Description of Historic Place

John Foster Family Grocery is a three-storey Italianate building with shop on lower level and residences above. It is located within the boundary of the Trinity Royal Heritage Preservation Area of the City of Saint John.

Heritage Value

John Foster Family Grocery is designated a Local Historic Place for its architecture, its association with the Foster family and Keith Brokerage firm.

Built in 1878-1879, John Foster Family Grocery is a good example of a three-storey Italianate building with shop on lower level and residences above. It is one of a collection of government, commercial and residential, Italianate and Second Empire buildings that were built between 1877 and 1881 after two thirds of the City of Saint John were destroyed by the fire in 1877.

John Foster Family Grocery is also recognized through its association with John Foster and his family grocery and liquor store. Mr. Foster lost a building at this site that had only been standing two years before the Great Fire. He had this shop built shortly after the Great Saint John Fire of 1877. He was a well known Prince William Street grocer and was regarded as one of Saint John's cleverest and most level headed businessmen. He died suddenly in this shop at the age of 62 in 1895 and his wife, Kate, carried on the business for some time. About the time of WWI the grocery had ceased operations.

John Foster Family Grocery is also associated with the Keith Brokerage firm which operated from this establishment from the mid 1930's until 1972. Grover Keith arrived in Saint John in 1915. He began working as an engineer in charge of the construction department at T. McAvity and Sons plant. In 1919, he was secretary treasurer and sales manager of the Canadian Independent Oil Ltd. formed by Allan McAvity to supply fuel oil to ships entering the port of Saint John. Keith brokerage started in 1929 when Grover Keith partnered with his two sons Ronald and Gerald. They were manufacturer's agents and their main client was the Canadian Blower and Forage Company which dealt with large industrial fans. The ground floor was the firm's warehouse and repair shop while the upper floors were used for their offices. Ronald Keith was president of Keith Brokerage and vice-president of the Oromocto Lumber Company at the time of his death in 1968. Gerald Keith was the last surviving member of the firm. As a young man he was a member of the Saint John Trojans football team as well as a professional musician in a band called "The Blue Boys". He was past president of the Saint John Historical Society and New Brunswick Museum.

John Foster Family Grocery was recognized in the City of Saint John Preservation Areas Bylaw in 1982.

Source: Planning and Development Department-City of Saint John

Character-Defining Elements

The character defining elements that describe John Foster Family Grocery include:
- moulded cornice at the roof-line;
- corbel bands at the roof-line;
- vertical sliding 2/2 wood windows;
- rectangular windows with sandstone lintels and sills on top floor;
- segmented arch openings with sandstone arched lintels and sills on second floor;
- parallel projecting brick tracery extends side to side in line with the headers and sills on both front and side facades;
- moulded wood storefront cornice;
- broad fascia sign board;
- transom windows over the entrances;
- remains of century old painted sign "John Foster Family Groceries".