3 Barnes Road is a wooden, mid to late nineteenth-century, single detached, Second Empire style building with a central tower, Mansard roof and two-storey bay windows. It sits on a large lot with mature trees adjacent to the St. John’s Ecclesiastical District, and in the Georgestown area of St. John’s.
Formal Recognition Type
City of St. John's Heritage Building, Structure, Land or Area
Heritage Value
3 Barnes Road was designated a municipal heritage site by the City of St. John’s due to its historic and aesthetic significance.
3 Barnes Road is historically valuable because of its age and associations with previous occupants. It was constructed in the late 19th-century, between 1850 and 1880, and predates the Great Fire of 1892, which destroyed a large portion of the city. In fact, the house on Barnes Road survived the fire which stopped just meters from the doorstep. This building is associated with several prominent persons who were significant in the history of Newfoundland, and particularly St. John’s. The land on which the building sits was owned by the Estate of George Winter, who had accumulated extensive property holdings in his lifetime and which were dispersed to his eleven children. The first known occupant of 3 Barnes Road took up residence between 1886 and 1890 when Stephen Knight moved there. The next occupier, in 1913, was James Whiteford McNeily. J.W. McNeily comes from one of the early, influential families of Irish descent who set up businesses and thrived in the city. Many members of this family were philanthropists, and were heavily involved in the politics of the time. In 1939, 3 Barnes Road was occupied by Richard A. Cramm (1889-1958), a Newfoundland-born lawyer who, in 1921, wrote a book entitled The First Five Hundred, an Historical Account of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment in Gallipoli and on the Western Front during the First World War. He served as the MHA for Bay de Verde through two elections and eventually returned to his law practice. In 1951 the Sisters of Mercy purchased and then used the building as an annex to the convent school, known as the Academy of Mercy. In 1983 the building, still owned by the Sisters of Mercy, was occupied by Daybreak Parent Child Centre. The facility offers community-based, specialized programming for families with young children who are experiencing challenges. Daybreak moved from the building in 2006.
3 Barnes Road is aesthetically valuable because of its architectural style. It is one of the few, extant examples of a Second Empire style dwelling house with a true, central tower still standing in the city. The wooden, two-storey building has a curved Mansard roof and two-storey bay windows. This building retains many of its original features; including eaves brackets, inlaid diamond motifs, returned eaves, wide mouldings with window panels and the tower has a tall, angled roof and arched moulding details. The building is also aesthetically valuable for its environmental setting. It sits on a large lot with mature trees adjacent to the St. John’s Ecclesiastical District, and in the historic Georgestown area of St. John’s. Surrounded by large, ecclesiastical buildings and crowded residential properties, this nineteenth-century building stands out on its open, green landscape.
Character Defining Elements
All those features that reflect the Second Empire style of architecture, including:
-Mansard roof;
-two-storey bay windows;
-narrow wood clapboard with decorative corner boards;
-wide, flat moulding;
-columns and spindles on front porch;
-main door opening, including sidelights and transom with panelled base and brackets;
-triple window in central tower wtih arched moulding;
-central tower with eaves brackets, arched moulding decoration and steep tower roof;
-inlaid diamond motifs in window trim and eaves brackets, and;
-moulded eaves trim which carries around the dormer.
Notes
This building is one of the last surviving, and best example of a single, detached Second Empire style buildng with a true, central tower. Located in Georgestown, meters away from the boundary of the 1892 Fire (in the middle of Military Road), it predates the fire.