Shannon Park: A Photoethnography by Bruce Mans

Shannon Park: A Photoethnography

SHANNON PARK A PHOTOETHNOGRAPHIC PROJECT

TOPICS IN PLANNING BRUCE MANS APRIL 2010

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Shannon Park is a former military community on the eastern shore of Halifax Harbour in the Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia (HRM).

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Although presently unused, Shannon Park remains part of the CFB Halifax defence complex. Shannon Park, along with the adjacent military community of Wallace Heights, was primarily used for housing the families of personnel serving with the Canadian Navy. It was built in the 1950s to remedy the shortage of housing which plagued sailors avnd their families in Halifax during World War Two (Wikipedia, 2010).

Most of the buildings have been vacant for years, allowing vegetation to slowly reclaim the site.

It is difficult to find a window that isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t broken at Shannon Park.

Although Shannon Park seems desolate and ghostly now, the site was once an area were families lived and children played.

Rows of clotheslines remain standing across from the apartment complexes.

The site included a number of services on Princess Margaret Boulevard. This building appears to have once been the workplace of a mechanic.

A handful of storage facliities are scattered throughout Shannon Park. Today, they are an ideal canvass for local graffiti artists.

Shannon Heights Community Centre was once a significant destination for both Shannon Park residents and the larger community.

Aside from Shannon Park Elementary School, the arena is the only remaining active building on the site. It is owned and operated by the military, and used regularly.

With every passing year, more and more wooden beams from old playgrounds fall to the ground.

An old bus stop once sheltered transit users heading into Dartmouth or Halifax.

A swingset slowly surrenders to the environment while the A. Murray Mackay Bridge observes.

Sheets of plywood cover up the blemishes of old facades.

Shannon Park was once a home to many. Hundreds of families once lived, worked and played on this soil. Now it is a ghost town. As talks of future development gather momentum, Shannon Park will await it fate.