Description of Historic Place

The Transcript Building is located on 828 Main Street in Moncton. It consists of a 1900 Italianate two-story brick building with a prominent three-story capped tower.

Heritage Value

The Transcript Building is designated as a Local Historic Place because it is an expression of the Italianate architecture and for ts level of preservation. In 1897, John T. Hawke purchased the land and built on the same site as the former wooden Transcript building. In 1900, he built a brick structure with a prominent three-story capped tower.

The Transcript Building is recognized for its importance in the development of journalism in Moncton. Although not the first daily paper in Moncton, the Moncton Transcript offered a new, and often oppositional, source of information and editorial opinion. Among the editors of the Moncton Transcript paper, John T. Hawke, the owner, was its most colourful. The Moncton Transcript, and later the Moncton Times and Transcript, published its daily paper out of this location until relocating in 1960. In 1996, the Transcript Building was designated a Heritage Property through the City of Moncton Heritage Preservation By-Law #Z-1102.

Source: Moncton Museum, Moncton, New Brunswick - second floor files – “828 Main Street”.

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements relating to the Italianate architecture of the Transcipt Building include:
- brick pilasters with doric sandstone capitals;
- roman arch window openings in voussoir brick and sandstone keystone;
- freestone lug sills;
- square tower with ornate copper cap and triple Roman arch windows;
- rectangular windows with plain trim;
- roman arch transom lights;
- flat jack arch voussoir window headers in red brick;
- segmental arch door opening with voussoir red brick and sandstone keystone;
- plain flat entablature with dentilated frieze;
- polygonal footprint following Westmorland Street;
- rectangular massing;
- freestone foundation;
- corner entrance at Main Street and Westmorland Street;
- inscription stone: “Transcript Building”;
- date stone: “1900”.

The character-defining elements relating to the interior of this building include:
- wooden support columns;
- exposed brick along western wall.