Description of Historic Place

Gregory Residence is a two-storey wooden Queen Anne building. It is the westernmost building of a four building complex. It is located on a terrace on Prince William Street at the south western extremity of the Trinity Royal Heritage Preservation Area in the City of Saint John.

Heritage Value

Gregory Residence is designated a Local Historic Place for its architecture and its association with the occupants.

Gregory Residence, built in 1895, is part of the building boom near the turn of the 20th Century. The Great Saint John Fire of 1877 destroyed nearly the entire Central Peninsula of the City of Saint John. The commercial district of the city was quickly rebuilt, yet many of the residential lots to the south of the commercial district were not immediately built upon due in part to residents building further away from the commercial districts. In the late 1890's and early 1900's as Saint John began to recover, these lots were once again being built upon. This residence has a central entrance and a two storey bay window with a pedimented roof. Although three of the buildings in this complex are nearly identical in their Queen Anne details and design, yet this building has more articulate detailing. All four buildings have a single bay window.

Gregory Residence is also recognized for its context and landscape. It exemplifies a serene setting along with a unique display of Victorian architecture. It is one residence of a complex of four residences that are situated upon a terrace that overlooks the Saint John Harbour. It has one of the broadest natural landscape frontages than any other residential complex in the Central Peninsula of Saint John. Access to this complex is through a central opening in a natural bedrock and stone wall. Wooden stairways divert north and south parallel with Prince William Street and then turn to the grade of the terrace and climbs toward the vicinity of the entranceways to the buildings.

Gregory Residence is also recognized for the occupants from the time of its construction in 1895 until 1940. About the time of WWl, Lewis Simms was the president of the popular Simms Brush Factory. About 1918, Norman Gregory and his family moved in this residence, although Norman passed away in 1919. His wife and her son Hugh S. Gregory remained here. Hugh was the third generation of the Saint John stevedoring firm of Hugh S. Gregory and Son. He had the same namesake as his grandfather. Hugh remained in this residence until the mid 1930's. WWl veteran Charles S. Barbour occupied the premises from the late 1930's through the 1940's.

Source: Planning and Development Department - City of Saint John

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements relating to the context, landscape and location of this Queen Anne building include:
- location on a terrace;
- one of three buildings of a four-building complex with similar detail;
- bedrock and placed stone wall;
- grass frontage;
- wooden stairways through the lawn.

The character-defining elements in the Queen Anne Style include:
- pediment atop the two storey bay window;
- small paired 1/1 horizontal window and fancy woodwork in the tympanum of the pediment;
- style and detailing;
- wood cladding;
- ogee pediment topped by an articulate finial;
- Greek fret and dentil band below the pediments.