On the way to St. John's, we decided to stop at Port
Union, the only union-built town in Canada. It was planned and built by Sir William
Ford Coaker, an activist, labor leader, businessman, publisher and
politician, who formed the Fishermen's Protective Union (FPU) and the
Union Party, a political party, all in 1908.
His goal was to organize fishermen to change the “truck” system where
cod fishermen were completely dominated by the elite merchants who set the
price for fish, paid the fishermen in goods, not cash and kept them constantly
in debt and struggling to survive. The FPU grew to 25,000 fishermen members in
3 years and eventually over 40,000 men, revolutionizing fishing practices and
placing control back in the hands of the fishermen. In 1919, Coaker became the
Newfoundland Minister of Marine and Fisheries and implemented his fisheries
reforms. Coaker died in 1938 and the FPU
continued through the 1960s, having revolutionized fishing.
In 1916 Coaker and the FPU built the independent and
self-sufficient town of Port Union as the headquarters for the FPU and the FPU
Trading Company with a busy harbour, railroad branch line, shipyard, factories,
salt fish plant and retail store as well as The Fishermen's Advocate
newspaper.
Port Union had the first rural electricity in North America
supplied by the Union Light and Power Co., an FPU enterprise, when many parts
of New York City were unserved. Coaker
was eventually knighted for his social achievements and Port Union is a
Canadian National Historic District.
Visiting Port Union today, the fish plant building, the FPU
headquarters, harbour and newspaper offices as well as company housing for
workers are still standing and freshly painted.
The Port Union Museum is in the ex-Reid Railway Station. In season, Coaker's home, called “The
Bungalow” built in 1917, is open. Holy
Martyr's Anglican Church hangs onto the side of a cliff. There are a series of memorial plaques near
the water with old machinery on display.
The Rising Tide Theatre of Trinity performs a play about Sir
William Coaker and the FPU at The Factory in Port Union in summer. We found Port Union to be very interesting
although most of the buildings were not open yet for the season, except of
course, the gift shop.
St. John's is the capital of the Province of Newfoundland
and Labrador as well as the biggest (250,000 population) and most cosmopolitan
city in the province with everything in goods and services that you could
desire.
Throughout Newfoundland, people
saying they're “going to town” almost always means going to St. John's! Our RV Park here was the Pippy Park RV Park,
with 216 serviced (hookups) RV sites right in the heart of the city in 3400
acre Pippy Park, just a mile or two from most attractions and
services. Plus a golf course, trails and
meeting facilities.
But it's a high energy town propelled faster than ever by huge offshore
oil exploration activity. It took a day
or two to switch gears and go “urban” again, but we actually loved St. John's,
especially compared to the capital cities of Halifax and St. John of Nova
Scotia and New Brunswick, respectively.
St. John's steep hillside streets and the views definitely reminded us
of San Francisco but the harbor is much smaller than San Francisco Bay.
Like any big city, there are a multitude of places to visit
and things to do in St. John's. Here is
a summary of significant places in the order that we visited them in our four
day's visit.
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| Even the modern condo's are colored or what about a mailbox with jelly bean houses! |
Signal Hill National Historic Site—the highest
point in St. John's. This was the site
of the Battle of Signal Hill, the final battle of the Seven Year's War, fought
here in 1762, when the French surrendered to the English forces. Signal Hill
has been a defensive fort, signal station for arriving ships and the home of Cabot
Tower, built in 1897, and now in scaffolding undergoing restoration and not
allowing visitors inside. The tower was
built to commemorate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897 and the 400th
Anniversary of John Cabot's landfall in Newfoundland in 1497. In December 1901, the first trans-Atlantic wireless message was received
here by Guglielmo Marconi from his station in Cornwall, UK. There are breathtaking views from this high
point of the City of St. John's and its harbour.
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| The view from Signal Hill then and now |
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| Signal Hill Visitor Centre |
St. John's Harbour—since Newfoundland is the
closest Canadian province to Europe, it's been a safe haven for transatlantic
travel for over 500 years and today is a bustling commercial port with a fleet
of oil service vessels tending the offshore oil platforms off the coast as well
as fishing, container and general cargo vessels, along with many government
vessels. It also has a very large
dockyard that can handle large oceangoing vessels. There is several good size
fishboat harbours.
The Harbour itself is
huge and very long with a very narrow entrance and a fort on either side of
that entrance for protection of St. John's.
The Atlantic Canadian Coast Guard fleet is based in St. John's and
includes at least 10 oceangoing ships including
six icebreakers of various sizes, obviously well used during the winter!
