UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA PRESS
2020
© 2020 Canadian Museum of Immigration
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher.
Co-published by the Canadian Museum of History, the Canadian Museum of Immigration and the University of Ottawa Press.
The University of Ottawa Press gratefully acknowledges the support extended to its publishing list by the Government of Canada, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Council for the Arts, the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences through the Awards to Scholarly Publications Program, and the University of Ottawa.
Copy editing |
Robbie McCaw |
Back cover image |
Passengers of the refugee ship MV Pärnu |
Library and Archives Canada
Cataloguing in Publication
Title: Pier 21 : a history / Steven Schwinghamer and Jan Raska.
Names: Schwinghamer, Steven, 1976- author. | Raska, Jan, 1980- author.
Series: Mercury series. History.
Description: Series statement: Mercury series. History | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20200180819 | Canadiana (ebook) 20200181092 | ISBN 9780776631363 (softcover) | ISBN 9780776629353 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780776631370 (PDF) | ISBN 9780776631387 (EPUB) | ISBN 9780776631394 (Kindle)
Subjects: LCSH: Ports of entry—Nova Scotia—Halifax—History—20th century. | LCSH: Canada—Emigration and immigration—History—20th century. | LCSH: Immigrants—Canada—History—20th century.
Classification: LCC JV7225 .S39 2020 | DDC 325.71—DC23
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Land Acknowledgment |
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List of Illustrations |
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Introduction |
CHAPTER 1 |
Immigrating to Canada through Pier 21, 1928–1971 |
CHAPTER 2 |
Pier 2 and the Early Years of Pier 21, 1890–1939 |
CHAPTER 3 |
Pier 21 at War, 1939–1946 |
CHAPTER 4 |
Height of Postwar Immigration at Pier 21, 1946–1955 |
CHAPTER 5 |
Final Years of Pier 21, 1955–1971 |
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Conclusion |
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Acknowledgments |
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List of Abbreviations |
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Notes |
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Bibliography |
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Index |
Pier 21 is located in Mi’kma’ki, the land of the Mi’kmaq.
The Mi’kmaq are the First People of Nova Scotia. For thousands of years they have lived in Mi’kma’ki, a territory encompassing Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, eastern and northern parts of New Brunswick, the Gaspé peninsula of Québec, and communities in Newfoundland and Maine. The Mi’kmaq have shared this unceded homeland with immigrant communities for more than 400 years.
All residents of Canada are part of the historical and legal relationships between Canada and Indigenous Peoples.
1.A young Italian immigrant resting in the Annex building at Pier 21 after coming to Canada aboard MS Saturnia, 1952. Photographer: Ethelbert Wetmore/Chronicle Herald. Republished with permission from the Chronicle Herald
2.The Meijer family arrives at Pier 21 from the Netherlands aboard SS Waterman, 1957. Canadian Museum of Immigration Collection (DI2013.1558.65)
3.Dutch immigrants in the new assembly area at Pier 21, 1928–1930. Library and Archives Canada, C-036146
4.View of Pier 21’s gangway as passengers board SS Ryndam, ca. 1956. Canadian Museum of Immigration Collection (DI2013.1682.14)
5.A Canadian immigration officer interviews an immigrant at Pier 21, 1965. Ship crew members, seen here in white uniforms, sometimes assisted with translation. Canadian Museum of Immigration Collection (R2013.1362.186)
6.Immigration staff at Pier 21, ca. 1950. Canadian Museum of Immigration Collection (DI2014.240.5)
7.A 1928 floor plan of Pier 21, cropped to show detention quarters. Halifax Port Authority
8.An immigrant family looks out onto Halifax Harbour from the detention quarters’ airing gallery, 1951. York University Libraries, Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections, Toronto Telegram fonds, ASC01295
9.Kitchen staff at Pier 21, ca. 1950. Canadian Museum of Immigration Collection (DI2014.437.3)
