Home / Accueil

Cottage Craft

209 Water Street, St. Andrews, New Brunswick, E5B, Canada

Formally Recognized: 2007/07/03

This photograph shows the front façade of the building which faces Market Square, 2007.; Town of St. Andrews
Cottage Craft
This photograph shows the large eave return, 2007.; Town of St. Andrews
Cottage Craft
This photograph shows the building's close proximity to the harbour and Market Square, 2007.; Town of St. Andrews
Cottage Craft

Other Name(s)

Cottage Craft
Lamb and Billings
Lamb et Billings
Conley's Lobster Plant
Conserverie de homards Conley

Links and documents

Construction Date(s)

Listed on the Canadian Register: 2008/08/06

Statement of Significance

Description of Historic Place

Cottage Craft is a two-storey, wooden, Greek Revival building with a broad gable and central entranceway on the front façade and is located on Market Square, off of Water Street, in St. Andrews.

Heritage Value

Cottage Craft is recognized as a Local Historic Place for its architecture and setting, as well as for its associations with the various companies that have conducted business here.

Cottage Craft is recognized for being a good example of 19th-century Greek Revival architecture in St. Andrews. It has a medium pitched roof and large eave returns. The building has a lot of wall space as a result of its small grouped windows and the fan window above the entrance is a distinguishable element. Cottage Craft is unique to the other business houses in St. Andrews as it is not situated along a streetscape. The building fronts on the town’s Market Square and the south side of the building looks over the harbour. Many wharves were in the vicinity of the building while it was Lamb and Billings meat shop and Conley’s lobster plant so it was in a prime location for these enterprises. This property was owned by the Anglican Diocese of Fredericton throughout the 19th century and the land was leased to persons who conducted business on the premises. There is speculation that the building may have been moved to this location in the 1880’s as the style of the building appears to be older than 1887, the year that the first known lessees occupied the building.

The first known lessees were Lamb and Billings, at one time the leading meat dealers in the town. Although early history is vague, over the past 86 years this building has been utilized by two important ventures in the town of St. Andrews. Edwin Conley obtained the building from G. Herbert Lamb in 1921 and the building became Conley’s Lobster Factory. Edwin Conley, a former Deer Island lobster fisherman, quit fishing and became a middleman buying and selling lobsters and shipping them to Boston. In the early years of shipping lobster many lobsters died as a result of long shipments. Mr. Conley patented a container that kept lobster separate from the melting freshwater ice, thus changing the whole industry. The lobsters that were stored here were kept in great tanks through which a pump drove water from the Bay of Fundy at 1500 gallons a minute. St. Andrews was a prime location for selling lobsters retail through the summer as the town was flooded with wealthy summer tourists and residents. The famed Algonquin Hotel would have been a regular customer. Conley sold the factory in 1948.

This building has served as the place of business for Cottage Craft for the past 60 years. In 1915 Grace Helen Mowatt founded Charlotte County Cottage Craft to provide a source of income for women, and to revive their traditional skills. She divided Charlotte County, as well as neighbouring counties into districts, assigning a forewoman in each district to direct the work of women weaving, knitting, hooking, doll making, and embroidering in the privacy of their own homes. In 1946 the business was purchased by the Ross family and they have operated out of this building since 1948. The sweaters are still knitted by local knitters and the products of Cottage Craft are widely known today. Each Cottage Craft knitted item is meticulously handknit by one of their over two hundred and fifty talented knitters, using only a pair of knitting needles and Cottage Craft yarn.

Source: St. Andrews Civic Trust – Charlotte County Archives, St. Andrews, New Brunswick.

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements related to the location and context of Cottage Craft include:
- accessibility to St. Andrews Harbour;
- located on Market Square.

The character defining elements related to the architecture of Cottage Craft include:
- rectangular two-storey massing;
- medium pitched gable roof;
- large eave returns;
- central entranceway;
- fanlight;
- shingle cladding.

Recognition

Jurisdiction

New Brunswick

Recognition Authority

Local Governments (NB)

Recognition Statute

Local Historic Places Program

Recognition Type

Municipal Register of Local Historic Places

Recognition Date

2007/07/03

Historical Information

Significant Date(s)

n/a

Theme - Category and Type

Developing Economies
Trade and Commerce
Expressing Intellectual and Cultural Life
Architecture and Design
Developing Economies
Extraction and Production
Building Social and Community Life
Community Organizations

Function - Category and Type

Current

Historic

Food Supply
Fisheries Site
Commerce / Commercial Services
Shop or Wholesale Establishment

Architect / Designer

n/a

Builder

n/a

Additional Information

Location of Supporting Documentation

Charlotte County Archives, 123 Frederick Street St. Andrews, NB

Cross-Reference to Collection

Fed/Prov/Terr Identifier

1410

Status

Published

Related Places

n/a

SEARCH THE CANADIAN REGISTER

Advanced SearchAdvanced Search
Find Nearby PlacesFIND NEARBY PLACES PrintPRINT
Nearby Places