Leiblin Park, Nova Scotia is a
residential
A residential area is a land used in which housing predominates, as opposed to industrial and commercial areas.
Housing may vary significantly between, and through, residential areas. These include single-family housing, multi-family residen ...
neighbourhood
A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or neighborhood (American English; see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town, suburb or rural are ...
in
Halifax on the
Mainland Halifax
Mainland Halifax is the remaining portion of the community of Halifax, without the Halifax Peninsula.
History
For thousands of years, and currently, Mainland Halifax has been, is, and will be on the unceded ancestral lands of the Mi'kmaq.
On ...
within the
Halifax Regional Municipality
Halifax is the capital and largest municipality of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the largest municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of the 2021 Census, the municipal population was 439,819, with 348 ...
,
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland".
Most of the population are native Eng ...
.
History
Leiblin Park was conceived by William J. Olie in the early 1950s. The land was an inheritance of his wife, Elizabeth (Pearl) Kidston. The subdivision takes its name from a farm owned by Henry Leiblin, in the area of what is now Elmdale Crescent.
The tract of land was about 3 km long, but narrow, bordered by the watershed of
Long Lake (at the time the water supply of the city of Halifax) on its east side. Olie planned to create one long street, to be called Leiblin Drive, with crescents looping off it to the west. Each crescent would contain 16 single-family dwellings. The crescents are named in alphabetical order, with tree or plant names predominating.
The first crescent, Avon, was built in 1956, and the homes sold quickly, for around $8,000 each. The city of Halifax (at that time the peninsula) was overcrowded, and new housing was much in demand. The capital raised from Avon allowed Olie to leverage financing for the rest of the project, and construction re-commenced in 1958.
In the area of Devon and Elmdale Crescents the Drive ran into the flank of a large
drumlin
A drumlin, from the Irish word ''droimnÃn'' ("littlest ridge"), first recorded in 1833, in the classical sense is an elongated hill in the shape of an inverted spoon or half-buried egg formed by glacial ice acting on underlying unconsolidated ...
. The material excavated from the drumlin was used to fill the side of a
peat bog
A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials often mosses, typically sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, and muskeg; a ...
to the southwest. Due to the bog, there is no "F" crescent. In the 1960s and 1970s there was a commercial building just past Elmsdale, with offices, two apartments, and a corner store, first operated by Elizabeth Olie. The building has since been demolished. The bog was gradually filled with construction and demolition waste in the 1970s and 1980s to create the
Graves-Oakley Memorial Park.
Beyond the bog, four more crescents were built, plus Kenwood Avenue and Linden Lane. At this point the project was running up against the Old Sambro Road, as well as large granite outcroppings on Linden Lane. The plan was to continue the project across the Old Sambro Road, and the land was cleared of the larger trees, but in 1963 Olie Construction Ltd. was forced to declare bankruptcy.
Since that time, additional homes have been added to most of the crescents, and Nita Lane has been built near Linden Lane.
References
Destination Nova Scotia(link dead - May 6, 2010)
Communities in Halifax, Nova Scotia
{{HalifaxNS-geo-stub