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| Canadian Coast Guard and Cruise Ships also come to St. Johns |
Quidi Vidi Plantation and area—This large
yellow wood building owned by the City of St. John's, was built recently to house
craft studios encouraging cultural tourism and also houses a visitor
information station.
During our visit, only 2-3 studios were active but work was displayed in others and several were very nice. This site in its previous life was a fishing stage.
During our visit, only 2-3 studios were active but work was displayed in others and several were very nice. This site in its previous life was a fishing stage.
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| Lots of whimsical and nautical displays! |
The plantation building
is at the very end of the Quidi Vidi Gut, a small, narrow body of water
that has been homeport to working fishermen for generations. The entrance to
the “Gut” is incredibly small, severely limiting the size of vessel that can
enter. A small tour boat is based here
too. Unfortunately, with its sublime
marine views, Quidi Vidi has recently become overdeveloped with large
“McMansions” that really clash with the older small cottages.
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| The narrow entrance of "the gut" to Quidi Vidi |
Just up the hilly street from the
“Plantation” is Christ Church built in 1842 with the tower and bell
added in 1890. It is designated a
National Historic Site and is now a private residence. Its delightfully colorful red tower makes it
very visible from Quidi Vidi Village!
Quidi Vidi Brewery Tour—this large former
seafood processing plant became Quidi Vidi Brewery in 1996 after a well done
restoration.
This famous microbrewery produces 9 different beers including the most well-known label—Quidi Vidi Iceberg Beer, made from Newfoundland iceberg bergie bits melted to extremely pure 10,000 year old water and bottled in a distinctive blue bottle!
We had a tour of the brewery by a very upbeat young woman who obviously enjoys her work and its products and then a tasting of 5 of the different beers. A very pleasant experience in a 2nd floor conference room with a killer view of Quidi Vidi Gut!
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| View of St. Johns from Fort Amherst----you can see it is built on a rock! |
St. John's Downtown—if only we'd had one more
day, we could have finally found a parking space and visited George Street
downtown, St.John's bar and restaurant district on a narrow one way street that's 3
blocks long and no cars! A number of
summer festivals are also held on George Street. Despite two malls in St. John's, downtown
seemed to us to be thriving with great foot traffic, lots of attractive,
interesting shops and modern high rise office buildings, along with a large
sampling of historic buildings and churches from the late 1800s after the Great
Fire of 1892. Parking for our small RV
was difficult but never impossible and we walked around many of the streets.
Murray Premises NHS (1847 fishery premises remodeled in 1979 for a hotel, offices, restaurants and shops), Yellowbelly Corner (1846 Irish meeting place, now the Yellowbelly Brewpub), and many more.
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| Jelly Bean houses as souvenir magnets, mailbox, paintings! |
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| A neat old house, Federal Building, Modern office building |
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| Mounted policeman at Courthouse, a very ornate doorway and the Bank of Montreal logo |
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| Interesting storefronts everywhere and Ugly Sticks ready to perform! |
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| The old and new Central Fire Station and 1830 St.Thomas Anglican church |
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| Monument to the Newfoundland Constabulary, the Police Force, Monument to music and the back of a van |
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| Huge impressive War Memorial --- The Newfoundland and the Lab dogs have their own memorial |
The Rooms Provincial Museum—first of all, The Rooms
Provincial Museum is architecturally striking with 3 attached buildings and a
prominent site near downtown. Their website says “Our museum is a study of a
place (the NL Province) and its many peoples.”
It covers the time from the glaciers melting 12,000 years ago to
contemporary life in Newfoundland and Labrador.
The Museum contains one million natural history specimens and over one
million artifacts on 3 floors of exhibit space with permanent, temporary and traveling
exhibits. The permanent exhibit
“Connections” introduces Newfoundland and Labrador, its natural history and the
peoples who have lived here from 9000 years ago to 1730 when the last Beothuk
died. We enjoyed the natural history
exhibits as well as the stories of the indigenous people and the Europeans of
many nationalities who came here in the 1600s.
The displays and the whole organization and presentation are truly world
class! We've tried to pick some photographs
that would convey the superb content and display in The Rooms. For more
information, check their website: http://www.therooms.ca/
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| Photographic exhibits of the diversity of the Newfoundland people |
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| Many photographs on the history of sealing |
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| And of course the main economy: FISH = Cod |
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| The "resettlement"--moving of houses over water or ice |
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| Lots of History....... |
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| ....as well as Natural History -------The largest Atlantic squid ever displayed in a museum! |
Basilica of St. John the Baptist—this Roman
Catholic Cathedral of the Archdiocese of St. John's was completed in 1855 and
raised to a Minor Basilica in 1955.
