Saint John, Not St. John's

Our first stop in Canada was Saint John, New Brunswick. It's a typical harbor city, with commerce revolving around the sea. Saint John always spells "Saint" out to distinguish it from other St. John places, and they get a bit annoyed if you refer to the city as Saint John's.

 



We figured this was the local version of the red brick Freedom Trail (in Boston), but after following it for a mile or two, it disappeared. I guess they ran out of red paint.

 

We did see this spooky house along the red trail, straight out of Pyscho or The Addams Family. Who would want to sell such a house??? (Who would buy such a house??)

 

We poked our head into this church along the way, and ran into a chatty caretaker.

 He told us the church was originally built in 1838, but burned to the ground in The Great Fire of 1877, a fire which started in a warehouse and burned much of the town to the ground.

The rebuilding of the church began almost immediately. They were the first church in town to rebuilt and hold meetings.

 

St. Luke's is an Anglican church, which, according to our unofficial guide, is a Church of England, but autonomous. I was a bit confused about the beliefs and doctrines of this church, as was our volunteer guide.

 

He told us that the church was built by the best craftsmen in the area: shipbuilders.  As you may be able to see in this poor picture, the ceiling is dark wood and shaped like the hull of a ship.  According to our helpful guide, if you turn the church upside down it would float. Hmmm. I think I'll file that in my skeptical file.

 

Our talkative friend went on to say that this window was recently damaged by vandals, who shot several BB gun-sized holes through the window. The church looked far and wide for a craftsman to restore it, and finally found one who did the repair for $10,000. 

We saw lots of older buildings with blackened parts. We heard it was from the 1875 fire, or from the days of coal burning, or smog, or.... I wondered if it wasn't the same thing we saw in Europe--the minerals within the stone leaching out onto the surface.

We walked (and walked and walked) to the famous Reversing Falls, where the flow of water reverse against the current during high tide in a very interesting way.

Except that we weren't there at high tide, nor could we be without missing our ship. We just had to imagine the fabulous Reversing Falls.

 

 Next we took a tour through the Loyalist House. It's one of the oldest homes in the city, built in 1817. Loyalist are Americans who were loyal to England, and fled the Revolutionary war to settle in Canada.

 

This home was one of the few structures to survive the fire of 1877 and remains almost unchanged.

 

The beds were short as people believed it was healthier to sleep sitting up, just like the beds we saw in Europe.

 

Each bed in the household had its own handy-dandy personal open air toilet, cleverly disguised as a lovely piece of furniture. You could just roll out of bed and there you were.

 

Sampler, made by one of the seven children.

 

Here's the medicine closet, still full of medicine that's basically alcohol with a fancy label.

Members of the family lived in the house from 1817 to 1960ish.  At one point, all of the fireplaces were plastered over. When the house was restored, they removed the plaster and found all of the fireplaces full of the family's china.

 

Strange, very strange.

 This is a large three story house, described as "humble" for the time it was built. The Merritt family who lived here later became one of the wealthier families of the area. Servants occupied the third floor--they got a great view, but felt the full force of the weather in an uninsulated house.

 

The parlor. All of the floors, paintings, woodworking, fireplaces and furnishings are original, although the rugs and wallpaper are not.

 

Our guide told us this table and family bible were on the PBS show Antique Roadshow, and although he could not remember what the value was, the bible is quite rare and valuable.

 

This interesting piano was specially built for the family, and is one of only two like it in the world.

 

Here's the outside foundation. Originally the home was at ground level, but the city dug down to change the slope of the street, making it easier for horses to pull carts up and down the hill. The result is that this home seems to be growing out of rocks.

 Next we headed to the local farmer's market, where I learned I've been growing fancy squash. Right now I've got several boxes of acorn and butternut squash in my garage that I think of as plain old garden squash. Silly me.

 

It's good to know that genuine Saint John items are Chinese.

 

My gelato radar is still working just fine.

 

Our next stop was this impressive gothic structure, Saint John's Stone Church, built in 1824. I was expecting an impressive interior to match the exterior,

 but it was quite plain inside. Kind of a letdown, although I like that banner in front.

 Opposite of the Stone Church, we spotted the steeple of another church and set off to investigate.

 

This turned out to be my favorite church of the trip because of its unique setting.

 

It's hard to capture just how steep the hill is that this church sits on.

 

Love the pinkish red door.

 

Once again, the inside is relatively plain,

but it includes a stained glass window representing each of the 12 apostles,

 

as well as some lovely details.

 

A bust of Queen Victoria oversees the comings and goings.

 

The original church was built in 1789, but like many other buildings in town, was burned to the ground in 1877, rebuilt in 1880.

 

 One last church. It's puzzling to figure out the connections of these various churches, but this church identifies itself as Presbyterian. This is also a rebuilt church; the original burned.

 

These windows above the front door struck a cord.

 This church prides itself in its acceptance and diversity. There was a gay wedding rehearsal going on as we looked around. 

 

Wow, this is a long post with lots of churches. I came away totally confused about Anglican beliefs. At various times I learned Anglicans describe themselves as "not Protestant, but not Catholic". Anglicans believe much of Catholic tenets, unless they don't, see the pope as their leader, unless they don't, and take pride in the individuality of the many local Anglican churches. Basically, if you don't like one church, you can try the one near by to see if that one is more in line with your own personal beliefs. I asked a few questions at each Anglican church, and I'm quite confident that Anglicans are just as puzzled as I am as to what exactly they believe.

 

 



Next: Final stop, Halifax.