A8

by John Copp - Miramichi History Moment

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The pictures I am presenting this week again relate to some different periods in the development of downtown Newcastle. They reflect on the previous articles I had written.

1 of 3

The first picture is of the downtown area and shows the grandeur of design of the Morrison and Phinney buildings, the wooden sidewalks and the canopies certainly are the trademarks of the past seeming to create a lot more character in our community. At the far end of the street you see a large building where the Irving garage is today. I have been told this building was actually Jeans Restaurant in later years. Ed Dalton, the owner of the Miramichi Hotel at the time, actually jacked the building up, turned it around and moved it down the street and placed in the vacant space in the picture. The more you discover about this man the more amazed you become at his accomplishments, all the way from rink builder to hotel owner.

The second picture shows the waterfront prior to the infilling of the river for the new road construction and eventual construction of the Ritchie Wharf Project. We use all of this today as if it was actually always there. In reality the river actually ran up behind Mitchell's store, which we covered on the article on the Rundle Wharf. In this picture we have Smith Building Supplies and the tavern sitting on reclaimed land from the river. I think the picture does clarify the problems of grow the town had and the movement into the river was deemed as a solution. But I'm sure it would be a very questionable practice today.

The third picture I have shows the waterfront along what is known as Newcastle Boulvard today and how Henry Street comes down by the Park House and MacCallum St. and joins into the waterfront. I guess the startling thing to me is the waterfront was a pretty rough spot compared to what it is today. You can see how close again the river encroached onto the streets of the town.

There are always pictures of this end of town flooding and I guess one can understand why. But also look at how the community altered the river with its development.

I thought these were very interesting pictures and they really reinforce how the community changed the river to meet its development needs. This raises the whole argument of the environment today.

I attended the Grey Cup Game last weekend with Art Stothart. The interesting point of that is his father Art was one of the one more recognized basketball players on the Miramichi in the past and his grandfather owned the Spinney building prior to its sale to Joe Napke small world.

John Copp is a lifelong resident of Miramichi who has a keen interest in local history.