History of Trinity Royal (Page 2)

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For several years prior to the fire the city had been confronting a transformation in transport technology. Slowly, but irrevocably, this change was disrupting the base of Saint John's lumber and wooden sailing-ship wealth. In addition to the technological revolution, the 1867 political evolution of the British North American provinces into the Confederation of Canada, served to focus Canadian national attention on continental development with an emphasis on railroads.

As a pedestrian or "walking city" Saint John's commercial and residential areas were largely intertwined. The Great Fire, clearly visible to the Lawtons as they stood on the deck of the Digby steamer, had started at a waterfront site and quickly eliminated the commercial area. This upheaval of the city's central business district caused severe disruption in Saint John's import-export activities as well as in the retail distribution network upon which the city's populace relied.

Responding to the urgency wrought by the fire, Saint John's business and civic leaders urged detailed building regulations which were passed by the provincial legislature in August of 1877. Supported by a building inspection system the new code was designed to prevent a repeat of the disaster that in some manner had touched every resident in the city. The intensity and degree of construction activity resulted in the creation of a new architectural street scape in the central business district ... and the reestablishment of an elite residential area, particularly on Germain Street.

The present day existence of structures such as the Old City Hall, the Old Post Office, the Pugsley Building and the Palatine Building are in some ways a testament to the economic misfortunes of Saint John in the eighty years following Confederation. Had Saint John experienced growth comparable to other North American cities during those years, there might have been pressure to level the post-fire buildings in favor of newer construction. Instead for much of the late nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century the post-fire reconstruction, which essentially retained the spatial limits of the pre-fire city, remained largely unchallenged as there was little demand for land to accommodate large manufacturing or commercial enterprises near the port. As a result Germain Street reemerged in the 1880s as a residential street for the upper class with shops located on the blocks closest to King Street. Moreover, the city's principal pre-fire commercial streets, King and Prince William, remained in that role, with Water Street retaining its warehouse function. The ensuing years, characterized largely by economic stagnation, witnessed changes in the population composition and land uses of Trinity Royal but not in its rich architectural heritage which included some of the finest examples of late nineteenth century commercial buildings on the continent.

Removal of much of the city's least desirable structures drew attention to those edifices embodying a past architectural elegance which had been constructed in the years immediately following the Great Fire. During the urban renewal years a number of citizens from a cross section of the community had been advocating heritage preservation. Gradually the idea that the visual wealth of Saint John's Uptown South End area rested on the rejuvenation and preservation of its architectural heritage came to be shared with increasing support by the broader civic and business community. It was in this climate of urban renewal that the greater central business district also received attention during the 1960s and 1970s.