Anderson House (St. John's)

Anderson House[1] is a wooden, two and one half storey hip roofed heritage-designated[1][2] building located at 42 Powers Court, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. It is a Vernacular Georgian style building[3] and is reported to be one of the oldest structures in the city of St. John's.

For other uses, see Anderson House (disambiguation).
Anderson House
General information
Location42 Powers Court, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador
CountryCanada
CompletedCirca 1804
Design and construction
EngineerJames Anderson

History

The house is of modest construction and an excellent example of 19th-century homes. It was built on land that was purchased from Dr. Jonathan Ogden, a Newfoundland chief justice, in 1802. It was constructed circa 1803-1804, possibly for Sergeant James Anderson. The date is suggested by two notes in the Governor’s Correspondence, a 1803 permission to build a barn on the property, and a 1804 permission to building a dwelling house.[4]

Anderson held land that area at least by 1808, as in September of 1819, the Newfoundland Mercantile Journal gave notice of the public auction of a property lot in the vicinity of the upper part of Maggoty Cove, Signal Hill: "The freehold of a field adjoining Lot No, 14, now in the occupancy of Mr. James Anderson, and by him held under a lease, of which 11 years will be unexpired on the 1st November next, at the yearly rent of £7 10."[5] An 1849 map shows the house sitting on what is called "Anderson's Ground."[6]

Oral history maintains the house was used both as a private residence and as a military barracks with a section of the house used to stable horses. Anderson's military career is not well documented, but multiple newspaper accounts from the era show him to be an entrepreneur, renting and developing properties, selling goods including turnips, carrots, parsnips, firewood, and timothy seed.[4]

In 1818, Anderson opened the “St. Johns’ Spruce Beer Brewery” at the upper wharf of John Dunscome on the St. John's waterfront. By May 1842 he had expanded his business to include "Temperance Liquor" including spruce beer and hop porter, sold out of his brewery at Half-way-house, Signal Hill Road, which could have been Anderson’s circa 1803 barn or one of his other houses.[4]

Anderson died on St. Valentine’s Day, 14 February 1852 at age 84, and was survived by his wife, Catherine.[4] Henry C. Tillmann, a professor of music and a composer who arrived in St. John's in 1844 from Halifax, Nova Scotia, purchased the home from Catherine in 1860.

Mary Tillman, wife of Henry, sold the property to John Power some time between 1862 and 1864; in 1878 he in turn sold it to Patrick Power.[6] At some point the property passed from a Mary Power to her husband, William Finlay, who owned the property in 1970.[6] The building was at one time following this owned by the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corporation of St. John's.[7]

Restoration and Heritage Designation

After 1972, the building began to decay rapidly.[8] In 1973, it was noted that in spite of a fire a number of years previously, the interior of the building was fairly intact, including a simple spiral staircase and two open fireplaces.[9] In 1976, following a four-year campaign to save the building, the Newfoundland Historic Trust purchased the building and entered into an agreement with The Architect's Guild to restore the building. On 7 October of that year, shortly after the Trust signed the papers to take over the empty building, another fire caused serious damage to the structure.[10]

Between 1977-78, much of the building was restored, and an eastern addition (which possibly served as the stable) was removed.[7] The work was primarily directed by Sylvia Cullum and her architect husband Charles Cullum. In 1979, Sylvia wrote,

The east end of the building, which was of a later date, was tom down as it was felt to be too damaged by fire to be rebuilt, and the house re-emerged in its original shape.It was made watertight and a roof of wooden shingles was put on....Wooden siding had to be re- placed and the windows re-glazed and part of the chimney rebuilt using old bricks from a demolished bank on Duckworth Street to replace those that were too rotten to re-use.[11]

Interior work included plastering, exposing wall boards of rough cut hemlock, sourcing and replacing mouldings, scraping and repainting mantels, researching and painting in historic colours, and completely refurbishing the staircase.[11] Charles Cullum received an inaugural Southcott Award from the Newfoundland Historic Trust for his dedication to the preservation of St. John's over the course of many years, including restoration work on Anderson House.[12][13] In 1984, it was noted that the building had been preserved "as a distinctive set of offices with much of the atmosphere and charm of... earlier times."[14]

On March 23, 1996, the Anderson House was designated as a Registered Heritage Structure by the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador. A plaque was affixed in 1998. The building was listed on the Canadian Register of Historic Places February 2, 2005.[1]

From circa 2009-2011, the building was occupied by The Bookery, a short-lived independent bookstore.[15] In 2014, the property was home to Innovative Development & Design Engineers, Ltd., an engineering consulting company, and then owner Hubert Alacoque was presented the Southcott Award for architectural preservation.[16] On 27 January 2017, the building was designated as a Heritage Building by the St. John's Municipal Council.[2]

References
  1. "Anderson House". www.historicplaces.ca. Retrieved 2020-07-30.
  2. "City of St. John's Heritage Buildings" (PDF). City of St. John's. 2019. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
  3. Byrnes, Lynn, ed. (1984). Streetscapes 1984. 5. St. John's. p. 56.
  4. Jarvis, Dale Gilbert (August 2020). "Spruce Beer on Signal Hill: Research Notes on James Anderson". Heritage Update. 81: 3–5.
  5. "Will Be Sold". Newfoundland Mercantile Journal. 282. 1819-09-09. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
  6. Bowe, Martin L. (1970). A Report on The House located at 42-44 Power's Court, Signal Hill, St. John's, Newfoundland. St. John's: Canadian Historic Sites and Monuments Board.
  7. A Gift of Heritage: Historic Architecture of St. John's, Newfoundland (2nd ed.). St. John's: Newfoundland Historic Trust Publications. 1998.
  8. Miller, B. (September 1991). "The James Anderson House". The Trident: 7.
  9. "Powerscourt, Signal Hill, St. John's" (PDF). The Trident. 4: 6. March 1973.
  10. "Fire damages one of city's oldest buildings". The Trident. 3.2: 9. November 1976.
  11. Cullum, Sylvia (April 1979). "The Rehabilitation of the James Anderson House: A Personal Account". The Trident. 5.3: 4–5.
  12. Thorburn, Paul (September 1984). "1984 Heritage Awards". The Trident. 9.2: 1.
  13. Sullivan, Joan (25 March 2013). "Architect changed Newfoundland's cityscape". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2020-07-30.
  14. Rowe, Ted (February 1983). "A Taste of Wine". The Trident. 8.1: 5.
  15. "Rock of pages: Last independent bookstore in Newfoundland seeks buyer". National Post. Retrieved 2020-07-30.
  16. "30th Annual Southcott Award Edition". The Trident. Spring: 1–2. 2014. ISSN 0049-4690.

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