10.A Red Cross volunteer supervises immigrant children in the Seaport Nursery at Pier 21, ca. 1963. Canadian Museum of Immigration Collection (DI2014.222.8)
11.A 1954 floor plan of Pier 21’s immigration facilities, showing the Annex building with its extension and second-storey addition. Halifax Port Authority
12.Baggage cages in Pier 21’s assembly area, 1928–1939. Halifax Port Authority
13.Canadian customs officers inspect an immigrant’s personal belongings in the ramp, 1965. Canadian Museum of Immigration Collection (DI2013.1362.6)
14.Baggage hall located on the ground floor of the Annex building at Pier 21, 1965. Canadian Museum of Immigration Collection (R2013.1362.7)
15.A father and two children sleep aboard a train before its departure from Pier 21, 1965. Canadian Museum of Immigration Collection (R2013.1362.224)
16.Deep Water Terminus with Pier 2 at extreme right, 1900. Notman Studio, Nova Scotia Archives (1983-310 no. 100026)
17.Peninsular Halifax, with the Deep Water Terminus at bottom centre, 1910. Halifax Municipal Archives, 102-5A-26
18.New Pier 2 immigration assembly room, 1915. Library and Archives Canada, e011308939
19.Troop trains at Pier 2, 1916. Helen Creighton, Nova Scotia Archives (Album 11 no. 32)
20.Chinese labourers returning from war work in Europe during the First World War, disembark at Pier 2, 1919. Helen Creighton, Nova Scotia Archives (Album 12 no. 233)
21.Ross & Macdonald, a prominent Canadian architectural firm, promoted a grand vision for the Ocean Terminals, ca. 1912. Nova Scotia Archives Photo Collection
22.Setting the first concrete blocks for the foundation of Pier 21 and the Ocean Terminals, 1915. Nova Scotia Archives (1986-490 F36)
23.Plan for the Ocean Terminals project, showing the neighbourhood destroyed for construction. Frederick Cowie, Nova Scotia Archives (HE C16 H13)
24.HMT Olympic passes the future site of Pier 21, 1916. Library and Archives Canada, e011308904
25.Pier 2 just before immigration and passenger traffic relocated to Pier 21, 1928. W. R. MacAskill, Nova Scotia Archives (1987-453 no. 2625)
26.Ocean Terminals office bay and shed 22 steel framing, 1925–1926. Canada Science and Technology Museum, 1966-0549-001
27.Aerial view of Pier 20 (single-storey shed) and Pier 21 (two-storey shed with walkway). Canadian Museum of Immigration Collection (DI2013.1205.1)
28.Arrival of HMT Pasteur at Pier 21 with returning Canadian soldiers. Canada. Department of National Defence, Library and Archives Canada, e010786543
29.Convoy assembling in Bedford Basin. Canada. Department of National Defence, Library and Archives Canada, e010777293
30.Photograph of Catherine MacKinnon and other evacuee children on the deck of SS Bayano, 1940. Canadian Museum of Immigration Collection (DI2014.233.17)
31.Soldiers leaving their train to board a troopship at Pier 21 (n.d.). Canada Science and Technology Museum, CN005772
32.Members of the Toronto Scottish Regiment board HMT Empress of Australia at Pier 21, 1939. Canada. Department of National Defence, Library and Archives Canada, PA-137186
33.Embarkation Transit Unit arch, with Pier 20 and Pier 21 in the background, 1946. H. B. Jefferson, Nova Scotia Archives (1992-304 no. 43-1-4 250)
34.A German prisoner of war arrives at “an East Coast Port,” 1941. National Film Board of Canada, Library and Archives Canada, PA-176616
35.Flora and David Campbell (foreground) wave at personnel returning aboard HMT Île de France at Pier 21, 1945. Lieut. Richard Graham Arless, Canada. Department of National Defence, Library and Archives Canada, PA-192969
36.Members of the No. 6 District Military Band, ca. 1944. Canadian Museum of Immigration Collection (DI2014.536.1)
37.Trudy Tansey and J. P. LeBlanc on their wedding day, 1944. Canadian Museum of Immigration Collection (DI2015.255.101)
38.“Welcome Home to Canada” was the first view of Pier 21 for postwar immigrants, 1950. Canadian Museum of Immigration Collection (DI2013.839.32)
39.Arrival of the first group of Polish veterans to Pier 21, aboard SS Sea Robin, 1946. Wilfred Doucette, National Film Board of Canada, Library and Archives Canada, PA-111595
40.Arthur J. Vaughan served as a Canadian customs officer at Pier 21 from 1945 to 1965 (n.d.). Canadian Museum of Immigration Collection (DI2013.1250.2)
41.Arrival of a group of Jewish refugees and war orphans at Pier 21, 1949. Alex Dworkin Canadian Jewish Archives, Jewish Immigrant Aid Services fonds, PC 2-4-8A-8