Bishop Fleming, who planned and supervised the building of the
cathedral, chose the site well at the top of the highest ridge overlooking St.
John's and facing the Harbour entrance, making it visible from nearly
everywhere in town. It also survived the
catastrophic fire of 1892 that destroyed most of downtown St. John's and other
churches. It is a National Historic Site. The interior is extremely impressive
and reminds one of the great European cathedrals. An amazing lifesize sculpture of “The Dead
Christ” carved in 1855 is the front of the main altar. The cathedral's two towers are each 150 feet
tall! A massive Casavant Freres pipe
organ with 4050 pipes built by the world famous Quebec Company and installed in
1955 is very impressive.
Anglican Cathedral of St. John the Baptist—This Anglican stone cathedral was designed in 1855 and completed in 1885. It was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1892 but rebuilt inside the original stone walls. It is a National Historic Site. The church was closed so we didn't see the interior.
Across the street, is the red brick building of Gower
Street United Church. A previous church burned in the 1892 fire and this
church opened in 1896.
On its left is Victoria
Hall, a clapboard meeting hall for the Loyal Orange Association built in
1895. It was extensively renovated in
1985 for offices including a large stained glass window over the entrance. It
is an extremely beautiful structure and has won architectural awards.
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| A small fishing boat entered the narrow entrance and went on the harbour |
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| The surf and waves crashing against the rocks--definitely a place for a lighthouse! |
Government House—this beautiful Georgian-style
house and estate is the vice regal residence, the home of the Provincial
Lieutenant Governor. It was completed in
1831 and is built from red sandstone quarried from Signal Hill. Interestingly, the construction crews were
imported from Scotland because the wages for Newfoundland workmen were
considered too high!! The estate adjoins
the Commissariat House and has beautiful grounds with graceful mature trees, a
large greenhouse and many flower planting areas.
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| A school group was visiting for a history lesson |
Commissariat House Provincial Historic Site—this
building was completed in 1821 as office and commissary for the Asst. Commissary
General of Fort William. When the British military departed in 1870, the
building was used as a church rectory and a nursing home and children's
hospital.
Colonial Building—this striking white limestone
building was the seat of Newfoundland's Legislature from 1850-1959 when the
Provincial Government moved to the new Confederation Building near Pippy
Park and has been the scene of many historic events in Newfoundland
history. It is being refurbished in and
out and will be a real showpiece in the near future.
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| Confederation Building can be seen from everywhere |
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| The rooms inside the lighthouse were all furnished in period style |
Johnson GEO Centre—This incredible $12 million
structure on the lower part of Signal Hill was built after excavating a natural
rock basin with its 2-1/2 story slanted entry the only above ground area and
like an iceberg, the other 85% is underground (33,600 square feet!) and fits
between 500 linear feet of 550 million year old Signal Hill exposed rock
walls! The building is heated by 6
geothermal wells drilled 500 feet into the rock supplying heat in winter and
cooling in the summer. The main
reception hall is 3 stories high and contains 9 lighted planets of our solar
system up to 24 feet in diameter---quite an opening statement!! The GEO Centre opened in 2002 and has a huge
number of events and 3D movies in addition to its amazing permanent
exhibits. Newfoundland and Labrador is
regularly called “Earth's Geological Showcase” for the amazing variety and age
of its rocks. Labrador has rocks proven
to be among the oldest at 3.8 Billion Years Old!! Newfoundland of course, has very old rocks
from the earth's mantle. The fossil
record here is extraordinary also!
The Solar System—graphically shows our solar
system in proportion and tells much of the known facts about the planets and
current research.
Amazing Earth Theatre—exciting presentation from 3
billion years ago to today in 15 minutes!
Our Planet—volcanoes, earthquakes, rocks, fossils and
the geologic timeline including various sizes of tubes of sand representing the
age of the earth, the age of dinosaurs, birds, plants etc. Dramatic!
Our Province—Newfoundland is called “The Rock” for a reason—it is all rock and lots of it! Lots of samples of different rocks and their class—igneous, sedimentary or metamorphic.
Our People—very interesting section answering the question “Where did we come from?” Includes ancient and modern Indigenous people (First Nations), Europeans and more recent ethnic groups.
Our Future and Space—satellites and space imaging
including the latest developments.
Canadian contributions to space and astronomy. Rocket displays and other space and satellite
equipment.
The Great Rock Wall—rock wall in the main gallery of exposed Signal Hill rock that's 450 million years older than the Rocky Mountains, 300 million years older than the dinosaurs and 100 million years older than the first fish!! The rock shows moisture running down when it rains outside; it's alive and very dramatic for a geology museum!
