Stumble Upon

del.icio.us

Digg

Facebook

Print

Email

Speak Up

Saint John - Do you think that the only architecture worth looking at in New Brunswick is from the 19th century? Think again.

1 of 5

Tim Jaques/Tribune

This house at 32 King St. in Campbellton, designed about 1948 by A.I. Morrison, makes it to Leroux's book as well. He describes it as an example of an "isolated experiment in Modernism" at a time when New Brunswickers "still clung to a conscientious and prudent language" of architecture. Note that it appears to be for sale, if you are interested in purchasing this particular isolated experiment.

Courtesy Michel Goudreau Collection

The Campbellton Grammar School, built in 1897 in Second Empire style and burned in 1910, is here shown in a tinted postcard from the Michel Goudreau Collection.

Courtesy Michel Goudreau

Dalhousie Town Hall, built in 1939 in concrete in the Art Deco style, is shown as it originally looked in this postcard from the Michel Goudreau Collection. Note the elegant light niches on either side of the window on the second story, very much in the Art Deco style, which are unfortunately now covered over. It was designed and built by town engineer Fred J. Bateman, who also built himself a concrete house on Brunswick St. which still stands.

The Don Bosco Roman Catholic Church in Dalhousie was built in 1967 after the original church was destroyed by fire. It is a fine example of the Modernist Movement in architecture. It is shown here during the annual town Christmas carol service.

While we do indeed have (or had) fine examples of architecture from the time of Queen Victoria, we also have examples of Art Deco and Modernism, to give two examples, as good as found any way.

A fine survey of New Brunswick's architectural history has been made by John Leroux in his new book, Building New Brunswick: An Architectural History. Readers of the Telegraph-Journal will know Leroux from his writings on architecture in the Telegraph-Journal's weekend Salon section. Other contributors to the book are Robert Leavitt, Dr. Stuart Smith, and Gary Hughes.

A beautiful, hefty volume with excellent colour photo reproductions and quality paper, the book contains not only an analysis of the styles of architecture, but also the socio-economic and artistic circumstances behind them. Leroux managed to interview architects who are still alive, getting for the first time accounts of their work at the time of the construction of certain buildings. Leroux wishes to reappraise the idea that New Brunswick was behind the times during the 20th century when it came to architecture, and gives a full and fascinating account of it here. This is not only a book of the art of architecture, but also a book of our history, much of obscure and unknown until now.

Some buildings in our area make the book as well. As a bit of fun, readers will recognize the Big D Drive-In restaurant in Bathurst, built in 1969, The long canopy is an exact copy of those used in the 1950s in the western US by a chain called the Arctic Circle Drive-In, which the owner Keith DeGrace chose because he thought it was "trendy".

Closer to our area, we get to the as-yet unopened Aboriginal Heritage Garden Interpretation Pavilion at Eel River Bar First Nation, described as "a strongly formal and and visceral metaphor for the interior of a traditional birchbark wigwam." Another building reminiscent of outdoor life is the original Camp Harmony at the mouth of the Upsalquitch, designed in 1896 by Stanford White of New York. Leroux believes that the elegant salmon lodges in the province are "almost unknown among historians of architecture."

Included in the discussion of Art Deco is Dalhousie's unique town hall, designed and built entirely of concrete in 1939 by town engineer Fred J. Bateman. Bateman must have liked concrete, as he also built himself a concrete house on Brunswick St. (not included in this book) which still stands. Also from Dalhousie is the cool, comforting, light-filled Modernist interior of Don Bosco Roman Catholic Church, built in 1967 after the destruction of the first church by fire.

Campbellton is probably an example of a town that liked its old ways very much, thank you, although Leroux does not discuss the issue. After the fire of 1910, the townspeople rebuilt most of the houses in the same Victorian styles as those which had burned. In some cases, such as the Raymond house at King and Cedar, the house was rebuilt to an identical plan on the same foundations. Campbellton's old post office, now its city hall, is almost identical to the structure which burned in 1910.

But prior to the fire there had been a keeping with architectural trends in the erection of the Campbellton Grammar School, identified by Leroux as having been built in the Second Empire style. It stood on the current site of Restigouche Gallery on Andrew Street. It opened in 1897 amidst great celebrations — there was a huge parade and as part of the festivities Campbellton received the French cannons from Athol House now in Riverside Park — but burned in 1910.

The only Campbellton building mentioned in the book that is still standing is the curious little house at 32 King St., designed in 1948 by I. Morrison, which Leroux sees as an "isolated experiment" in Modernism conducted in the 1940s. Who'd have known? We should be thankful for an intelligent and informative book like this.

John Leroux's Building New Brunswick: An Architectural History, $50, 320 pages, deluxe paperback, is published by Goose Lane Productions, Fredericton, www.gooselane.com. Copies are also available at the Restigouche Regional Museum, Dalhousie.