Hydrostone

Hydrostone
Neighbourhood
Storefronts in the Hydrostone district of Halifax
Coordinates: 44°39′52″N 63°36′10″W / 44.66444°N 63.60278°W / 44.66444; -63.60278
Country	Canada
Province	Nova Scotia
Municipality	Halifax Regional Municipality
Community	Halifax
Government
• Council	Peninsula North
Area [1]
• Total	9.3 ha (23.0 acres)
Time zone	UTC−04:00 (AST)
Area code(s)	902
Part of a series about Places in Nova Scotia
National Historic Site of Canada
Official name	Hydrostone District National Historic Site of Canada
Designated	1993

Hydrostone is a neighbourhood in the North End of the Halifax Peninsula in the Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia, Canada. It consists of ten short parallel streets and is bordered by Duffus Street to the north, Young Street to the south, Isleville Street to the west and Novalea Drive to the east. The Hydrostone District has about 9.3 ha (23 acres) of landmass.^[2]

The neighbourhood was designed by architect Thomas Adams to provide housing for working-class families displaced by the Halifax Explosion in 1917. Architectural design was by George Ross of the Montreal architectural firm of Ross and Macdonald. The neighbourhood draws its name from the special cinderblocks from which the houses were constructed. Most of the dwellings are row-houses in groups of four and six, except for the large, two-storey single-family houses at the eastern end of each street. Some have been converted to sets of flats.

All of the streets in the Hydrostone are boulevards except Stanley Place. These boulevards have treed, grassy strips which serve as communal outdoor space for the neighbourhood. This is consistent with the Garden city movement by which Adams was influenced. All streets are also served by back lanes, a feature characteristic of Western Canadian cities, but not usually found in Eastern Canadian communities.

It is designated a National Historic Site of Canada.^[3]