PETERS, Henry (1824-1890) was born in Quebec City and was active in Halifax, N.S. as a contractor, builder and, for nearly two decades, as an architect. He arrived in Halifax before 1850 and was one of founding partners of Peters, Blaiklock & Peters, a noted firm of builders and contractors who constructed the Wellington Barracks in 1852. The name of Henry Peters is consistently listed as both an architect and builder in the Halifax City Directories from 1866 until 1878. He had a close working relationship with David Stirling, the leading architect in Nova Scotia in the late 19th C., and for Stirling he constructed the Poor's Asylum (1867-68) and the Inter-Colonial Railway Station (1874-77). In 1883-85 Peters designed and built St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church, Halifax '...in the early English Gothic style'. The Archbishop of Halifax had obtained plans '..from two or three eminent American architects the designs for a church. A design by Mr. Peters was also furnished'(Halifax Morning Herald, 18 Dec. 1885, 3, descrip.) The submissions from American architects included those from Patrick Keely, the leading ecclesiastical architect of New York City, and another design from Patrick W. Ford of Boston, but their proposals may have proven too costly, or too ambitious and were set aside in favour of the design by Peters. At the time of his death in Halifax on 14 March 1890 Peters was said to have been one of the largest owners of real estate in the city (obit. Halifax Herald, 15 March 1890, 3; biog. M. Rosinski, Architects of Nova Scotia: A Biographical Dictionary 1605-1950, 1994, 135-6; inf.Garry Shutlak, Halifax)
HALIFAX, N.S., stables for Dr. Charles Tupper, at his residence in Armdale, Tupper Grove Avenue at Armdale Avenue, overlooking the North West Arm, 1867 (Nova Scotian [Halifax], 6 May 1867, 2; Founded Upon A Rock- Historic Buildings in Halifax, 1973, 110-111, illus. & descrip., but lacking attribution to the architect)
HERRING COVE, N.S., public school, 1878 (Acadian Recorder [Halifax], 26 Sept. 1878, 2, t,.c.)
HALIFAX, N.S., St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church, Brunswick Street, 1883-85 (Citizen & Evening Chronicle [Halifax], 9 August 1883, 3; E. Pacey, Historic Halifax, 1988, 142-3, illus)