42.Two young displaced persons, Moses Znaimer and Nasha Rosenberg, are featured on the front page of the Standard Review newspaper, June 26, 1948. Canadian Museum of Immigration Collection (DI2014.515.2)
43.Arrival of 347 mostly Baltic refugees aboard SS Walnut at Pier 21, December 13, 1948. Photographer: Robert Norwood/Chronicle Herald. Republished with permission from the Chronicle Herald
44.The 50,000th displaced person to enter Canada, Ausma Levalds (centre), her mother, Karline (left), and sister Rasma (right) in front of Canadian immigration official Geoff Christie at Pier 21, February 23, 1949. Canadian Museum of Immigration Collection (D2013.1912.24)
45.Sisters Veronica Gillis (left), Florence Kelly (centre), and Josephine Dulaska (right) perform their duties at Pier 21, 1950s. Canadian Museum of Immigration Collection (DI1999.6.16)
46.Sister Salvatrice Liota assists immigrants at the Canadian National Railway ticket office, Pier 21, 1955–1969. Canadian Museum of Immigration Collection (DI1999.6.14)
47.Sadie Fineberg, a Jewish Immigrant Aid Society volunteer at Pier 21, and her husband, Morris, ca. 1945. Canadian Museum of Immigration Collection (DI2014.451.3)
48.A kist belonging to the Timmerman family from the Netherlands is lifted off SS Volendam at Pier 21, 1950. Canadian Museum of Immigration Collection (DI2013.1529.12)
49.Juliana Miller, a Hungarian-speaking Red Cross volunteer, briefs a Hungarian refugee about Canadian geography and travel customs, 1956–1957. Canada. Department of Employment and Immigration, Library and Archives Canada, PA-181009
50.Teresa Perri (right), her mother, Antonietta, and brothers Silvio (left), Achille (second from left), and Egidio (centre) aboard MS Vulcania, 1957. Canadian Museum of Immigration Collection (DI2016.399.5)
51.Maria Pagano with her husband, Antonio, daughter, Maria Grazia, and son, Luigi, before their immigration to Canada, 1958. Canadian Museum of Immigration Collection (DI2013.1420.7)
52.Immigrant families with a Red Cross worker in the Seaport Nursery at Pier 21, 1948. Canadian Museum of Immigration Collection (R2014.440.24)
53.Immigrants await the departure of their train from Pier 21, 1965. Canadian Museum of Immigration Collection (R2013.1362.222)
54.Gabriella Niloff (née Lantos) with her father, Ferenc (Frank), and mother, Erzsébet (Elizabeth) in Canada, ca. 1957. Canadian Museum of Immigration Collection (DI2016.11.6)
55.Sisters Salvatrice Liota (left) and Josephine Dulaska (right) welcome former Hungarian Member of Parliament Imre Gregor, his wife, Julia, and daughter, Clara, at Pier 21, January 15, 1957. Photographer: Harry Cochrane/Chronicle Herald. Republished with permission from the Chronicle Herald
56.Canadian Immigration Identification Card issued to Hungarian refugee, Tibor Lukács, at Pier 21, 1958. Canadian Museum of Immigration Collection (DI2014.459.6)
57.Cuban refugees who defected from a Cubana airliner at Gander, Newfoundland, arrive at Halifax International Airport, November 3, 1964. Photographer: Ferris/Chronicle Herald. Republished with permission from the Chronicle Herald
58.Sister Salvatrice Liota (second from right) hands out gifts to Cuban refugees during Christmas celebrations, December 25, 1964. Photographer: Ferris/Chronicle Herald. Republished with permission from the Chronicle Herald
59.Veronika Martenová Charles in Cuba before her defection in Gander, Newfoundland, 1970. Canadian Museum of Immigration Collection (DI2017.962.32)
60.View of Pier 21’s front door, formerly a loading-bay door, and the ramp, 1990s. Canadian Museum of Immigration Collection (DI2013.1231.1)
61.The central office bay at Pier 21, now the main entrance to the Canadian Museum of Immigration, 2015. Canadian Museum of Immigration, Communications
Source: Republished with permission from the Chronicle Herald
This is, in a sense, hallowed ground. It’s a place of beginnings … if you can see on the horizon, on the ocean, just a tiny, tiny, red dot and that’s where the sun is coming up, on the horizon, that’s what I would see as Halifax, as Pier 21, and then as the sun rises and gives light to the entire spectrum of the land and the sea, then that becomes sort of like the picture of your life… you’ve got to start somewhere.1
—Mike Frederiksen, a Danish immigrant who arrived at Pier 21 aboard SS Gripsholm on June 29, 1951.
