Uniacke Square is a public housing residential area in the north central area of Halifax, Nova Scotia. It is flanked in the northeast by Brunswick Street, the southwest by Gottingen Street.

Today, two-thirds of the residents of the Square are women, and two-thirds are under 25. Unemployment nudges 60 percent. About one-third of the population is African Canadians, the percent of African Canadians once accounted for the majority of the population.

Uniacke Square was opened on May 7, 1966 as a 250-unit housing project. A library

Library

In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...

 sits to the southeast, on Gottingen St., and a Community center to the northwest. It was built to house the displaced Africville community whose roots go back to refugees of the War of 1812

War of 1812

The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...

, the Underground Railroad

Underground Railroad

The Underground Railroad was an informal network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th-century black slaves in the United States to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause. The term is also applied to the abolitionists,...

 and American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 period. Homes in Africville were torn down as part of an urban renewal

Urban renewal

Urban renewal is a program of land redevelopment in areas of moderate to high density urban land use. Renewal has had both successes and failures. Its modern incarnation began in the late 19th century in developed nations and experienced an intense phase in the late 1940s – under the rubric of...

 scheme between 1964 and 1967. Today most of the residents of Uniacke Square are not descendants of the people who lived in Africville but rather residents from other areas in Halifax that moved to the area.

The neighbourhood around the Square is home to a number of front-line service agencies. There were four such agencies in the Gottingen Street area when Uniacke Square opened; today there are 20, including Adsum House for homeless and abused women and their families, Turning Point for homeless men and Hope Cottage, which provides meals to those who need them.

Uniacke Square supports a satellite police station, a parent resource center, a small church and an office of the Salvation Army

Salvation Army

The Salvation Army is a Protestant Christian church known for its thrift stores and charity work. It is an international movement that currently works in over a hundred countries....

. Uniacke Square also has a community center, The George Dixon Center, named after the first Canadian boxing champion George Dixon

George Dixon (boxer)

George Dixon was the first black world boxing champion in any weight class, while also being the first ever Canadian-born boxing champion.George was born in Africville, Halifax, Nova Scotia...