Downtown Dartmouth is the main business

Business

A business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...

, banking and government office core of the Dartmouth

Dartmouth, Nova Scotia

Dartmouth founded in 1750, is a community and planning area of the Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia. Located on the eastern shore of Halifax Harbour, Dartmouth has been nicknamed the City of Lakes after the large number of lakes located in the city.On April 1, 1996, the provincial...

 area of the Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...

. It is part of the Capital District of the Province.

Business and buildings

Located in downtown Dartmouth are the home of the Halifax Regional School Board

Halifax Regional School Board

The Halifax Regional School Board is the public school board responsible for 137 elementary, junior high, and high schools located within the Halifax Regional Municipality in Nova Scotia, Canada. The current Superintendent of the HRSB is Carole Olsen, who has held the position since 2002...

 (located in the former city hall of the former city of Dartmouth), Alderney Gate

Alderney Landing

Alderney Landing is a convention centre, art gallery, market, and theatre facility in Downtown Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. It was opened in May, 1999...

 which houses a branch of the Halifax Public Libraries

Halifax Public Libraries

Halifax Public Libraries is the public library system that serves the Halifax Regional Municipality of Nova Scotia, Canada. It was created in 1996 through a merging of the Halifax, Dartmouth Regional, and Halifax County library systems...

 and other office space, the Alderney Landing

Alderney Landing

Alderney Landing is a convention centre, art gallery, market, and theatre facility in Downtown Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. It was opened in May, 1999...

 market, gallery and theatre building, the 19-story highrise office building Queen Square

Queen Square (Dartmouth)

Queen Square is an office building located in downtown Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, part of the Halifax Regional Municipality. At 18 floors , Queen Square is the tallest building in the downtown Dartmouth area, and is located on Alderney Drive across from Alderney Gate...

, as well as the main branches of the Royal Bank of Canada

Royal Bank of Canada

The Royal Bank of Canada or RBC Financial Group is the largest financial institution in Canada, as measured by deposits, revenues, and market capitalization. The bank serves seventeen million clients and has 80,100 employees worldwide. The company corporate headquarters are located in Toronto,...

 and CIBC. Also in the area there several condominium

Condominium

A condominium, or condo, is the form of housing tenure and other real property where a specified part of a piece of real estate is individually owned while use of and access to common facilities in the piece such as hallways, heating system, elevators, exterior areas is executed under legal rights...

 highrise buildings. The La Perla Restaurant building on 73 Alderney Drive is the oldest commercial brick building on the Dartmouth side of the harbour. Downtown Dartmouth also features historic landmarks such as the Quaker Whaler House, one of the oldest buildings in Halifax Regional Municipality (open to the public seasonally) and Evergreen House, Victorian home to nationally acclaimed folklorist, Helen Creighton (open year round).

Transportation

Downtown Dartmouth is connected by ferry

Ferry

A ferry is a form of transportation, usually a boat, but sometimes a ship, used to carry primarily passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo as well, across a body of water. Most ferries operate on regular, frequent, return services...

 to downtown Halifax

Downtown Halifax

Downtown Halifax is the city centre of the Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia. Located on the eastern-central portion of the Halifax Peninsula, on Halifax Harbour, it serves as the business, entertainment, and tourism hub of the region.- Municipal:...

 operated by Metro Transit

Metro Transit (Halifax)

Metro Transit is a Canadian public transport agency operating buses and ferries in Nova Scotia's Halifax Regional Municipality .Owned by the HRM, Metro Transit's operations area is the urban core in the western part of the municipality, namely the Halifax and Dartmouth Metropolitan Areas, along...

 from Alderney Landing

Alderney Landing

Alderney Landing is a convention centre, art gallery, market, and theatre facility in Downtown Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. It was opened in May, 1999...

. North America's oldest continually operating saltwater ferry service was started in 1752 by one man rowing customers across the harbour for three cents per trip. The three main streets are Alderney Drive (Trunk 7), Portland Street (Route 207

Nova Scotia Route 207

Route 207 is a collector road in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. It is located in the Halifax Regional Municipality and connects Dartmouth to Porter on the Eastern Shore.-Dartmouth:...

