Robie Street

A stretch of Robie Street, running north from its junction with Quinpool Road (bottom), past the Halifax Commons (right).

Robie Street is a north-south artery, street and provincial road that runs for 7 kilometres within the Halifax Peninsula area of the Halifax Regional Municipality, from Memorial Drive in the North End Halifax, to Gorsebrook Avenue in the South End. The street in most places is 4 lanes wide with a centre median from Gorsebrook Ave to Cunard Street. From Cunard to Almon Streets, it is a 2-lane street. Public resistance prevented expansion to 4 lanes; it remains a major bottleneck for traffic in the afternoon going to the Macdonald Bridge via North Street.

From Livingstone Street to Memorial Drive it is a 2 lane street. From Almon Street to the MacKay Bridge Ramps it is 4 lanes undivided. Massachusetts Avenue (effective May 21, 2007, formerly and still commonly referred to as Robie Street Extension) connects Robie Street from Livingstone Street to the MacKay Bridge. On the Halifax Peninsula street grid system the civic numbers range from 820 to 3899.^[1]

The street was named for Simon Bradstreet Robie (1770–1858), a prominent Nova Scotia judge and politician.^[2] There also streets named after Judge Robie in Truro and Amherst, Nova Scotia. At first Robie was mainly a residential and commercial street, but in 1882, the Nova Scotia Cotton Manufacturing Company was constructed at Robie and Almon and was followed by a series of other factories creating an industrial distinct in the north end of Robie.

Notable places

• Saint Mary's University
• Inglis Street Elementary School
• Gorsebrook Park
• Gorsebrook Junior High School
• Dalhousie University
• IWK Health Centre
• Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency Station #2 (at University Ave.)
• Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management (NSARM)
• QEII Health Sciences Centre (Camp Hill site)
• Camp Hill Cemetery
• Queen Elizabeth High School (demolished)
• Halifax Regional School Board Halifax All City Music -Adult ESL Program
• Holiday Inn Halifax Centre (now the Atlantica Hotel)
• The Willow Tree intersection
• Halifax Common
• CTV Atlantic Studios
• Welsford Apartments
• Nova Scotia Community College Institute of Technology Campus, formerly The Nova Scotia Institute of Technology
• Highland Park Junior High School
• Halifax Regional Water Commission reservoir
• Fire Fighters Monument
• Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency Station 6

Major intersections

• Inglis Street
• South Street
• University Avenue
• Coburg Road
• Spring Garden Road
• Jubilee Road/Veterans Memorial Lane
• Quinpool Road/Bell Road/Cogswell Street (Willow Tree)
• Cunard Street
• North Street
• Almon Street
• Young Street
• Lady Hammond Road
• Leeds Street

References

1. HRM - Street Maintenance Directory
2. Shelagh Mackenzie and Scott Robson, Halifax Street Names: An Illustrated Guide, Formac Publishing Company, 2004. P. 133

Coordinates: 44°39′6.60″N 63°35′33.82″W / 44.6518333°N 63.5927278°W