Description of Historic Place

William Magee's Grocery is a two-storey brick Italianate commercial building with a corner entrance and stone bulkheads. It is located on Charlotte Street, within the Trinity Royal Preservation Area of the City of Saint John.

Heritage Value

William Magee's Grocery is designated a Local Historic Place for its architecture and for its association with the food and grocery industry.

William Magee's Grocery is one of a collection of commercial Italianate buildings that were built between 1877 and 1881 after two thirds of the City of Saint John was destroyed by fire in 1877. Built in 1881, William Magee's Grocery is a good example of commercial Italianate architecture from the rebuilding period in Saint John. This style is evident in the street-level storefront, the elaborate cornice and the rectangular massing. The elements and design in this building as well as the rest of the collection demonstrate that the city was going to be rebuilt as well or better than the city that was lost.

William Magee's Grocery is also recognized for its enduring presence as a grocery and confectionary shop. Charlotte Street was primarily the social and leisure centre of Saint John near the turn of the 20th century. This store contributed to the atmosphere of the district as a place to buy various groceries, meats and confectionary. Thomas Bustin had this building constructed and rented it out to various businesses for brief periods, many of which were associated with the food and grocery industry. These businesses included Joseph Arrowsmith's Meat Shop and Irwin & King Grocers. William Magee purchased the building from Bustin in 1895 and opened a grocery store soon after. Magee made a name for himself and his business by being one of the first to introduce modern hygienic and marketing practices to the grocery industry. When he ended his business in 1905 to move to Vancouver, B.C., the building remained in the Magee family for the following 19 years. Immediately after William left the city, Walter Gilbert rented this building from the Magee family for the purposes of operating yet another grocery and meat shop. He operated a successful grocery, meat and confectionary store out of these premises on Charlotte Street for thirty years. In total, the building’s history as a grocery, meat and confectionary store spanned over seven decades until 1945.

Source: Planning and Development Department - City of Saint John

Character-Defining Elements

The character defining elements that describe the Italianate architecture of William Magee’s Grocery include:
- rectangular two-storey massing;
- moulded cornice ornamented by brick dentils;
- segmented arched openings with rectangular vertical sliding wood windows;
- sandstone window sills;
- brick segmented arches above windows, flanked by sandstone trimmings;
- street-level storefront including a wooden fascia, a corner entrance with a rectangular transom window, storefront windows with rectangular transom windows and brick pilasters.