Halifax (N.S.: County). Halifax County Home and Mental Hospital records

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Title proper

Halifax (N.S.: County). Halifax County Home and Mental Hospital records

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  • Textual record
  • Graphic material

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Series

Reference code

312-64 (Formerly known as RG 35-312-C25-44)

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Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)

Dates of creation area

Date(s)

  • 1886-1957, 1970, 1972, 1974, 1983-1984, 1989, 1993, 1996 (Creation)
    Creator
    Halifax (N.S.: County). Halifax County Home and Mental Hospital

Physical description area

Physical description

72.1 cm of textual records
1 photograph: : b&w ; 15 x 35 cm on mat 22 x 42 cm

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Archival description area

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Biographical history

The first municipal institution built to house the county’s poor and mentally ill was constructed in about 1887 in Cole Harbour. The original institution, known as the Poor (or Poors’) Farm and then as the County Home, was managed onsite by a superintendent and overseen by the Committee on Tenders and Public Property. The working farm was frequently upgraded and expanded until a fire in 1929 closed the facility and forced the relocation of residents to the City Home from April 30, 1929 to Feb. 28, 1931(Chapman 2003, 188). In 1941 a new facility on Cole Harbour’s Bissett Road opened as the Halifax County Home and Mental Hospital which continued to be managed by the Committee on Tenders and Public Property until at least 1945. The facility, which housed individuals from around the province, underwent another name change in 1952 and became the Halifax County Hospital. Towards the end of the 1950s the hospital began to receive financial support from the province and the hospital’s mandate was changed to focus solely on the care of mentally ill patients. As a result, the county opened Ocean View Manor in 1960 to serve as a welfare home for the county’s indigent residents (Chapman 2003, 252). The Cole Harbour facility, later renamed the Halifax County Regional Rehabilitation Centre, continued to operate until its closure in 2002 (Chapman 2003, 255).

Custodial history

Scope and content

Series consists of records created and/or accumulated by the County Home and Mental Hospital including patient bills; employee payroll lists; account ledgers; returns of the superintendent listing the names of residents and some brief information about them; tenders; building plans and specifications; a photograph; annual reports; financial statements; as well as some meeting agendas.

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Physical condition

Immediate source of acquisition

Series transferred to HRM from NSARM in 2004.

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      Associated materials

      The Overseers of the Poor records series (312-63) contains some materials relating to residents of the County Home and Mental Hospital. Financial reports of the Halifax County Home and Mental Hospital were printed with the county's council minutes and reports and are available in the archives' reading room. The Nova Scotia Museum has records it gathered about the Poor Farm through its archaeological work at the Cole Harbour site.

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      General note

      Some oversized materials have been removed from sequence for safe storage and are shelved with other oversized materials on the shelf.

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