The Loyalist House 200

A feature I did on The Loyalist House & New Brunswick Historical Society for the National Trust for Canada:

It was in 1783 when around 8,000 American Exiled Refugees left their homes, having fled the American Revolution, and arrived on our shores and began to carve a city out of wilderness. Two years later, Saint John became Canada’s First Incorporated City. Among these Loyalists were the Merritt family who arrived from Rye, New York. In 1810, David Daniel Merritt, one of the sons, purchased property just within the city limits at the time and began construction on a house, which wasn’t completed until 1817 due to the War of 1812.

A Georgian mansion and originally known as the House on The Hill, the Merritt home was constructed of New Brunswick pine with cypress clapboards on the south and west walls. The house remained in the family for six generations and survived The Great Fire of 1877. In 1958, the house was sold when it was to be demolished in favour of a gas station. This never came to pass as it was then sold to the New Brunswick Historical Society who in turn designated the house a National Historic Site of Canada. With the Governor General Georges Vanier and his wife present, the doors of The Loyalist House opened for the first time to the public in 1961.

In recent years, the exterior of The Loyalist House was deteriorating rapidly. Community champion, Barry Ogden headed up major fundraising in 2016 through private funding and gifts in kind which gave way to a major overhaul. The project took 11 weeks and costed $600,000.00 which included the coach house, servant’s quarters (first time opened to the public), windows, front door, siding, gutters, fencing, flags, murals, gardens and the wooden sign. This was also the first time anyone in living memory recalled seeing shutters on all four sides of the house. A Grand Re-Opening took place on July 13, 2016.

Now in 2017, The Loyalist House is celebrating 200 years for Canada 150. There is still work to be done to the interior of the house which will require further fundraising. Members of the New Brunswick Historical Society continue to volunteer their time so that visitors may still walk through the doors of The Loyalist House and experience stunning examples of early 19th century Saint John craftsmanship and the many treasures enjoyed by Loyalist elite of the day. A lasting and proud reminder of Saint John’s British Loyalist heritage and an early and sometimes overlooked chapter of the Canadian refugee story.