THREE HISTORIC WALKING TOURS

The geology of Saint John is about 1.2 billion years old, and it was once connected to Africa. This land, the Wabanaki (Land of the Dawn), is the traditional territory of the Wolastoqiyik. The tribal groups belonging to the Wabanaki confederacy are Maliseet, Mi’kmaq, Passemaquoddy, Penobscot and Abenaki.

The first European to explore this area was Portuguese explorer Estêvão Gomes who, in 1535, identified a river on the east coast as the “Rio de la Vuelta” (River of the Return). In 1604, Mi’kmaq gathered on Ouigoudi (Navy Island), where they watched a foreign-looking ship enter the harbour on June 24, St. John the Baptist Day. Aboard were Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Monts, and Samuel de Champlain. They charted the harbour and made note of the Reversing Falls Rapids. They named the river after their patron saint (St. John). Almost thirty years later, in 1631, Charles de La Tour, the newly commissioned Governor of Acadia, built a fortified trading post as his headquarters at the mouth of the river. In 1645, the fort was captured by La Tour’s rival for Governor, Charles d’Aulnay, after a valiant defence led by La Tour’s wife – Françoise Marie Jacquelin – while her husband was in Boston seeking aid from the English. A new tourism development interpreting the heritage of the Fort La Tour site has recently been developed at this site.

In 1713, the Treaty of Utrecht ceded French Acadia, including the Saint John River Valley, to England. The French settlers were gradually displaced by colonists and traders from New England. The Massachusetts firm of Simonds, Hazen and White established a trading post at the river mouth in 1762, and the first permanent settlement in the area was established.

In 1775 the American Revolution began, and bands of American rebels and privateers raided the eastern seacoast, which threatened to topple the Simonds, Hazen and White enterprise. Fort Howe was established in 1777 to safeguard the river from further attacks.

At the end of the American Revolution, 14,000 Loyalist supporters of the British arrived at Portland Point en route to settle along the Saint John River, using land grants allotted to them by the crown. Some of the Loyalists established two settlements, one on either side of the river mouth: “Parr-Town” on the east and “Carleton” on the west. In 1785, the two settlements were incorporated by Royal Charter into the City of Saint John – Canada’s first incorporated city.

The years that followed brought economic growth and social development. Saint John developed a prosperous timber trade and a wood shipbuilding industry, which by the mid-1800s, was the third largest in the world.

Saint John also attracted an influx of immigrants, beginning after the War of 1812, mainly from Scotland, England and the West Indies. In the 1840s, more than 30,000 Irish arrived in New Brunswick, mainly in Saint John. Many suffered from typhus. Later immigrants from Germany, Denmark and Russia brought with them smallpox and cholera. Some were quarantined on Partridge Island.

The 1860s saw the city’s shipbuilding industry decline as steel steampowered vessels replaced wooden sailing ships. Canada’s oldest surviving wooden ship is the Egeria, built in Millidgeville in 1859 and now resting at Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands.

Canada’s Confederation in 1867 dealt another blow to Saint John and to the Maritimes. In order to encourage Maritime trade with central Canada, the government of the new dominion imposed high tariffs on foreign goods, forcing Maritime businessmen to import costly materials from Ontario and Quebec.

On June 20, 1877, a disastrous fire destroyed the city’s central business district and much of the residential south end. The task of rebuilding the city was an enormous one for Saint John’s citizens – but rebuild it they did, this time out of brick and stone in the commercial district and primarily wood in the residential areas.

Better times were underway. Beginning in 1880, the railway expansion provided direct links with the rest of Canada, stimulating the flow of goods and commerce. Consequently, the port began to flourish and manufacturing boomed. Even the shipbuilding industry was revived with the establishment of the Saint John Dry Dock in 1923. Gradually, Saint John regained its prominence as an important manufacturing and shipbuilding centre.

With our Drydock and port facilities, the City played a prominent role during the Second World War. Post-war, entire neighbourhoods were built for Veterans and their young families. Urban renewal wiped out other neighbourhoods and replaced them with new transportation links and commercial facilities. Saint John experienced suburban sprawl like most North American communities.

Take in our historic architecture, step back to the time of our earliest settlers and immerse yourself in our tree-lined neighbourhoods. Packed with interesting facts and charming stories, the Three Historic Walking Tours brochure will be your valued companion along the way.

Let’s get going!

May 1783

Seven ships lie anchored in the Bay of Fundy, off the mouth of the Saint John River. The passengers aboard are a curious collection of refugees – they are farmers and doctors, carpenters and lawyers, craftsmen and soldiers – people of every age, from all walks of life. As they gaze grimly upon the rocky peninsula and the Fundy mud flats sprawling before them, they share a common longing for the homes they left behind.

From the beginnings of the American Revolution in 1775, to shortly after its conclusion in 1783, some 40,000 British subjects fled north to escape persecution. The 3,000 “Loyalists” – as they were called – who arrived in Saint John that May were followed by 11,000 more before the year ended.

