Description of Historic Place

The Harkness Residence, an Italianate post-Great Saint John Fire, two-storey townhouse, is located on Duke Street on a steep lot in a residential area of the Central Peninsula of Saint John. The building sits high off the street at the back of the lot.

Heritage Value

The Harkness Residence, with its regular arrangement of windows and entrance, with bracketed cornice and transom window with entablature, is a good example of the Italianate style of residential architecture, as expressed in wood construction, employed during the rebuilding process following the Great Saint John Fire in 1877. This fire, which destroyed two-thirds of the City of Saint John, would prove to be one of the most catastrophic in the history of Canada. The elements and design in this building, as well as in the rest of the buildings in the area, demonstrated that the city was going to rebuild as well as, if not better than, what was destroyed in the fire. The resilient architecture of this building symbolizes the strong will of the residents of Saint John to rebuild the city.

The Harkness family occupied this home from the time of construction, sometime between 1877 and 1880, until the 1930's. Widow Margaret Harkness and her family lived here at the time of construction. The family came to Saint John from Roxbury, Massachusetts. Elizabeth Harkness, Margaret’s daughter, was often called upon as a dressmaker and she remained here until 1933.

Source: Planning and Development Department - City of Saint John

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of this Italianate residence include:
- terraced lot and stairway at street level;
- rectangular two-storey massing;
- off-centre entrance;
- entrance entablature with mouldings and scrolled brackets;
- transom window over wooden door;
- placement and proportions of vertical-sliding wood windows;
- window entablatures with mouldings and scrolled brackets;
- wide overhanging cornice;
- wood siding;
- corner boards.