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Friday October 10, 2008 |
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History of Trinity Royal (Page 3) Trinity Royal: "The dearest spot on earth to me"In the post-war years, with their increasing reliance on automobiles, the area which would be eventually designated, Trinity Royal, had receded as a primary residential area. Its proud brownstones, once the preferred refuge for the city's affluent, had become rooming houses occupied largely by non-owner residents. The features of some of its distinctive commercial buildings had been boarded over and abandoned in favor of newer construction. Despite such unwelcome changes, however, the stately facades of many of these buildings continued to serve as persistent visible sentinels recalling a shared collective memory. By the late 1970s the city was poised to formally acknowledge the importance of architectural heritage. In December 1979 the Common Council established the Preservation Review Board. Its seven members were charged with identifying and designating preservation areas within the city. A month later, in January 1980, the city, together with the Heritage Canada Foundation, and the New Brunswick Historical Resources Administration co-sponsored a study to implement a plan for heritage preservation in the Uptown South End area of Saint John. In the meantime the Saint John Preservation Area Citizens' Committee had overseen a competition to choose an appropriate name for the newly designated historic area. Choosing from among 62 submissions in November 1980, the committee selected, Trinity Royal, submitted by Saint John resident, Ann O'Keefe. According to the committee chair, the word "trinity" represented the three navigational lamps at the foot of Prince William Street while the word "royal" celebrated Saint John's history + a past retained in the city's street names and the naming of its two squares, King and Queen. Subsequent descriptive and promotional literature regarding Trinity Royal would ascribe the selection of the word "trinity" also to the existence within the preservation area of the historic Trinity Church. By the Spring of 1981 the local firm of Mott, Myles, Chatwin, Ltd., having undertaken the task of evaluating the area for heritage preservation, presented its completed study to the city. A successful public hearing was held in December to discuss the proposed Preservation Area By-Law. In March 1982 the By-Law was enacted by the provincial legislature and in April the city of Saint John formally designated Trinity Royal as a Heritage Preservation Area. A new era opened in the city's history!
************** Today a walk through Trinity Royal beckons us to absorb the sense of space
and architectural vision championed by our late nineteenth century urban
forebears. As we stroll past each building, we recall their desire to
reassemble the substance of their remembered past...to defy the ravages
of a calamity...to reclaim their place and to affirm their future. Their material construction which has become our material heritage prompts us to reflect on heritage preservation today as a means of securing an architectural legacy for the future while sustaining a shared communal memory. Surrounded by mansard roofs, gargoyles and other material signatures of that day, we connect briefly, but intensely, with past generations as our eyes touch the same surfaces that received their glances...and, perhaps, for just a moment we remember that Trinity Royal includes the spaces once occupied by Lawton's Wharf and a Germain Street home once affectionately described "as the dearest spot on earth to me." |
