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National Historic Site

Little Dutch Church

An ironstone slate wall bordering the burial grounds, collapsing and leaning into the street, recorded and rebuilt in two phases for Parks Canada and St. George's Anglican Church.

The rebuilt wall running away up the sidewalk towards the white clapboard church, its coping stones laid along the top and a green iron gate post at the near end.
Little Dutch (Deutsch) Church National Historic SiteThe rebuilt wall from the end gate
Site
Little Dutch (Deutsch) Church National Historic Site
Location
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Client
St. George’s Anglican Church
Funder
Parks Canada — National Cost-Sharing Program
Years
2022–2023 on site; consulting from 2020
Stone
Ironstone slate, quarried north of Halifax
All projects

The site

A wall that had held since the 1750s, and was giving way

Little Dutch Church National Historic Site is an intact c1750 wooden church and its burial grounds, near the original naval dockyards in Halifax. The site was established for German-speaking immigrants, many of whom died before entering port.

An original dry stone wall borders the property on two sides, built of ironstone slate likely mined while the ground was levelled for the graves. It came through the Halifax explosion of 1917 and was given a continuous formed concrete cap afterwards. A later extension around the neighbouring property was built in mortar.

By 2020 the wall was collapsing in several places and leaning far enough towards the street that the sidewalk had been closed. St. George’s Anglican Church approached us that year, and Parks Canada approved the specifications and scope in 2021 under its National Cost-Sharing Program.

The site from above: the line of the wall running the length of the sidewalk, its stone lifted out and stacked in rows along the kerb, the open foundation trench beside it and the burial ground on the far side.
The wall’s full run along the street, mid-project

Method

Recorded before a stone was moved

A dry stone wall is a record of how it was built, and taking one down destroys that record unless it is written first. The wall was surveyed and marked out along its length, the concrete cap and the coursing measured, and stones numbered and tagged as they came off, so that the rebuilt wall could be the same wall rather than a wall in the same place.

Then it came down, and the ground under it was opened.

  • The face of the wall marked out with vertical survey lines in chalk, and orange spray marks laid out on the grass at its foot.
    The wall marked out along its length
  • A gloved hand holding a steel tape measure across the broken concrete cap on top of the wall, the red church steeple in the distance behind.
    Measuring the 1917 concrete cap
  • Two gloved hands steadying a large slate block on the wall top, a numbered cardboard tag lying on its face.
    Stones numbered as they came off
  • The emptied line of the wall, a long open trench with caution tape strung along it, houses and the harbour beyond.
    The wall down, the foundation open

The record

Two seasons, and what each one covered

Linear run of wall
MeasureImperialMetric
Phase 1, on site 202280 ft25 m
Phase 2, on site 2023140 ft43 m
Total rebuilt220 ft68 m

Both figures measure linear run of wall. Perpendicular returns are outside them, and a stretch of Phase 1 was reconsidered and rebuilt in Phase 2 — so they are not two halves of one wall, and the split does not describe the shape of the job. The total is the figure that does.

Method

Reset on its own foundation, in its own stone

The wall went back up on string lines, course by course, in the ironstone slate that came out of it, made up where it was short from a small slate quarry north of the city. Phase 2 completed the remaining run and added a coverband course and vertical copings. The copings are mortared — the one departure from dry construction on the job, and it is there to deter vandalism rather than to hold the wall up.

Three hurricanes crossed the site during reconstruction. The work finished on time and on budget.

  • A waller in a yellow hard hat bedding a large foundation stone into the trench, two string lines running the length of the course above their hands.
    The first lift, set to the line
  • Three of the crew working along the rising wall on the sidewalk, slate stacked either side of them and clapboard houses across the street.
    Building along the run
  • Two wallers at a stack of long slate coping stones beside the finished section of wall, the church and its steeple behind them.
    Coping stones sorted at the wall head
  • A waller working the top of the part-built wall on a grey wet day, the church and its red steeple beyond and the rebuilt section running away to the right.
    One of the wet weeks

The team

One trade among several

A National Historic Site is not a job a waller does alone. The crew worked to the conservator, alongside the architect, and to the archaeologist on the burial ground — and where the two overlapped, members were taught artifact collection, dating and how to read the site’s own evolution out of the ground they were digging in.

Every waller on the roster took part in set-up, disassembly, construction, coping and site remediation. Several met eastern Canadian ironstone and slate for the first time here.

The crew were also fed lobster and taken sailing off Chester and Oak Island by the architect, Syd Dumaresq, which no conservation report has a field for.

Three people in hard hats and hi-vis examining a small find held in one of their hands, the burial ground and its headstones behind the fence at the left.
Working with the archaeologist on the burial ground

The client and the consultants

What the team around us said

  • Respect was applied to the maintenance of historic details – respect born from DSC’s own careful investigation and understanding of their evolution. As a result, the project rejuvenated the historic site and contributed considerably to its story.

    Mike SandersSenior Archaeologist, Partner, Cultural Resource Management Group

  • They were organized, knowledgeable, skilled and collaborative. And, importantly for work on this 270-year-old wall, they were very familiar with the Standards and Guidelines for the Conservation of Historic Sites in Canada, and with taking a conservation approach to projects.

    Susann MyersConservator

  • We now have dry stone walls good for at least another 250 years! A big thank you to John Scott and his wonderful team at DSC without whom our major restoration project might not have happened.

    Jacqueline deMestralOutreach Leader, Little Dutch Church National Historic Site

Coverage

In the press

Crew

Who was on site

Ten members over two seasons — the largest crew the co-operative has put on one site.

John Scott
Lead
Scott Young
Waller
Renée Nadeau
Waller
Ken Davies
Waller
Sean Donnelly
Waller
Jen Corrigan
Waller · Safety Officer
Lief Roebuck
Waller
Menno Braam
Waller
Lucas Michielsen
Waller
Nick Moore
Waller
Nine members of the crew in hi-vis and hard hats lined up along the finished wall at the end of the second season, tools and buckets at their feet.
The crew at the end of Phase 2

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