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Roots Earth in Halifax: audio stories about 40 places

Roots Earth has audio stories about 40 places in Halifax, Canada, in North America. The Halifax stories are in all seven Roots Earth languages: English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian. The app needs no account: open Halifax, pick a place on the city's map of places and play. Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection. The stories are written by local people.

The 40 places are listed below in the order the app shows them, and again further down with their coordinates. The lists were taken from the Roots Earth catalogue on 15 September 2026.

Published 16 September 2026. Markdown: halifax.md

The 40 places in Halifax with audio stories

In the order the app shows them.

  1. Halifax Citadel
  2. Old Town Clock
  3. Halifax Waterfront Boardwalk
  4. Maritime Museum of the Atlantic
  5. St. Paul's Church
  6. Grand Parade
  7. Province House
  8. St. Mary's Basilica
  9. Halifax Public Gardens
  10. Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21
  11. Georges Island
  12. Art Gallery of Nova Scotia
  13. Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History
  14. HMCS Sackville
  15. Old Burying Ground
  16. Government House
  17. Halifax City Hall
  18. All Saints Cathedral
  19. St. George's Round Church
  20. St. Matthew's United Church
  21. Alexander Keith's Brewery
  22. Halifax Central Library
  23. Scotiabank Centre
  24. Neptune Theatre
  25. Naval Museum of Halifax
  26. McNabs Island
  27. Point Pleasant Park
  28. Halifax Farmers' Market
  29. Spring Garden Road
  30. Quinpool Road
  31. North End
  32. The Hydrostone
  33. South End
  34. Halifax Common
  35. Camp Hill Cemetery
  36. Fairview Lawn Cemetery
  37. Africville
  38. Dalhousie University
  39. Saint Mary's University
  40. Dartmouth

Is there an audio guide for Halifax Citadel?

Yes. Halifax Citadel has its audio stories in the Roots Earth app: a short introduction and a deeper story, in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian.

It is place 1 of the 40 Halifax places in the app, at 44.6475, -63.5803. Every one of the other 39 places in the list above has the same two stories.

Roots Earth is not a guided tour: you choose the place on the city's map of places and play its story yourself.

How to use Roots Earth in Halifax

Open Roots Earth and choose Halifax. The city has its own map of places with all 40 of them on it. Tap the place you are standing in front of, or any other, and play its short introduction or its deeper story. You decide what to listen to and in which order.

You can listen in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian, and there is no account. Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection.

In full

All 40 places in Halifax, in the app's order, with their coordinates.

All 40 places in Halifax, with coordinates

Every place below has a short introduction and a deeper story in the Roots Earth app, in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian. The names, the coordinates (latitude, longitude) and the one line descriptions are the app's own catalogue values of 15 September 2026; a place without a line here has none that this page can print.

1. Halifax Citadel

Coordinates
44.6475, -63.5803
In one line
A Victorian star-shaped fortress crowning the hill above Halifax, built between 1828 and 1856. The fourth fort on this commanding height, it guarded the harbour for the British Army and still fires its famous Noon Gun.

2. Old Town Clock

Coordinates
44.64722, -63.5775
In one line
A three-tiered octagonal tower on the slope of Citadel Hill, ticking since 1803. Commissioned by Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, and fitted with works by the royal Vulliamy clockmakers of London, it remains one of Halifax's most beloved landmarks.

3. Halifax Waterfront Boardwalk

Coordinates
44.647, -63.569
In one line
A long wooden boardwalk tracing the edge of one of the world's great natural harbours. A working waterfront since the 1790s and a wartime convoy departure point, it now links historic ships, museums, and memorials along the harbour's busy shore.

4. Maritime Museum of the Atlantic

Coordinates
44.64769, -63.57106
In one line
Canada's oldest and largest maritime museum, founded in 1948 on the Halifax waterfront. It holds the world's foremost collection of wooden Titanic artifacts, a major Halifax Explosion exhibit, and the survey ship CSS Acadia moored alongside.

5. St. Paul's Church

Coordinates
44.6475, -63.57472
In one line
The oldest building in Halifax and the oldest surviving Protestant church in Canada, opened in 1750. A Georgian colonial church on the Grand Parade, modeled on a James Gibbs design, it still bears a silhouette in glass from the 1917 explosion.

6. Grand Parade

Coordinates
44.6482, -63.575
In one line
The civic heart of Halifax, laid out in 1749 at the city's founding as a central square in the colonial grid. Saint Paul's Church stands at its south end and City Hall at its north, with a granite war cenotaph between them.

7. Province House

Coordinates
44.64791, -63.5734
In one line
Canada's oldest legislative building still in use, built between 1811 and 1819 in elegant Palladian style. Here Joseph Howe won a landmark trial for press freedom, and the colony achieved the first responsible government in the British Empire beyond Britain.