HALIFAX’S PIER 21 IS A PLACE OF BEGINNINGS. BETWEEN 1928 and 1971, nearly one million immigrants entered Canada at the site. This included those who arrived when immigration was restricted during the Great Depression, those who arrived as refugees or displaced persons after the Second World War, and those who arrived in later years of relative economic prosperity in Canada. These people began new chapters in their lives at Pier 21. As a key ocean transportation hub with good connections inland by rail, Pier 21 also served as a place of departure and return for the vast majority of Canadians serving overseas during the Second World War.
In completing the immigration process through Pier 21, immigrants could begin integrating into life in Canada. Most of those admitted arrived with some kind of plan for their new life, though that plan could be as small as just the promise of a job. For many, the day of arrival began the navigation of the often new and unfamiliar aspects of life in Canada: the language, social cues, and work habits that are part of everyday life. Arriving at Pier 21 was an important milestone for many immigrants, but the “Landed Immigrant” stamp obtained at the site rarely proved to be a ticket to a life of instant prosperity. Hard work and sacrifice often marked the initial phase of life in Canada. These experiences are part of the individual and family memories of hundreds of thousands of Canadians.
These personal connections are a point of pride and purpose for the Canadian Museum of Immigration, Canada’s sixth national museum, which is responsible for exploring, interpreting, and presenting histories of immigration to Canada and Canadian immigrant experiences. The museum highlights these histories and memories from Pier 21 through the participation of those who lived them—those who passed through its doors on their way to a new life in Canada, the staff members who operated the site, and the many volunteers who provided services for newcomers.
These memories of Pier 21 are wide-ranging: the ship’s arrival, the assembly room, the small-baggage check, the confiscated goods, the Canadian food, boarding the train, and the waiting, uncertainty, and anticipation. For Canadian soldiers going to war in Europe, and for the families of those who did not come back, Pier 21 hosts a completely diffferent set of memories. We know of these divergent memories from written testimonials, oral history interviews, and information derived from personal objects. Together they form a key component of this work. We hope to give these memories better context by developing a deeper picture of the history of Pier 21 as a place.
Source: Canadian Museum of Immigration Collection (DI2013.1558.65)
This book is the first full-length history of Pier 21 produced by museum staff. The first published history of the site was a short work produced by Employment and Immigration Canada, published in 1978, partly as an acknowledgment of the end of the era of ocean immigration. After the site became a museum and acquired designation as a National Historic Site of Canada, other works emerged, including popular histories, books for children, and coffee-table books.2 Most are based on the personal stories of people with connections to Pier 21. The strength of these personal stories has led to other artistic explorations, including plays, folk and classical music, and the name “Pier 21” appearing on everything from a tavern to a college rock band. The site was even considered one of the “Seven Wonders of Canada” in a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation competition.
Other immigration facilities in Canada have not attracted this kind of attention, largely because the buildings themselves no longer exist. A notable exception is Grosse Île, the former quarantine station in the St. Lawrence River for the port of Quebec. Like Pier 21, Grosse Île looms large in personal and community stories about coming to Canada, and to North America more broadly. Like Pier 21, it is also a National Historic Site of Canada, and commemoration there includes the Irish Memorial to those who perished of contagious diseases, especially during the Irish potato famine of 1845–1849. There are some written works on other sites connected to immigration in Canada, including those at Saint John, Quebec City, Toronto, Winnipeg, Victoria, and William Head—the quarantine station near Victoria—but there are few full-length histories of immigration processing facilities.3
The diverse stories people tell about their immigration experiences through Pier 21 sometimes conflict with historical accounts. It may appear as if there were a dozen immigration sheds at Pier 21, with welcomes ranging from sunny, and filled with cheery volunteers and courteous officials, to bleak and inhospitable. Even so, together these stories, with all their complexity and contradiction, form the basis of how we learn about not only this site but also about the initial personal experiences of immigration and adaptation in Canada. We have pieced together these accounts from written submissions or oral histories, complemented by archival documentation and secondary sources, photographs, and objects.
Chapter 1 of this book provides an overall summary of the experience of immigrating to Canada through Pier 21 during the years of its operation, from 1928 to 1971. The subsequent chapters are chronological, beginning in chapter 2 with a short history of the immigration facilities at Pier 2, which was the predecessor of Pier 21, as well as the construction of Pier 21 and the surrounding Ocean Terminals complex. Chapter 3 covers the wartime history of the site, when the major transit shed served as the principal embarkation point for Canada’s military efforts. Chapter 4 outlines the massive postwar boom in immigration and the various groups that passed through Pier 21 up to the mid-1950s. Finally, chapter 5 traces the decline of Pier 21, from the mid-1950s through to 1971.