helen Creighton, Abbie Lane, and Phyllis Blakely.
Michael Zatzman joined Maplehurst Properties in 1975. The company, a local development company created by his father Joseph Zatzman in the early 1950s, was incorporated as Maplehurst Properties Limited in 1979. In 1988, Maplehurst successfully responded to a request for proposals from City of Dartmouth for a private sector developer to construct a mixed use Civic Centre Complex in downtown Dartmouth. Michael Zatzman was both President of Maplehurst and the company City Centre Limited. As such, Michael Zatzman signed the agreement with the City for both Maplehurst, the guarantor, and City Centre Limited, the developer. City Centre Limited was originally incorporated in 1964 to build the Royal Bank Building on Portland Street. It carried out the actual construction work for the Civic Centre Complex which was to be named Alderney Gate. Construction started in Fall 1989 and the building opened a year later. Alderney Gate was acquired by Mutual Life Assurance Co. at the end of May 1996 and Halifax Regional Municipality later purchased the complex for $22.9 million in August 2005.
The Year 2000 Project Office was created in response to the "Y2K problem" which resulted from the widespread practise in information technology systems of representing year dates by their last two digits, with the century implied. The fear was that when those systems use dates after 1999, they might be confused with dates 100 years earlier, resulting in serious errors or systems failures. The role of the Year 2000 Project Office was to oversee and facilitate Year 2000 operability of critical business functions within the Halifax Regional Municipality, as well as promoting awareness about and identifying vulnerabilities of potential Year 2000 problems. This included inventory of equipment and personnel, triage, assessment of business units and facilities for disaster preparedness, testing, remediation, and contingency planning for HRM.
Incorporated in 1953 through the Westphal, Cole Harbour and Area Service Commission Act, the Service Commission provided fire-protection, recreation, street and sidewalk, and solid waste management services to this increasingly urban part of the County of Halifax. The Commission was administered by a ten-member Executive elected annually by the members of the Commission for staggered 1-3 year terms. After 1982, the Executive increased to 12 members; three from each polling district (no.7, no.17, no.21) and 3 non-voting at-large members, elected at the AGM. All ratepayers or residents of the area were members of the Commission The Commission's budget was approved by County Council and funded through the area rate collected from residents. In later years the Commission had a Fire Protection Committee, a Recreation Committee, a Garbage Committee, a Lighting Committee, a Real Estate Committee, a Finance Committee and a Municipal Development Planning Committee
Westmoor Horticultural Society began on June 7th, 1954, as an organization of horticultural enthusiasts wishing to promote gardening in Halifax, Nova Scotia. This organization was later renamed, Halifax Westmoor Horticultural Society, and exists as of 2016.
Richard L. Weldon was a barrister and the grandson of Richard Chapman Weldon, founder and first dean of Dalhousie Law School in 1883. He served as Dartmouth alderman for Ward 5 from 1966/67 into the 1970s. In 1971/72 he served as Deputy Mayor. He later became a Progressive Conservative member of Legislature and served on the Utility and Review Board.
Trade Centre Limited (TCL), a provincial crown corporation, was incorporated in 1981. Initially composed of nine persons, four of whom were nominees of the City of Halifax, its objectives were to construct, manage and control Phase II of the Metro Centre Complex. It took on the management and operation of the Metro Centre on May 14, 1982. TCL now operates five business units: World Trade & Convention Centre, Exhibition Park, Ticket Atlantic, Halifax Metro Centre, and World Trade Centre Atlantic Canada.
Tower Road School (TRS) first opened on August 30, 1875 at the intersection of Tower Road and Inglis Street in the South End of Halifax, Nova Scotia. The first school house was a small wooden building and initially educated elementary-aged children in the general vicinity of the school, an area of upper-class economic status with families of Western European descent. In 1912 a larger, brick building was constructed adjacent to the original school and classes were transferred to this site on December 18. In the aftermath of the Halifax Explosion of 1917, displaced students from North End schools which had suffered extensive damage were temporarily transferred to TRS. Beginning in the 1930s the student body became more diversified with the addition of pupils from across Canada, the United States, Europe, South America, Asia, and Africa. This diversity became a key focus of the school’s identity and curriculum. The first record of the TRS Home and School Association (HSA, the predecessor of the TRS Parent Teacher Association) dates from 1944. The HSA raised funds and organized sports teams for both male and female students. The HSA also actively pushed for higher standards of road safety around TRS and infrastructure repairs of the TRS building and grounds. By the 1970s, the HSA had become less active. The earliest record of the reformation of the HSA into the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) dates to 1972. By the 1980s, the PTA had once again become an active part of the TRS community by organizing various fund raisers and special events. In 1993 the Halifax School Board considered closing TRS, as the school building was deemed obsolete to the point of being irreparable. While the PTA was active in opposing such closure efforts, the School Board ultimately decided to close the school permanently in 1999. Upon its closure in 2000, the TRS building was sold to the Halifax Grammar School (HGS) and made part of the HGS campus. Students enrolled at the time continued their studies at Inglis Street Elementary School, formerly St. Francis School.
The Tourism Halifax Committee was responsible for operating the Halifax Visitors and Convention Bureau and, in general, promoting tourism in the City. It studied issues and made recommendations to Council on matters relating to tourism, acting as an information resource to tourism staff, and cooperating with businesses and other agencies concerned with tourism.
In 1996 Tourism Halifax became part of the Halifax Regional Municipality's Tourism, Culture & Heritage Department. In April 2002 that function merged with the Greater Halifax Conventions & Meetings Bureau to become Destination Halifax, the dedicated tourism marketing organization of the Halifax Regional Municipality.
Thorndean Heritage Limited was founded in 1975, as a small, self-managed condominium association with the dual aim of administration of the living arrangements of the shareholder-tenants and preservation of Thorndean House, a provincially and municipally registered Heritage Property (as of 12/11/1981). Thorndean is located at 5680-82 Inglis Street in the south end of Halifax, Nova Scotia and is recognized for its Georgian architectural features and the historical life of its early owners.
Thorndean was built in 1835 for John Tremaine, a merchant and Loyalist who came to Halifax in 1785 to escape the American Revolution. Tremaine sold the house to James Forman, who was the first cashier at the Bank of Nova Scotia. In 1870 Forman was discovered to have embezzled over $300,000 from the bank during the twenty-five years he worked there. To repay the bank Forman signed over Thorndean and all its contents to be auctioned. The estate was purchased by John S. Maclean, a Halifax merchant and ship owner, and at the time the president of the Bank of Nova Scotia.
Early occupants/company officers were Mr. James R. Lotz, President; Ms. Margaret Jordan as Vice-President, Dr. J. Patricia Beresford as Secretary, and Mr. David Miller as Treasurer.Built in 1835 by James Forman, Thorndean House underwent major renovations in 2010. Mrs. Patricia Lotz has conducted research into the history of Thorndean House.