The Loyalists established two settlements at the mouth of the Saint John River – Parr-Town, named after the Governor of Nova Scotia; and Carleton, after their Commander-in-Chief in New York. Many moved and settled upriver. In 1785, the two settlements were incorporated by Royal Charter into the City of Saint John. In time, the Loyalists would come to regard their infant city with an affection similar to that which they had felt for their American homes. This deep sentiment, combined with patience, toil and a strong will to survive, enabled them to build a brand new life upon this once seemingly inhospitable shore.

The LOYALIST TRAIL walking tour retraces the footsteps of our founders – exploring the spots where they landed on May 18, 1783. You’ll visit the Old Burial Ground; the County Court; Loyalist House – now a museum of period furnishings; historic Trinity Church; Saint John’s delightful City Market; and so much more.

Explore the very heart of old Saint John and step back through two fascinating centuries of our city’s history.

LOYALIST TRAIL

Length Approximately 1.5 hours

High Style in Old Saint John

The Great Fire of 1877 dealt a devastating blow to Saint John, destroying 1,612 buildings, leaving 13,000 homeless, and killing 22 people.

But the City was quick to recover. One local observer wrote after the Fire: “Everywhere buildings are going up, most of them of a thoroughly substantial character. To walk through the principal streets seems like inspecting a beehive.”

Many of the fine homes that lined the main residential streets of Saint John had been reduced to ashes. Their owners – wealthy ship owners, commission agents and merchants – were determined that their new homes would be equally, if not more splendid than those they replaced.

They commissioned architects from Saint John, Boston, Halifax, New York, Toronto and Montreal. They imported fine materials – mahogany from Honduras and marble from Italy – and they engaged noted Saint John builders and craftsmen.

The resulting homes were grand indeed. Today most of them remain standing, and most are much as they were when they were built – fine examples of period architecture, combined with outstanding workmanship.

Take in the elegant homes nestled along the tree-lined, 19th century residential streets of central Saint John.

VICTORIAN STROLL

Length approximately 1.5 hours

Merchant Heritage of Saint John

At 2 p.m. on June 20, 1877, a flash fire broke out in Fairweather’s Hay Store at the west end of Union Street. Outside, a brisk nor’wester howled, and as the flames broke through the outside walls of the store, a burning branch was carried by the wind, igniting the nearby MacLaughlan Boiler Works. The fire spread rapidly, engulfing one wooden building after another, until most of the Central Peninsula was caught up in a roaring inferno. For nine long hours the fire raged. When it was over, two-thirds of this part of Saint John, including most of the commercial district, was a smoldering mass of charred rubble.

With 1,612 buildings destroyed, 13,000 people homeless, and 22 people dead, Saint John turned its efforts to building anew – as quickly as possible. The next decade saw much of the uptown and south end rebuilt. Many of these buildings remain intact today, and because they do, Saint John can truthfully claim to have some of the finest surviving examples of 19th century commercial facades in all of Canada.

The first block of Prince William Street was the first streetscape in Canada to be designated by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada as being of national historic and architectural significance. To protect the character of the buildings in the central core of the city, Saint John created the twenty-block Trinity Royal Preservation Area. PRINCE WILLIAM WALK tours some of the charming streets within this area.

So elaborate are some of the buildings and their detailing that it is easy to imagine the fierce competition among property owners, contractors and craftsmen to out-do one another in the grandness of their proud, new structures.

Take in the imposing splendor of Corinthian columns, the whimsy of Queen Anne Revival, elaborate Italianate facades and curious stone carvings grimacing atop their cornice perches.

PRINCE WILLIAM WALK

Approximately 1.5 hours

Georgian, 1785-1840

This style is a simple, confidently dignified rectangular block with a carefully balanced facade. Named for the reign of the British Kings George I to George IV.

Greek Revival, 1800-1880

This style emphasized the classical proportions of Greek temples as symbols of the stability and optimism of this Colonial expansion period.

Gothic Revival, 1825-1880

This style emerged as a rebellion against the stricter formality of earlier classical styles. It embraced many of the features of medieval cathedrals.

Italianate, 1850-1890

This style also emerged as a rebellion against the stricter formality of earlier classical styles. It embraced many of the characteristics of Italian farmhouses.

Second Empire, 1860-1900

This style, which is also called Mansard, imitated the latest cosmopolitan building fashions in France during the reign of Emperor Napoleon III. The distinctive roof shape is named after the French architect Francois Mansard.

Queen Anne Revival, 1880-1915

This style is vivacious and uninhibited, with each home having its own unique features, but all using asymmetrical massing. Towers or turrets are common features.

 _{Source: Practical Preservation Guidelines, Architectural Styles, Planning, Building, Infrastructure and Heritage Conservation, City of Saint John}