8. St. Mary's Basilica

Coordinates
44.64444, -63.57325
In one line
Saint Mary's Basilica rises above Spring Garden Road with a granite spire often called the tallest of its kind in North America. Built in stone from 1820 and expanded in Gothic Revival style, it became a minor basilica in 1950.

9. Halifax Public Gardens

Coordinates
44.64278, -63.58222
In one line
The Halifax Public Gardens form a 16-acre Victorian formal garden near Spring Garden Road, with a bandstand, fountains, ponds, and geometric flower beds. Established through an 1874 amalgamation, the gardens are a National Historic Site and one of Canada's finest.

10. Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21

Coordinates
44.63778, -63.56583
In one line
The Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 occupies the waterfront shed where roughly 1. 5 million immigrants arrived between 1928 and 1971. Often called Canada's Ellis Island, it opened as a museum in 1999 and became a national museum in 2011.

11. Georges Island

Coordinates
44.64083, -63.55972
In one line
Georges Island guards the mouth of Halifax Harbour with Fort Charlotte, fortified from 1750. For two centuries it defended the city, held Acadian prisoners during the expulsion, and hid a network of tunnels. It is now a National Historic Site.

13. Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History

Coordinates
44.64523, -63.58517
In one line
The Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History on Summer Street explores the province's natural world through geology, wildlife, and cultural artifacts. Rooted in the Provincial Museum of 1868, it moved to its current home in 1970 and is famous for Gus, its long-lived tortoise.

14. HMCS Sackville

Coordinates
44.64746, -63.56926
In one line
HMCS Sackville is Canada's last surviving Flower-class corvette, commissioned in 1941 to escort convoys across the Atlantic. The small warship engaged three U-boats in 1942 and now serves as a museum and naval memorial in Halifax.

15. Old Burying Ground

Coordinates
44.6434, -63.5728
In one line
Halifax's first cemetery, opened in 1749 and closed in 1844, holds roughly 12,000 burials beneath about 1,200 weathered stones. A grand Crimean War arch crowned by a lion guards its Barrington Street gate.

16. Government House

Coordinates
44.64341, -63.57129
In one line
Begun in 1800 and occupied from 1805, this Georgian mansion on Barrington Street is the official home of the Lieutenant Governor and the oldest viceregal residence still in use in North America.

17. Halifax City Hall

Coordinates
44.64861, -63.57528
In one line
Built between 1887 and 1890 in sandstone with a soaring clock tower, this ornate city hall anchors Grand Parade. Its north clock face stays frozen at four minutes past nine, marking the 1917 Halifax Explosion.

18. All Saints Cathedral

Coordinates
44.64044, -63.57968
In one line
Designed by Ralph Adams Cram and built between 1907 and 1910, this Gothic Revival stone cathedral is the seat of the Anglican Diocese of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, stretching 255 feet beneath soaring vaults.

19. St. George's Round Church

Coordinates
44.6534, -63.5829
In one line
Begun in 1800 under Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, this rare circular wooden church in Palladian style served Halifax's German Lutheran community. Rebuilt after a 1994 fire, it remains a striking National Historic Site.

20. St. Matthew's United Church

Coordinates
44.64387, -63.57195
In one line
Founded in 1749 as Halifax's home for dissenting Protestants, this congregation rebuilt on Barrington Street after an 1857 fire. Its Gothic Revival church traces a path from Presbyterian roots to the United Church of Canada.

21. Alexander Keith's Brewery

Coordinates
44.6446, -63.5702
In one line
Founded in 1820 by Scottish brewer and future Halifax mayor Alexander Keith, this ironstone-and-granite brewery on Lower Water Street is one of North America's oldest, famed for its India Pale Ale.

22. Halifax Central Library

Coordinates
44.6429, -63.5753
In one line
Opened in 2014 on Spring Garden Road, this glass landmark resembles stacked books offset at angles. Designed by Schmidt Hammer Lassen with Fowler Bauld and Mitchell, its cantilevered top floor and skylit atrium drew global acclaim.

23. Scotiabank Centre

Coordinates
44.64833, -63.57667
In one line
Halifax's largest arena opened in 1978 as the Metro Centre and was renamed Scotiabank Centre in 2014. Seating around 10,600 for hockey, it hosts the Mooseheads, major championships, and concerts on Argyle Street downtown.

24. Neptune Theatre

Coordinates
44.64612, -63.57421
In one line
Founded in 1963 inside a 1915 former cinema on Argyle Street, Neptune Theatre is Atlantic Canada's largest professional company. Named for the first recorded play in North America, it stages classics, new Canadian works, and runs a theatre school.

25. Naval Museum of Halifax

Coordinates
44.65958, -63.59264
In one line
Housed in Admiralty House, a Palladian Georgian mansion completed in 1818, this museum opened in 1974 to tell the story of the Royal Canadian Navy. Its rooms hold ship's bells, uniforms, models, and artifacts from HMCS Niobe.

