Editing Halifax Explosion (section)

==Reconstruction==
[[File:No 3905 Page 25, gare du Nord.jpg|thumb|alt=Several workers stand among trains and buildings with shovels in their hands|Workers clear debris from the [[North Street Station (Halifax)|North Street Station]].]]
Efforts began shortly after the explosion to clear debris, repair buildings, and establish temporary housing for survivors left homeless by the explosion. By late January 1918, around 5,000 were still without shelter.{{sfn|Flemming|2004|p=73}} A reconstruction committee under Colonel Robert Low constructed 832 new housing units, which were furnished by the Massachusetts-Halifax Relief Fund.{{sfn|Flemming|2004|p=74}}

Partial train service resumed from a temporary rail terminal in the city's South End on 7 December. Full service resumed on 9 December when tracks were cleared and the [[North Street Station (Halifax)|North Street Station]] reopened. The [[Canadian Government Railways]] created a special unit to clear and repair railway yards as well as rebuild railway piers and the Naval Dockyard. Most piers returned to operation by late December and were repaired by January.<ref name=smith/>

The North End Halifax neighbourhood of Richmond bore the brunt of the explosion.<ref name=dev/> In 1917, Richmond was considered a working-class neighbourhood and had few paved roads. After the explosion, the Halifax Relief Commission approached the reconstruction of Richmond as an opportunity to improve and modernize the city's North End. English town planner [[Thomas Adams (architect)|Thomas Adams]] and Montreal architectural firm [[Ross and Macdonald]] were recruited to design a new housing plan for Richmond. Adams, inspired by the Victorian [[garden city movement]], aimed to provide public access to green spaces and to create a low-rise, low-density, and multifunctional urban neighbourhood.<ref name=heb/>{{sfn|Kitz|Payzant|2006|p=53}}

The planners designed 326 large homes that each faced a tree-lined, paved boulevard.{{sfn|Flemming|2004|pp=80–81}} They specified that the homes be built with a new and innovative fireproof material, blocks of compressed cement called Hydrostone.<ref name=heb/>{{sfn|Flemming|2004|p=81}} The first of these homes was occupied by March 1919,{{sfn|Flemming|2004|p=81}} just a few months before [[Edward VIII|Prince Edward, Prince of Wales]], visited the site on 17 August, touring many of the houses and hearing stories about the impacts of the tragedy and "of the kindness of the people who quickly came to their aid."<ref>{{cite web| url=https://novascotia.ca/news/release/?id=20140516006| title=Looking Back at Royal Tours at the Nova Scotia Archives| date=16 May 2014| publisher=Nova Scotia Archives| accessdate=17 August 2022}}</ref> Once finished, the [[The Hydrostone|Hydrostone]] neighbourhood consisted of homes, businesses, and parks, which helped create a new sense of community in the North End of Halifax. It has now become an upscale neighbourhood and shopping district.{{sfn|Kitz|Payzant|2006|p=56}} In contrast, the equally poor and underdeveloped area of Africville was not included in reconstruction efforts.<ref name=heb/>

Every building in the Halifax dockyard required some degree of rebuilding, as did HMCS ''Niobe'' and the docks themselves; all of the Royal Canadian Navy's minesweepers and patrol boats were undamaged.{{sfn|Armstrong|2002|p=98}} Prime Minister [[Robert Borden]] pledged that the government would be "co-operating in every way to reconstruct the Port of Halifax: this was of utmost importance to the Empire".{{sfn|Armstrong|2002|p=99}} Captain Symington of USS ''Tacoma'' speculated that the port would not be operational for months,{{Sfn|Armstrong|2002|p=105}} but a convoy departed on 11 December and dockyard operations resumed before Christmas.{{sfn|Armstrong|2002|pp=108–110}}