Dartmouth
Metropolitan Area

Your Host(s) : Canada Post

Dartmouth, NS (Nearby: Shearwater, Bedford, Waverley, Eastern Passage, Lakeside)

184 PORTLAND ST
Dartmouth, Nova Scotia
B2Y 0A0


Nova Scotia Tourism Region : Halifax Metro

Description From Owner:
  • In Halifax County on the E side of Halifax Harbour across from Halifax.
  • Originally called Bonamoogwaddy, 'tomcod ground', the city was named for either William Legge, Earl of Dartmouth (1672-1750) who died the year the city was founded, or the port in Devonshire, England.
  • Settlement began here in the summer of 1750 when the Alderney from Gravesend, England, arrived in Halifax with 353 settlers. Halifax council resolved to settle the new arrivals across the harbour.
  • The following year the settlers were attacked by Mi'kmaq.
  • After the American Revolution the Nantucket Whaling Co. set up an oil factory and the small community that grew up around it was known briefly as Quaker Town because most of the residents were Quakers and they built a meeting house in 1787.
  • The N part of Dartmouth was wrecked in 1917 when the munitions ship Mont Blanc exploded in Halifax Harbour. Dartmouth became a town in 1873 and was incorporated as a city in 1966, becoming part of the Halifax Regional Municipality in 1996.
  • The first bridge built across the Narrows in 1885 floated away in 1891. It was rebuilt but collapsed in 1893. The Angus L. Macdonald bridge was opened in 1955.
  • With permission from 'Nova Scotia Place Names' David E. Scott 2015


Address of this page: http://ns.ruralroutes.com/Dartmouth



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  • Bedford Institute of Oceanography at 1 Challenger Dr., Dartmouth, is Canada's largest ocean research centre and one of the world's largest oceanographic establishments. Guided tours and a touch tank and information about everything you might want to know about fisheries, hydrography, marine protected areas and species at risk.


  • The museum operates two historic sites. Evergreen House is at 26 Newcastle St. in the 1867 former Victorian home of Judge Alexander James.

    James built the house here to escape the unsanitary conditions of downtown after eight of his children had died of diseases. He and his wife and their remaining three children started a new life here.

    The home was later owned by folklorist Dr. Helen Creighton. Today the house represents the fully furnished home of a mid-Victorian gentleman's residence and has rotating displays from the museum's collection that chronicle the city's history.

    There is a gift shop, check dates for tea room.


  • John Forbes of Dartmouth invented the clip-on skate in 1867. Instead of screws and plates to attach the blade to the boots of the wearer, Forbes' invention required only a single lever. Forbes came up with the idea while he was foreman at the Starr Manufacturing Co. More than 30 different kinds of skates were patented by Nova Scotia and New Brunswick inventors between 1867 and 1933.


  • Is The Third Time Lucky?

    When European newcomers postulated that a bridge linking Halifax and Dartmouth would make life a lot simpler, a Mi'kmaw chief warned that this would not be a good idea.

    He said to build such a bridge would result in three failures which he itemized: the first would take place during a great wind; the second would happen during a great quiet; the third catastrophe would result in great death.

    In 1887 a hurricane collapsed a railway bridge that had been built across the harbour. The temporary bridge to replace the railway bridge fell down on a calm and quiet night. The Angus L. Macdonald bridge has now operated for over half a century, but...


  • 57 Ochterloney St, Dartmouth, NS B2Y 1C3

  • When the 1785 Quaker House in Dartmouth was being restored, workers discovered all the beams were numbered for easy assembly at Dartmouth after being moved from Nantucket Island.

    They also found four separate shoes within the walls.

    A long-reaching folk superstition was that if you embedded one shoe from a pair within the walls the devil would always be looking for the other shoe and never find you.


  • The frozen fish fillet

  • First Frozen Fish Fillet

    The frozen fish fillet was invented in Halifax in 1926 by Walter H. Boutilier and Frank W. Bryce.
    Around 1940 they patented a process that allowed them to impregnate raw fish with a flavouring substance before freezing it.


  • Trailer Park Boys

  • Trailer Park Boys

    Mockumentary shows province to the world One of Nova Scotia's more entertaining exports is the "mockumentary" comedy drama, Trailer Park Boys.

    While the image of Nova Scotians the show projects may not delight the tourist board, the show has developed a dedicated following since it first aired in 2001.

    The antics of the incompetent, drunken, trash-talking, drug-using illiterates is the highest rated Canadian series on the cable network Showcase.

    The show is seen in the U.K., US, Spain, Ireland, Iceland, New Zealand, Israel, Netherlands, Denmark, Portugal, Germany, Finland, Bulgaria, and Poland.

    The shows focus on a group of residents in Sunnyvale Trailer Park in Dartmouth. The plot lines are predictable: a bunch of society dropouts always trying to find easy ways to get rich, find drugs, get high, and stay out of jail.

    Early seasons were shot in various trailer parks in Nova Scotia, but the crew was not welcome to film again due to complaints from residents.

    These included Woodbine Home Park, an unnamed collection of trailers in central Dartmouth next to the Tufts Cove Generating Station, Timberlea Mini Home Park and Greenridge Mobile Home Park.

    Seasons 5 to 7 were filmed at a custom built set near Bissett Lake in Cole Harbour. For this location, trailers were placed around an existing 2 floor building which also served as the set of the jail.

    When the series returned from hiatus beginning with Season 8, it was shot at Bible Hill Estates Trailer Park in Truro, Nova Scotia, with every subsequent episode being filmed at that location.

    After the 12th season, they ceased filming at the location and removed all sets and props from Bible Hill Estates, which still exists as an operating land lease community.



  • In the spring of 1993 a cyclone off Nova Scotia's coast raised waves 30 metres (96 ft.) high, which capsized the oceangoing Gold Bond Conveyor, drowning all 33 crew members.


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