Georgestown
by Wallace Furlong

Introduction

Early St. John’s grew along the harbourfront, the early settlers making their homes over their business premises, or as near as possible to the varied trades places that were so closely tied to the fishing industry that brought the adventurous West Country of England merchants and their employees to the New-Found­Land of Cabot’s voyage of discovery.

As years went by and permanent settlement was finally made possible by legal means, the influx of immigrants pushed the town’s boundaries back from the harbour shoreline. The new arrivals began to build on the outer areas adjoining the already overcrowded town; the expansion was up over the north slope and out through the valleys. In turn, future generations established the neighbourhoods or small boroughs of Hoylestown, Riverhead, Maggoty Cove, Waterford Bridge Valley, Quidi Vidi, Southside, King’s Bridge, Higher Levels, Freshwater Valley, The Battery, Mundy Pond, Tubridstown, Monkstown and Georgestown. These, added to the original East End and West End, comprised the old St. John’s.

Over the years, since the time of the first settlement, the old city has been scarred by fires, plundered and sacked by invaders and pirates, and had its share of civil strife, mutiny and rioting; but the fire of 1892 was the most devastating of all, as it wiped out more than 70 per cent of the homes and business establishments in town. However, like the famed Phoenix of mythology, St. John’s arose, once more, from the ashes and ruins of that great conflagration, and the small boroughs began to grow and emerge in time. It was through an act of God, in the form of a change in the direction of the wind, that Georgestown, the first of the strictly residential districts, and its adjacent neighbourhoods of Monkstown and the Tubridstown, escaped the all-consuming flames of the disastrous fire.

That section of St. John’s now known as the Georgestown Neighbourhood Improvement Area is made up of what was formerly three separate towns, several large estates and many small fields. They were: George Winter’s Village, the oldest; James Tobin’s subdivision; and James Tubrid’s compact community. The area is bounded by Military Road, Bonaventure Avenue, Empire Avenue and Monkstown Road.

Winter’s Village was the first residential neighbourhood, dating back to 1819, and became known as Georgestown. Tobin’s property, which was quite extensive, was laid out as a subdivision shortly after the fire of 1846. It was named Monkstown. Tubrid’s community consisted of neat clusters of homes. It was located between the Barnes estate, Presentation Convent and St. Bonaventure’s College properties on the west, and Monkstown on the east. This little neighbourhood was settled around 1840, and was called “Tubridstown.” The only street entrance was through Barnes Laneway, until Tobin’s subdivision came into existence.

The estates and fields in the area were used as one of the main sources for the supply of local items of agriculture. Animal grains and hay were cultivated in the larger fields. The estate of Emerson, “Belvedere” was in all probability the biggest and best farm in the neighbourhood. Hugh Emerson was a descendant of an Empire Loyalist who settled in Nova Scotia after the U.S. War of Independence. Hugh and his brothers George and Lewis came to St. John’s, where they built estates on the outskirts of town.

Mr. William Irwin’s fields were mainly used as grazing ranges for cattle and horses, but he cultivated cattle grains and hay in several of them for a supply of livestock feeds. The smaller properties were used to produce staple vegetables to supply the families of the owners with food throughout the winter and spring seasons.

Rebuilding

Following the fires of 1818 (two fires within a month), a group of the townspeople, those of better circumstances, appointed a committee (from the group) to locate a suitable site for a proposed residential village that would be away from the clustered section of the town, but near enough to be part of St. John’s. The delegation approached a Mr. George Winter with the intent of purchasing some of his land in order to proceed with their proposed village. In the opinion of the committee, Winter’s land would be the ideal location for their residential community. It was approximately five acres in area, and situated high on the south slope of a dale about 1,000 feet to the north beyond the military road connecting Fort William with Fort Townshend.

This road was built along the ridge on the north slope of St. John’s harbour, and ran along an east-west direction. Only a few cottages, meadows and barrens were between the military road and that portion of Winter’s land that the group was interested in purchasing, separating the site from the old town. Access to this proposed residential village would be over a trail to plantations and farms in the upper Long Pond locality. The military also used this trail to man the Queen Victoria Hills fortifications. The proposed village would be completely safe from fire should St. John’s suffer such disasters as had been experienced in the years 1817 and 1818.

•

 After several meetings with George Winter, the land was made available, either through leasing or outright purchasing, and within the next few years (1820-21) the residential village became a reality. Planned lanes in the form of public ways, with cottages set in neat, well-kept gardens on both sides of the roadway, gave access from one place to another without trespassing a neighbour’s property. All homes had private wells in their yards or under the house, but there were several water tanks (wooden) and a few public wells located throughout the neighbourhood. These were for firefighting purposes, and they were regularly checked by appointed residents in order to be sure of a supply of water at all times should a fire break out within the community.

The first residents were James Vinlay, Duncan MacPhee, William Dalton, George Tillmann, James Aide and Henry MacDonald. They were soon followed by new immigrants from the British Isles, and by 1830 the village extended from Donnelly’s Lane to what is now Belvedere Street. MacPhee moved to Nova Scotia and Tillmann went to Brooklyn, N.Y., where he died in 1854. A Mr. P. Tarrahan occupied a small house where Fleming Street now meets Monkstown Road. In the year 1921-22, the property was purchased to widen the Fleming Street-Monkstown Road junction. Mr. J. Johnston purchased the house from the council and tore it down. The wood was in such good condition that he built a barn and workshop from the board and studding on an Allandale Road site, in the vicinity of Burton’s Pond, almost 100 years after the materials had been originally used in the construction of a fine home. Tarrahan, who was a bachelor, inherited the house from his uncle. He then moved to McDougall Street, where he resided with his sister, a spinster, who was also given her home by the same uncle.

•

When people moved into the village from the old town, the word was passed around in that part of St. John’s, where the family formerly lived, that they had migrated to Georgestown. This was not a slur or reference toward the people who had moved out, nor was it looked upon as an elevation to a social level, but just a casual remark to explain the new residential address of the family. Within a short period of time, the new community became known as Georgestown, and it has retained that name to the present day.

There are two or three old houses located on the south side of Fleming Street that date back to about 1885. They were not part of the original village houses, but they were built on one of the early public lanes of the old community. There were several old foundations along old Donnelly’s Lane that were removed when a modern service station was erected in that area more than 15 years ago. Three or more old homes fronting on Monkstown Road were part of the original village, having been built between 1830 and 1860. Most of these houses have now been rebuilt and only remotely resemble the early cottages.

There was one duplex house of the original village, built in 1820-21, but was torn down in the mid-1930s to widen Hayward Avenue at its junction with Fleming Street. It was then occupied by Mr. Nelson Helpand and family in the south half, and by Mr. Robert Bellmore and family in the north half. The houses or homes were the very essence of antiquity; they had double-hung windows, and the roofs were wood-shingled. The second floor was built into the rock with dormer-type windows to permit natural light into the rooms. Although the building had water and sewage services, electric services were not connected, and on winter nights, one could see the occupant moving from room to room carrying oil lamps. The ceilings were no more than seven feet in height, and both dwellings had open-hearth fireplaces. The tenants were always comfortable within the cottages, at all times. The garden had rustic fences built in diamond-pattern style, and huge broadleaf sycamore trees completely shaded the houses in summertime. The winter season appearance of this fine old duplex cottage could very well pass for the setting of a Currier and Ives Christmas Card.