Description of Historic Place

Built circa 1878, the Risk Boarding House is a single unit of a two-unit side-by-side brick Italianate complex with central entranceways and outer semi-octagonal bay windows. It is located on Carmarthen Street in the central peninsula of the City of Saint John.

Heritage Value

The Risk Boarding House is designated a Local Historic Place for its architecture and for its association with its past occupants and uses.

The Risk Boarding House is a good example of Italianate residential architecture in Saint John. This style is expressed in this building through such details as the detailed brick work, primarily at the roof-line cornice and through numerous belt courses that extend throughout the width of the front façade. The windows are segmented arches with voussoirs headers and equipped with sandstone keystones and sills. This unit has a semi-octagonal bay window with Roman arched openings on the sides and large segmented arch openings with vertical sliding wood framed windows in front. The entrance is very appealing with side lights, a transom window and a wood paneled door flanked by Doric pilasters. Large sandstone Doric pilasters flank the sidelights and support large sandstone moulding with keystones. The entrances of both units are adjoined by one of the large Doric pilasters.

The first residents of the building, P. Robertson Inches and Mary Dorothea (nee Fiske), had seven children. Dr. Inches was a leading physician in Saint John, where he was born in 1835 to Scottish parents. His patients included David Jabez Merritt, a prominent citizen and owner of the Merritt Residence, now a National Historic Site of Canada in Saint John. The Inches family moved more than once after the Great Fire of 1877 and they remained in this residence from 1879 to 1888.

Beginning in 1891, Misses Elizabeth and Janet Risk operated a boarding house here, their first tenant being Robert R. Ritchie, barrister. They appeared here shortly after the last in a series of deaths in their family and it may be surmised that obtaining this house and running a boarding establishment was a way for the two single women to make their own way in the world in the face of a lack of family support which, in the Victorian social climate, must have been an obstacle for them. It was shortly after the death in 1889 of their brother, William Risk, an unemployed bookkeeper which whom they lived, that the Misses Risk began running their boarding house here.

Source: Planning and Development Department – City of Saint John

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of this Italianate residential unit include:
- three-storey brick construction;
- window placement and proportions;
- ornate roof-line cornice with recessed and toothed ornamentation;
- multiple brick courses extending the width of the front façade;
- three-storey bay windows;
- large segmented arch openings in front face of bay windows and Roman arched openings in side faces of bay window;
- openings with sandstone keystones, sandstone sills and brick voussoirs;
- some original 8/2 vertical sliding wood framed segmented arch windows;
- original 2/2 Roman arched windows;
- stone steps with moulded stone rails.

The character-defining elements of the entrance includes:
- entrances of two units separated by wide sandstone Doric pilasters;
- entablature over entrance is segmented with a large keystone;
- three part transom window with heavy moulding;
- 6 Doric pilasters flanking the entry;
- Roman arched sidelights with wood base panels;
- single wood paneled door with glass roman arched panels.