Description of Historic Place

The Motor Car & Equipment Garage is a 1911 two-storey brick Italianate style building located on 112 Princess Street within the Trinity Royal Preservation Area of the City of Saint John. Built in 1911.

Heritage Value

Motor Car & Equipment Garage is designated a Local Historic Place for its architecture and for the presence of an automobile dealership in the area.

In 1911, the Motor Car & Equipment Company constructed this two-storey Italianate building for the purposes of an automobile garage. It opened later that year as the “Princess Garage” and boasted that it was the finest garage east of Boston.

Motor Car & Equipment Garage is recognized for its long history as an automobile garage and showroom. Under the management of prominent business executive Frederick W. Coombs, it sold and rented a number of fashionable automobiles of the time including the “White”, the “Hudson” and the “Hupmobile”. The company remained one of the main New Brunswick distributors of Hudson and Essex automobiles from this location until 1938. Although under the management of different firms and individuals, this building continued to be a garage for several years after the Motor Car & Equipment Company had moved on. Various companies took over ownership of the structure for the next twenty years including Loyalist Motors, Ltd., Carlson’s Auto Parts and lastly the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. Its use as an automobile garage lasted until 1960, when the building was converted into offices.

Source: Planning and Development Department-Saint John

Character-Defining Elements

The character defining elements that define this Italianate building include:
- proportioned height and width;
- cornice supported by a series of small wooden brackets;
- segmented arch openings with sandstone sills and rectangular openings with sandstone lintels and sills along the side façade.