), and Ochterloney Street. Along Alderney Drive is the CN

Canadian National Railway

The Canadian National Railway Company is a Canadian Class I railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. CN's slogan is "North America's Railroad"....

 railyard.

Parks

Ferry Terminal Park is the park space along the waterfront adjacent to the Dartmouth Ferry Terminal. In it resides the World Peace Pavilion, opened during the 1995 Halifax G7 Economic Summit. Conceived by Metro Youth for Global Unity, this structure contains stone

Rock (geology)

In geology, rock or stone is a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids.The Earth's outer solid layer, the lithosphere, is made of rock. In general rocks are of three types, namely, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic...

s and brick

Brick

A brick is a block of ceramic material used in masonry construction, usually laid using various kinds of mortar. It has been regarded as one of the longest lasting and strongest building materials used throughout history.-History:...

s donated by more than 70 countries, lying on a bed of Nova Scotian sand

Sand

Sand is a naturally occurring granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles.The composition of sand is highly variable, depending on the local rock sources and conditions, but the most common constituent of sand in inland continental settings and non-tropical coastal...

. Also within the Ferry Terminal Park is the huge bronze

Bronze

Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...

 propeller

Propeller

A propeller is a type of fan that transmits power by converting rotational motion into thrust. A pressure difference is produced between the forward and rear surfaces of the airfoil-shaped blade, and a fluid is accelerated behind the blade. Propeller dynamics can be modeled by both Bernoulli's...

 from the CCGS John A. Macdonald

CCGS John A. Macdonald

CCGS John A. Macdonald was a Canadian Coast Guard heavy icebreaker. She was named after The Right Honourable, Sir John Alexander Macdonald, GCB, KCMG, PC, PC , the First Prime Minister of Canada....

, an icebreaker

Icebreaker

An icebreaker is a special-purpose ship or boat designed to move and navigate through ice-covered waters. Although the term usually refers to ice-breaking ships, it may also refer to smaller vessels .For a ship to be considered an icebreaker, it requires three traits most...

 damaged during its 1969 journey through the Northwest Passage

Northwest Passage

The Northwest Passage is a sea route through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America via waterways amidst the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans...

, as well as the inlaid granite

Granite

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

 compass rose

Compass rose

A compass rose, sometimes called a windrose, is a figure on a compass, map, nautical chart or monument used to display the orientation of the cardinal directions — North, East, South and West - and their intermediate points. It is also the term for the graduated markings found on the traditional...

 in the park, which is a replica of the compass

Compass

A compass is a navigational instrument that shows directions in a frame of reference that is stationary relative to the surface of the earth. The frame of reference defines the four cardinal directions – north, south, east, and west. Intermediate directions are also defined...

 detail on a 1749 map of Halifax Harbour

Halifax Harbour

Halifax Harbour is a large natural harbour on the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, located in the Halifax Regional Municipality.-Harbour description:The harbour is called Jipugtug by the Mi'kmaq first nation, anglisized as Chebucto...

. Extending from Alderney Landing

Alderney Landing

Alderney Landing is a convention centre, art gallery, market, and theatre facility in Downtown Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. It was opened in May, 1999...

 is the Events Plaza, a specially designed and equipped outdoor space for festival

Festival

A festival or gala is an event, usually and ordinarily staged by a local community, which centers on and celebrates some unique aspect of that community and the Festival....

s and events. Eastern Front Theatre performs at Alderney Landing

Alderney Landing

Alderney Landing is a convention centre, art gallery, market, and theatre facility in Downtown Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. It was opened in May, 1999...

's theatre.

The Leighton Dillman Scenic Garden, named after a diligent voluntary keeper of the gardens, sits adjacent to Alderney Drive on a hillside of what is left of the Dartmouth Commons

Dartmouth Commons

The Dartmouth Common is an approximately area of land set aside by the government in the late 18th century for the settlers common use in Dartmouth Nova Scotia, Canada...

, approximately 300 acres (1.2 km²) set aside by the government in the late 18th century for the settlers' common use. Only a small portion of the Commons today remains.

Past industry

On Dartmouth Cove are the former Dartmouth Marine Slips owned by the J.D. Irving Limited group of Companies, former site of the Nantucket Whaling

Whaling

Whaling is the hunting of whales mainly for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales...

Company.