2 Best Sights in Canada

This series of restored waterfront warehouses dates from the days when trade and war made Halifax prosperous. They were built by such raffish characters as Enos Collins, a privateer, smuggler, and shipper, whose vessels defied Napoléon's blockade to bring American supplies to the Duke of Wellington. The buildings have since been taken over by shops, offices, restaurants, and pubs, including those in Privateer's Warehouse. Seven of them, all erected between the late 18th and early 19th century, have been designated as National Historic Sites.

World War I and the Depression killed early 20th-century plans to turn this industrial center into a model city with broad boulevards, grand public buildings, and fine homes, but just three blocks south of the Olympic site a few fragments of that dream have survived the passage of time.

A magnificent Beaux Arts building, site of the old public market, which has a 20-foot-tall bronze statue of a farm woman, stands at the northern end of tree-lined avenue Morgan. Farmers and butchers have moved into the modern building next door that houses the Marché Maisonneuve, which has become one of the city's major markets, along with Marché Jean-Talon and Marché Atwater. The old market is now a community center and the site of summer shows and concerts.

Monumental staircases and a heroic rooftop sculpture embellish the public baths across the street. The Théâtre Denise Pelletier, at the corner of rues Ste-Catherine Est and Morgan, has a lavish Italianate interior; Fire Station No. 1, at 4300 rue Notre-Dame Est, was inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright's Unity Temple in suburban Chicago; and the sumptuously decorated Église Très-Saint-Nom-de-Jésus, has one of the most powerful organs in North America. The 198-acre Parc Maisonneuve, stretching north of the botanical garden, is a lovely place for a stroll.