Halifax Explosion Memorial Bell Tower by CORE Design Group is one of many public artworks installed across the Halifax Regional Municipality.
CORE Design Group, 1985
Fort Needham
About the artwork
The Halifax Explosion took place on December 6, 1917, and the 2017 ceremony at Fort Needham will mark the 100th anniversary of the event. The Memorial Bell Tower overlooks the area devastated by the explosion and commemorates those who were killed or suffered injury, and those who lost homes and family when the munitions ship Mont Blanc blew up in Halifax Harbour. It also honours the survivors, who rebuilt the cities of Halifax and Dartmouth in the years that followed.
The ten original bells hanging in the tower were initially donated to the United Memorial Church on nearby Kaye Street by Barbara Orr, who lost her entire family in the explosion. The bells eventually had to be removed from the Kaye Street Church owing to structural problems, and were accommodated in the design of the Explosion Memorial Tower, completed in 1985.
