South-end house helps tell story of Chinese community in Halifax

Stairs House, located at 5241 South Street in Halifax, is to be restored and preserved after Halifax's heritage committee approved a proposal by Summer Wind Holdings this week. 

Stairs House was built in 1838 by Norman Fitzgerald Uniacke, a prominent lawyer and judge. It was later sold to William James Stairs, an industrialist and politician.

The house is also the former family home of Albert Lee, a historian of the Chinese community in Halifax.

Lee spoke with Moira Donovan of CBC Radio's Information Morning Halifax outside his childhood home about how buildings like Stairs House can provide a glimpse into the history of Chinese-Canadians in the city. 

There is another structure called Stairs House in the city that is owned by Dalhousie and located at 6230 South Street.

This is a condensed version of their conversation that has been edited for clarity and length.

Tell me about the house we're standing in front of?

Our father bought the house in 1946, 1947, from a Chinese restaurant owner, William Lee.

It was divided into several different areas. Upstairs on the second floor there were several small one-bedroom apartments as well as a long hallway where there were three bed-sitting rooms with hot plates and sinks. 

The inside of the house had some very unique characteristics.

In the area where we lived, there were two arched alcoves with marble and black wooden carvings.

We had a telephone and there were some glass chandeliers in the hallway and a fireplace in there.

Can you tell me a little bit about the history of the Chinese community in the city? What's the connection there?

What was interesting was there's a kind of an underbelly of discrimination.

Halifax was kind of unique, though. We didn't have ghettoized Chinatowns, like in Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa, where the Chinese were restricted to only those areas in Chinatown, where they couldn't do business or own property outside of those areas.

Halifax, Saint John, New Brunswick, St John's, Newfoundland and Charlottetown allowed Chinese businesses along the main drags near the waterfront and near the train stations as well, like, on Barrington Street, even Gottingen Street, which was quite a prosperous area with retail stores and so on.

In fact, in a 1952 Chinese directory that was published in Vancouver about Halifax, they listed 44 Chinese-owned restaurants in Halifax/Dartmouth.

However, having said that, they only served Western fare. Chinese food, or Western-style Chinese food, didn't become popular until like the 1960s.

It's very unique here in the sense that, like, the early arrivals here all came from the same villages near China. 

It seems that most educational texts, what little was out there, gives the impression that it was Chinese railway workers, [who came here] which wasn't true.

It was a better opportunity. For example, when our grandfather came here in 1903, it was a better opportunity to make money.

Agriculture in China back in the '20s and '30s basically meant you might earn 15 to 20 cents a day compared to $1.50 a day working in a restaurant or operating a Chinese laundry back then. 

There are positive dimensions to the fact that people were not ghettoized in Chinatowns in Atlantic Canada but that also potentially means that we don't have the same kind of geographical location to preserve, as you would see in other cities. I'm wondering if you have any perspectives on if there are things that the city or the people could be doing to better preserve and recognize that history of the Chinese community in the city?

There's been talk about putting commemorative plaques in front of certain buildings like the old Charlie Wah Laundry down there on Barrington and Kent streets. That's been saved as a heritage home.

The Charlie Wah Laundry was a gathering point for all the Chinese men while their wives were in China because of the Chinese Exclusion Act, which restricted Chinese wives from coming from China from 1923 to 1947. That was where male gossip, money and all those other things were gathered around at that address.

Publication would help and education.

There's more talk and production done out of China now and interest about this part of Chinese history in Canada.

I'm afraid to say that, like, I've talked with the Department of Education here for the last 20 years, but nothing's ever happened. 

It's just interesting that things are happening quicker in China and also elsewhere. The University of British Columbia has a lot of my early Chinese history material from the Maritimes at the library web page. 

They are making an effort to preserve the front part of this building and its historical character. From your perspective, why is that important as someone who knows the history of this house and who also has a personal history in it? 

I think it's important because it's a happy compromise.

The city is growing and recognizing older buildings and what the city looks like is a good thing.

However, having said that, it would be nice if the city had enough courage to insist on other things like money for heritage preservation, public green space, access, other facilities, like maybe public washrooms, and various other things like that.