About Our Local Area

Spryfield

Spryfield (2011 population: 10,864) is an unincorporated community in Mainland Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. It was founded about 1770, by Captain William Spry, who purchased land there and established the settlement with the aid of stationed soldiers from the nearby Halifax garrison. In 1783, he sold the property and returned to England. The name "Spryfield" is also sometimes used to refer to the general area of Halifax's South Mainland, which includes a number of communities along the Herring Cove and Purcell's Cove Roads.

The community

Recreation

Spryfield has numerous lakes of various sizes for swimming and non-motorized boating in the summer months - see below for details. For people who are not interested in natural aquatic settings, there is a public pool in the middle of the community at the Captain William Spry Community Centre, which is built on the site of the former West School. The Centre also contains a library, community service offices and meeting rooms available to the general public. There are baseball and soccer fields, basketball and tennis courts, a skate park (next to the library) and a skating rink (next to J.L. Ilsely High School), and the school gyms are often available for community use as well. In addition, the community is home to the Boys & Girls Club of Spryfield, which offers programs to children and youth year-round. For those interested in gardening, there is a community gardening operation near Thornhill Park, on part of what was once the old Kidston farm. A masonic lodge, Duke of Kent 121, also meets in Spryfield, on the border with Long Pond.

Spryfield is surrounded by forested areas, and in addition to the lakes there are numerous opportunities for hiking, berry-picking and exploring.

Schools and services

To service the continuing development of subdivisions, apartment complexes and homes, there are schools located in Spryfield for all ages. There are day cares, elementary schools, junior high schools, and one high school (J. L. Ilsley High School). When choosing a school in Spryfield, children may attend French immersion or English speaking classes starting from elementary school. See the list of schools below, for details.

Public sector services are well represented in or near the community, with a Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) headquarters, fire stations, a complete selection of schools, and community service offices at the Captain William Spry Center and the Spryfield Mall. Provincial governmental services are available at numerous locations nearby, including the Halifax Shopping Center. Since Halifax is the capital (and largest city) of the province, provincial and federal services are well represented in area, especially in the downtown district - a 20 minute drive from Spryfield.

Businesses and industry

Until approximately 1960, there was relatively (i.e., compared to overall population density) more business and industrial activity in the Spryfield area than subsequently. At the intersection of Dentith Road and Herring Cove Roads, for example, a hotel existed. There were farms in many portions of the community until the early 1950s, such as the Umlah farm just south of Long Lake, and the Kidston farm near what is now Thornhill Park. Most of Spryfield has been logged at least once, and the last logging and sawmill operation existed on the east side of Kidston Lake until the mid-1960s. Gravel and aggregate pits such as the operation to the south of Elizabeth Sutherland Memorial School (now a fine baseball diamond) helped provide material for building local roads until the late 1950s, and in the early part of the 20th century there was a granite quarrying operation in what is now the northern portion of Long Lake Provincial Park: much of this granite can still be seen in historic buildings and walls in downtown Halifax.

In the 1960s and 1970s, many people began to travel to the Halifax downtown area and later on, to the shopping centers and malls in the region to do their purchasing, and the community took on a "bedroom community" aspect: the great majority of the residents work elsewhere, with relatively few local thriving local businesses. The establishment of the Spryfield Mall in the mid-1970s was an attempt to reverse this trend, but it has struggled to fill its floorspace in recent years. That said, there is still a vigorous and growing business community in the Spryfield area, with a good amount of recent development occurring.

Schools

Information and images courtesy of Wikipedia.com

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