The legislative building we did not get
When Henry Houghton Hill closed up his architectural practice in Cork, Ireland, in about 1950, it is safe to say he turned the lock on a fair swath of history. And I am sure I know only a fraction of it.
However, at least one of his ancestors in the business had a passing acquaintance with St. John’s, even though it is unlikely he visited here. My reference is to Henry’s great-grandfather who, in 1836 entered a competition to design a legislative building for St. John’s.
At that time, our little government was renting.
Henry Hill (born 1807) was not successful in that particular competition. As far as we know, no one was, as we did not get a purpose-built legislative meeting place until 1850.
But the hand of Ireland in all this is strong, for Colonial Building was constructed and designed by James Purcell, who came here from Ireland and who utilized white limestone from the region of Cork in the project. The cornerstone was set in 1847 and Colonial Building officially opened three years later.
Henry Hill, making his drawings around 1835-36, had knowledge of our two main thoroughfares, Duckworth and Water streets, as his design places his building between them.
This is exactly as our (1904) courthouse is situated. There would be entrances off both streets and levels dictated by the banked lie of the land.
Clearly, Hill communicated with someone who knew this town and could see that an important public building, straddling both main commercial streets should “front” on each.
The drawings came to the attention of people here only recently when Dagmar O’Riain, who was researching the Hill/Allen family history, sent copies to our Department of Tourism.
Heritage director Jerry Dick brought the designs to my attention after I wrote my Jan. 5 column on Colonial Building.
I subsequently telephoned the family (Tim Allen at Shanagarry, southeast of Cork; his mother is of the Hill family), and when I asked permission to reproduce the designs in The Telegram, he happily replied, “absolutely!”
Tim said he has photographed much of the architectural firm’s collection of drawings. These go back some 200 years, mind you, and I gathered there was still much to do in that direction.
The history buried in the records of a firm so old is, I imagine, prodigious.
In the course of communicating with Jerry Dick at the Department of Tourism, O’Riain asked if white limestone had, in fact, been imported by us from Cork to face our Colonial Building when it was under construction in the late 1840s. She would have discovered that this is correct.
One thought I had while studying the almost cathedrallike building was that if this had gone ahead, it would not now exist.
It would have been engulfed by the fire of 1892. The courthouse now stands on what I am guessing was the proposed site. Market spaces are indicated for the lower level — I wonder if vendors would have been turfed out on House-opening days when the governor came to call?
Hill’s design is described as “neo-Gothic.” Purcell’s Colonial Building is “neoclassical.”
Henry Hill, making his drawings around 1835-36, had knowledge of our two main thoroughfares, Duckworth and Water streets, as his design places his building between them.