28 Cochrane Street is a three-storey wooden structure built in the Second Empire style. Located in downtown St. John’s, NL, it is typical of a style of home built in the downtown following the fire of 1892. The designation is confined to the footprint of the building.
Formal Recognition Type
Registered Heritage Structure
Heritage Value
28 Cochrane Street was designated a Registered Heritage Structure by the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador in 1992 due to its aesthetic and historic value.
28 Cochrane Street has aesthetic value as a good example of a late 19th century, Second Empire style building in downtown St. John’s. The Great Fire of 1892 destroyed much of downtown St. John’s, most buildings on Cochrane Street, and the house where 28 Cochrane now stands. The present structure was built on the foundation of that house. Many residential and commercial rebuilds following the 1892 fire were in the Second Empire style, which had been popularized by the firm J. & J. T. Southcott, Architects, Carpenters and Builders. 28 Cochrane Street has many elements that are characteristic of Second Empire style, including a mansard roof, peaked dormers, eaves brackets, and intricate door and window detailing. Since its construction, it has been used for a variety of functions, including a private dwelling, funeral home, boarding house, and offices.
The building has historic value for its association with the Carnell family. It is possible that the Carnells owned both sides of the pre-fire duplex that occupied this space, as both 16 and 18 Cochrane Street (now numbers 26 and 28) appear in directories as being home to Carnells. Insurance maps from 1893 show that the duplex had been rebuilt following the fire that devastated the city in July of 1892. Directories from that time show the Carnells in 16 Cochrane (now #26) on the right side of the duplex, and other surnames in 18 Cochrane (now #28) on the left side. It is possible that both sides were owned by Carnells and that the left side was being rented out or used as accommodations for apprentices at Carnell family’s business, as the 1904 census shows Carnells living in both sides of the duplex.
In the late 1700s, wheelwright and carriage builder Gilbert Carnell opened a shop on the corner of Duckworth and Cochrane Streets. In 1804 his business was incorporated as Carnell’s Carriage Factory. His son Samuel eventually took over the business. By the 1820s Samuel was also an undertaker, a profession that often went hand-in-hand with carriage making. Upon his death in 1880, Samuel’s son John T. Carnell led the family business, continuing the carriage making and undertaking tradition. In August of 1888, John entered municipal politics, serving on the first city council elected in St. John’s. He was re-elected in January of 1892 but passed away in August of 1893 at the age of 48, one year after the Great Fire had wiped out the neighbourhood where his family had worked and lived for 3 generations. It is possible that John may have been responsible for rebuilding the family duplex on Cochrane Street, or that he started rebuilding and his widow Elizabeth Rixon Carnell and their children finished any uncompleted work. The insurance map of 1893 shows that the family wasted no time rebuilding their business and home. Over the next 20 years, directories name John’s wife Elizabeth as the proprietress of Carnell’s Carriage Factory.
In 1901, John and Elizabeth’s son Andrew attended the U.S. School of Embalming in Chicago. In 1902, he was awarded a first-class certificate in embalming, and was purportedly the first professionally trained embalmer in Newfoundland. By 1904 he was recorded as manager of the family business. An embalming room was added to the back of the carriage works factory and the funeral side of the business grew to include a mortuary room and a line of horse-drawn and motorized hearses. Under Andrew’s management, the company also added automotive detailing to its offerings. In December of 1923, Andrew was elected to St. John’s city council, following in his father’s political footsteps. He was elected deputy mayor in 1929, appointed as acting mayor in 1932 after the death of the sitting mayor, and elected mayor in 1933 – a post he held until 1949. His tenure spanned the Commission of Government period, making Andrew Carnell the highest elected official of the time in Newfoundland. Named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1939, his administration tackled debt relief, oversaw a sewer, water, and street improvement program, he helped organize the St. John’s Housing Corporation, and he established a citizens’ committee to raise funds for the construction of Memorial Stadium. Andrew’s wife Mabel Elise Carnell was also a community volunteer, serving as president of the Feildian Ladies Association and vice president of the Women’s Patriotic Association. While Andrew initially continued as president of Carnell’s Carriage Factory and Carnell’s Funeral Home during his time on council, in 1937 his 23-year-old son Geoffrey took over as president and managing director.
Family history has it that Geoffrey conducted his first funeral when he was 15 years old. He would go on to become a licensed funeral director and embalmer. He served in and was wounded in WWII, during which time his older brother Bertie oversaw operations of the business. In the 1950s, the Carnell company expanded again to provide spring services for automobiles and wooden framing services for delivery trucks. The company also became agents or wholesalers for a variety of consumer goods. A significant change during Geoffrey’s time was the transition to providing customers with a “reposing room.” Wakes in a location other than the deceased’s home were gaining popularity, and the Carnells were quick to provide this service in St. John’s. In 1956 Geoffrey moved his family to another area of the city and converted the family home on the corner of Cochrane Street and York Street into a funeral home. In 1966 he opened a new, modern funeral home and chapel at the corner of Freshwater and Crosbie Roads, one of the first such facilities in the province. The building had four reposing rooms, a casket showroom, preparation room, arrangement office, family lounge, two car garage, and a large parking lot with landscaped area. In 1975 the Carnell group of companies moved to the city’s first industrial park on Pippy Place, ending five generations of the family’s presence on Duckworth and Cochrane Streets. Like his grandfather and father, Geoffrey was elected to city council in 1957, 1961, 1965, and 1969. He also represented the provincial district of St. John’s North in the house of Assembly from 1962 to 1966 and was named a judge to the Canadian Citizenship Court of Newfoundland in 1977.
Source: Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador property file “St. John’s – 28 Cochrane Street – FPT 1473”
Character Defining Elements
All elements that define the building’s Second Empire design including:
-number of storeys;
-mansard roof;
-size, style, trim and placement of peaked dormers with dentils and decorative mouldings;
-eaves brackets and dentils;
-decorative moulding under eave line;
-narrow wooden clapboard;
-decorative wooden corner boards;
-intricate door and window trims;
-size, style, trim and placement of wooden windows;
-size, style, trim and placement of exterior wooden doors;
-dimensions, massing, location and orientation of building.
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