26. McNabs Island

Coordinates
44.6, -63.52
In one line
The largest island in Halifax Harbour, McNabs spans about 395 hectares and carries the name of Peter McNab, who bought it in the 1780s. Old forts, a lighthouse, Victorian gardens, and Mi'kmaq shell middens dot its now-protected shores.

27. Point Pleasant Park

Coordinates
44.62278, -63.56917
In one line
At the southern tip of the Halifax peninsula, this 75-hectare park has been leased from Britain since 1866 for one shilling a year. It holds the Prince of Wales Tower, North America's oldest Martello tower, built in 1796.

28. Halifax Farmers' Market

Coordinates
44.6476, -63.57177
In one line
Founded in 1750, this is billed as the oldest continuously operating farmers' market in North America. After a 2010 split, it runs as two markets: one at the Halifax Seaport, one at the historic Keith's Brewery site on Lower Water Street.

29. Spring Garden Road

Coordinates
44.64261, -63.57844
In one line
Spring Garden Road is Halifax's premier shopping street, named for a freshwater spring beneath it. Lined with shops, the Central Library, and the Public Gardens, it ranks among the busiest commercial districts in Atlantic Canada.

30. Quinpool Road

Coordinates
44.64592, -63.59489
In one line
Quinpool Road is the commercial heart of Halifax's West End, named after Quinn's Pool on the Northwest Arm. Its restaurants, bakeries, and shops form a lively boundary between the city's North End and South End neighbourhoods.

31. North End

Coordinates
44.66314, -63.60128
In one line
The North End is Halifax's historic working-class and African Nova Scotian neighbourhood, devastated by the 1917 explosion and once home to Africville. Today its streets blend deep heritage with galleries, restaurants, and rapid gentrification.

32. The Hydrostone

Coordinates
44.66444, -63.60278
In one line
The Hydrostone is a planned North End neighbourhood built after the 1917 Halifax Explosion to rehouse displaced families. Designed by Thomas Adams in Garden City style, its tree-lined boulevards became a National Historic Site in 1993.

33. South End

Coordinates
44.63, -63.58
In one line
The South End is Halifax's most prosperous neighbourhood, filling the southern Halifax Peninsula. Home to Dalhousie University, Pier 21, and grand residences, it is among Canada's wealthier districts, shaped by a deep railway cut completed around 1918.

34. Halifax Common

Coordinates
44.64941, -63.58928
In one line
Halifax Common is Canada's oldest urban park, set aside in 1749 as pasture, militia camp, and clear firing ground for the Citadel. Today its North Common holds sports fields, the Emera Oval, and gathering space for the city.

35. Camp Hill Cemetery

Coordinates
44.64275, -63.58617
In one line
Camp Hill Cemetery, established in 1844 beside Robie Street, is the resting place of many prominent Nova Scotians, including Joseph Howe, Alexander Keith, Enos Collins, and civil rights pioneer Viola Desmond.

36. Fairview Lawn Cemetery

Coordinates
44.661, -63.622
In one line
Fairview Lawn Cemetery, opened in 1893 in Halifax's North End, holds 121 victims of the Titanic disaster, more than any other burial ground on Earth. Curved rows of grey granite markers follow the sloping land.

37. Africville

Coordinates
44.67458, -63.6185
In one line
Africville was a Black community on Bedford Basin, settled from 1848 by descendants of refugees who reached Nova Scotia after the War of 1812. Demolished by Halifax in the 1960s, it is now a National Historic Site and memorial park.

38. Dalhousie University

Coordinates
44.63694, -63.59167
In one line
Dalhousie University, founded in 1818 by the Earl of Dalhousie, is Atlantic Canada's largest research university. Its leafy Studley campus in south-end Halifax draws over 20,000 students and counts three Canadian prime ministers among its graduates.

39. Saint Mary's University

Coordinates
44.63169, -63.57975
In one line
Saint Mary's University, tracing its roots to 1802, is among Canada's oldest universities and its first founded by Roman Catholics. Its south-end Halifax campus, home to about 6,000 students, centres on the McNally and Burke buildings and the Sobey School of Business.

40. Dartmouth

Coordinates
44.67, -63.57
In one line
Dartmouth, founded in 1750 across the harbour from Halifax, is known as the City of Lakes for its 23 lakes. Linked by North America's oldest saltwater ferry, it joined the Halifax Regional Municipality in 1996 yet keeps its own character.

Roots Earth in short

Roots Earth has audio stories about 5,665 places in 130 cities, 25 countries and 6 regions, written by local people.

  • No account
  • Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection
  • Audio stories in English and German in every city, and in Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian in 126 of the 130 cities

Roots Earth for Android is available on Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rootsearth.app.