NSTC started classes in September 1909 in a new building on Spring Garden Road (presently occupied by the Faculty of Architecture and Planning). This property was former military land that had been vacated with the withdrawal of the Royal Navy and British Army from Halifax in 1906; the provision of the land included a requirement that NSTC include military instruction in its curriculum. Compulsory military training at NSTC ended in 1945. Initially NSTC offered programs in civil engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and mining engineering. In 1947 NSTC began offering chemical engineering and metallurgical engineering. In 1961 the School of Architecture was established (the first and only program in Atlantic Canada). In 1964 NSTC began offering geological engineering followed by industrial engineering in 1965. In 1982 the School of Computer Science was established.