The Monastery is a four-and-a-half storey, mid-nineteenth century institutional building. Located between St. Bonaventure’s College and the Bishop’s Library, the Monastery sits on a large open lot on Bonaventure Avenue. It is part of a larger complex of Roman Catholic buildings that sit within the city’s ecclesiastical district. The designation is confined to the footprint of the building.
Formal Recognition Type
Registered Heritage Structure
Heritage Value
The Monastery was designated a Registered Heritage Structure by the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador in 1989 due to its historic and aesthetic values.
The Monastery was the first purpose-built college in Newfoundland. Founded in 1857 by Bishop John Thomas Mullock, St. Bonaventure’s College was the first collegiate school for middle-class Roman Catholic boys in St. John’s. The Monastery building was completed the following year. The College began as a seminary, though non-theological students from middle-class Catholic Newfoundland families were admitted by 1865. Mullock envisioned an era of educational enlightenment in Newfoundland, and intended St. Bon’s to rival the intellectual standards of the Continental colleges where Mullock had studied. The nearby Bishop’s Library was another part of this intellectual vision.
St. Bonaventure’s College was first operated by the Franciscans, but was taken over by the Irish Christian Brothers in 1889. By the turn of the twentieth century, it became apparent that St. Bonaventure’s College was in need of more space for its growing student population. The neighbouring Mullock Hall was constructed in 1908-1909 to accommodate the growing number of students and was named in tribute to the school’s founder. In 1998, school amalgamations and the demise of Newfoundland and Labrador’s denominational schooling system resulted in the closure of St. Bon’s. It was re-opened in 1999 and has operated since as a private Catholic school. The present-day St. Bonaventure’s College is based mainly in Mullock Hall, with only the ground floor of the Monastery containing a classroom today. The upper stories of the building have been unused since 1998.
The Monastery was designed by renowned Newfoundland architect James Purcell and constructed by builder (and prominent political figure) Patrick Kough. Their partnership was behind several St. John’s landmarks, including the Roman Catholic Basilica of St. John the Baptist, the Colonial Building, and Presentation Convent. The Monastery’s stone facade was made of excess Irish granite from the building of the penitentiary at Quidi Vidi. The government had initially planned a larger prison but later downsized, selling the excess stone at public auction in 1858.
The Monastery is a good example of a mid-nineteenth century institutional building in the Georgian style. The building has a symmetry typical of the time, with an eight bay façade and two main entrances. Each entrance features sidelights and heavy, stone entablatures. There are three stone chimneys on the mid-pitch gable roof. Twin arched windows in the gable end feature Romanesque tracery, a visual link to the elaborate Romanesque styling of the nearby Basilica of St. John the Baptist. The rest of the building has a regular fenestration pattern with slightly arched openings. Large stairwell windows with stone sills are visible on the building’s rear. Quoining can be seen on the right corner of the building’s rough cut ashlar facade and below the fading parging on the building’s rear. The exterior of the Monastery is otherwise simple and unornamented.
Source: Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador property file “St. John’s – The Monastery (Old College, Skinner Building) – FPT 2300”
Character Defining Elements
All those original, exterior elements indicative of a mid-nineteenth Georgian style institutional building, including:
-four-and-a-half storey construction;
-general massing of stone building;
-mid-pitch gable roof;
-size, style, trim and placement of arched dormers on rear facade;
-returned, exposed eaves;
-size and placement of stone chimneys;
-rough cut ashlar front façade;
-parging on rear facade;
-quoining;
-simple, unornamented, 8-bay façade;
-distinctiveness of building façade in relation to attached buildings;
-regular fenestration pattern;
-size, style, trim and placement of slightly arched windows on front facade;
-size, style, trim and placement of rectangular windows on rear façade, including 8/8 large rear stairwell windows with stone sills;
-twin arched window in the gable end with Romanesque tracery, and;
-prominent entryways with side lights and heavy stone entablatures.
All those elements that define the building’s historic importance in Catholic St. John’s, including:
-orientation and location on large open lot in prominent hilltop location, bordered by mature trees;
-connection via interior passageways to St. Bonaventure’s College and the Bishop’s Library;
-connection via external footpaths to other buildings that make up the Roman Catholic complex centred on the Basilica Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, and;
-location within the St. John’s Ecclesiastical District National Historic Site.
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