Fowler House: A Restoration Project in Brigus

The Fowler House in Brigus, built circa 1850, was designated as a Registered Heritage Structure by Heritage NL in 1988 for its historic value.

Image: Fowler House, Brigus. Photo courtesy of Heritage NL

The most iconic and distinctive part of the structure is the roller located at the base of a door on the second floor of the attachment - this served as a way to ease pulling fishing nets up from the street into the loft to mend them. As the town of Brigus was heavily involved in the fishery, having a tangible representation of the history of the fishery in the community through the house is very valuable.

Image: Clapboard removal from Fowler House. Photo courtesy of @brigus_twine.loft

Today the current owners are working with Heritage NL, contractors, and individuals skilled in heritage restorative work to restore the house to be not only a home, but also a representation of the history of the community. In collaboration with them we are going to be posting a chronological history of the house, as well as restoration updates, on social media.

Follow along with the project by using the hashtags #BrigusTwineLoft and #HeritageNL on our
Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook: @hfnlca, and by following @brigus_twine.loft on Instagram and @brigustwineloft on Facebook.

Heritage NL announces updated funding program to help maintain Registered Heritage Structures

A cracked window or small leak in a roof might not seem like a big problem, but left unfixed, it can lead to major headaches for a homeowner. For owners of heritage properties, help is on the way to fix some of those small problems before they become big ones. 

Heritage NL has designated over 360 properties across the province as Registered Heritage Structures, a program which began in the early 1980s. Today, many of these iconic properties need some fixing-up. At a recent meeting of its Board of Directors, the organization agreed that the ongoing maintenance of heritage buildings is important, and needs to be a priority. 

“Deferred maintenance puts historic structures at risk of permanent damage or loss,” says Dr. Lisa Daly, Heritage NL Chair. “In the long run, the costs associated with regular maintenance of heritage features will be less than waiting to do large-scale repairs. On a practical level, it makes financial sense for Heritage NL to start addressing this now.”

In order to discourage deferring maintenance, and to encourage the continuous upkeep of designated properties, Heritage NL has streamlined and expanded their grant program. Structures designated by Heritage NL are now eligible to apply for a cost-shared grant of $3,000 every three years to assist with upkeep of exterior heritage features such as wooden windows, trim, and clapboard. 

The grant, while not large, is meant to help cover the gap between using less expensive repair options and proper restoration with the use of original materials.

Heritage NL has allocated a portion of its annual granting funds to cover this specific need, and owners of Registered Heritage Structures are encouraged to check the Heritage NL website for conditions and an application form. 

Folklore Photos: Trinity Restoration Project

Today’s Folklore Photos come from the Trinity Restoration Project collection currently in the works of being digitized and uploaded to Memorial University’s Digital Archives Initiative. Trinity, a community located in Trinity Bay, has a long history associated with fishing beginning with the migratory fishery. This led the community and its surrounding areas to become important fishing and mercantile communities, eventually leading to settlement starting in the eighteenth century. There have been many projects in the community carried out to preserve and restore its cultural heritage, such as the Trinity Restoration Project. This project featured the restoration of dozens of buildings, primarily household dwellings, throughout the community in 1979 and into the early 1980s. These Folklore Photos highlight just one of the many building restorations under this project.

These scanned polaroid photographs are of an abandoned two-and-a-half storey residential building originally owned by a gentlemen documented as Mr. R. Tibbs. The date of construction is unknown, however in 1979, the structure was owned by Peter Blodgett. The Trinity Restoration Project provided the opportunity to restore this property from its state pictured above in 1979 where the once vibrant paint was fading and the front doors and windows were all boarded up.

A lot of work needed to be done! In 1980, the original roof shingles were removed and replaced. Similarly, the old clapboards were replaced and given a new coat of paint. This building is one of the several dozen that underwent varying degrees of restoration thanks to the Trinity Restoration Project.

The scanned polaroid photographs from the Trinity Restoration Project are in the process of being uploaded to Memorial University of Newfoundland’s Digital Archives Initiative (DAI). The full collection uploaded thus far is available online at:


https://collections.mun.ca/digital/collection/ich_en/search/searchterm/Trinity/field/subcol/mode/all/conn/and/cosuppress/.

Blundon House Before and After. Bay De Verde, 1997. #Folklorephoto

These three photographs are from the 35mm slide collection of the Baccalieu Trail Heritage Corporation and were taken in 1997. The same year the building was designated a Registered Heritage Structure by the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador. 

Blundon House is the last merchant house in Bay De Verde, originally owned by John Blundon who owned several schooners used in the coastal trade.

To see what Blundon House looks like today, visit Heritage Foundation website.

~ Kelly

Custard Head Fishing Premises Before and After. Hant's Harbour, 1995. #Folklorephoto

In looking through images I recently scanned at the Baccalieu Trail Heritage Corporation, there are many buildings that were on the verge of demolition. The 35mm slides taken from 1993-1996 include many boarded up homes, stores, stages, and sheds that are no longer part of the Baccalieu Trail landscape. This building in Hant's Harbour is an exception.

In 1999 the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador designated the Custard Head Fishing Premises as a Registered Heritage Structure. Built by Joseph Francis in 1909, it is a perfect example of traditional, vernacular outbuilding construction.

To see what the fishing premises looks like today, and read more about the structure, visit the Heritage Foundation website.

~Kelly

Creating Cultural Landscapes: Including Culture in Development

On Wednesday, March 20th, from 12:00 to 1:30, Julian Smith will be leading a discussion on cultural landscapes as a "Synergy Session" put on by the HFNL and MUN's Harris Centre. While the session is now full, Julian Smith's talk will still be accessible as a free webinar. To learn more about this presentation, and to register for the webinar, please visit the invitation provided by the Harris Centre.

 
Julian Smith is an educator, architect, and planner. He founded the graduate program in heritage conservation at Carleton in 1988, and later helped create the joint Carleton-Trent Ph.D. program in Canadian Studies. He is currently Executive Director of the Willowbank School and Centre for Cultural Landscape in Queenston, Ontario. He is also a practicing architect and planner--his recent projects include restoration of the Vimy Memorial in France.  He is co-author of the 2011 UNESCO Recommendation on Historic Urban Landscapes.

How I Spent My Summer

Summer in Port Royal from Knoah on Vimeo.

How I Spent My Summer is a short video that was filmed by Noah Bender during this past summer in Port Royal.  Four of us lived together in a cabin on resettled Long Island participating in a cemetery restoration project. Our group was made up of two folklorists, an artist, and a carpenter. Together we worked hard to preserve 25 headstones... but as you will see in the video, we also had a summer of great leisure and adventure. It was a wonderful few months and all of us feel fortunate to have spent time in such a beautiful place. -Lisa