The Titanic Story—the “unsinkable” White Star liner
RMS Titanic on her maiden voyage hit an iceberg at high speed and ultimately
sank just 350 kilometers from the Johnson GEO Centre on 15 April 1912 causing
the death of over 1500 passengers. This
large exhibit of 70 graphic panels tells the story better than any other we've
seen including legal analyses and forensic examinations of the Captain, other
officers and company officials. The GEO Centre website says: “it offers a
complete account of the greed, arrogance and bad judgment that led to the
greatest peacetime tragedy of the 20th Century.” There is also a huge display of hundreds of
Titanic books!
Steele 3D Theatre—very comfortable theatre with high
tech 3D glasses. We saw “Dragons: Real
Myths and Unreal Creatures 3D.” Best 3D
and story yet!
Johnson GEO Park-- displays outdoors 19 very large
rock specimens from the province cut and polished on one side plus a large
trail system around lower Signal Hill.
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| Even a big slab of labradorite with the blue flecks showing |
Hibernia Kids Place—hands on activities to inspire active young minds and teach basic science concepts.
And of course, a Cafe and Gift Shop.
In addition, programs are available for Scouts, School Tours,
Camps, Science Club and an adult evening lecture series called “GEO After
Dark.”
The Johnson GEO Centre is one of the most creative and
inspirational institutions we have ever visited and no doubt is inspiring kids
and adults to seek careers in science and especially geology!
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| A touch of reality: modern "trash"... |
Railway Coastal Museum—this 1903 Newfoundland
Railway Victorian Headquarters and main St. John's railroad station has become
a fascinating museum telling the story of the Newfoundland Railway and
their marine arm, the Coastal Boat Service, which provided passenger, mail and
cargo transportation to Newfoundland and Labrador outports with connections to
the railroad. These services helped
overcome isolation and opened up the vast interior of Newfoundland. The Museum shows 42 themed exhibits to show
the development of the Railway including both initial private ownership to
eventual Newfoundland Colonial government then Federal government ownership,
along with the ships and ferries of the Coastal Boat Service and its
development. The Railroad began
operations as a private company in 1898, in 1923 reverted to the Newfoundland
Government, became part of the Canadian National Railway in 1949 after
Confederation with Canada, and ceased railroad operations after the
Newfoundland highway network was completed in September 1988. The first marine operation by the company
also began in 1898 with ferry service from Port aux Basques, NL to North
Sydney, NS. The railway operated on 906
miles of narrow gauge track and was the longest narrow gauge railway in North
America. Most of the old roadbed sans
rails is now T'Railway Provincial Park rail trail for hiking, ATVs and
snowmobiles in season. Clever, no?
The Museum's ninety foot long Railway Diorama is one of the
most interesting features with actual restored 1940s Newfoundland Railway
railcars cutaway to show the functions of the Smoker Car, Sleeper/Pullman Car,
Dining Car, Kitchen, Coach and Mail Car.
A large automated model train layout of the Newfoundland Railway shows
its routes from Port Aux Basques across the island to St. John's.
The Masonic Temple and the Spirit of Newfoundland
Dinner Theatre—the stately Masonic Temple brick, stone and copper
building in the Classical Revival style opened in 1897, after the Great Fire of
1892. Three towers on the facade,
Corinthian columns, ornate interior woodwork, time capsules, a grand staircase
and many Masonic symbols like the iconic eye set it apart from many other St.
John's historic buildings. It sits on a
hill overlooking St. John's Heritage District.
The Spirit of Newfoundland Productions long running musical theatre company acquired the building in 2008 and has embarked on a necessary restoration effort. The interior woodwork and decoration is really incredible!
The Spirit of Newfoundland Productions long running musical theatre company acquired the building in 2008 and has embarked on a necessary restoration effort. The interior woodwork and decoration is really incredible!
Our Viking Trail Caravan group came here for dinner and to
see “Women Doin' Men,” a hilarious show with 3 very talented ladies
singing individually and as a group the all-time hit songs of the most famous
male singers with a very good live backup band.
They performed Elvis, Johnny Mathis, Roy Orbison, Tony Orlando, Frank
Sinatra, Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder and many more. 
The show ended with some favorite Newfoundland songs including “Spirit of Newfoundland” which we liked very much. Here are the words:
“It doesn't matter where you come from
It doesn't matter where you've been
It's our spirit and our culture
That keeps us all within
One big Family together
That is powered from above
We are rich no matter what we owe
We have each other's love
We have our rocky shores and mighty seas
The rolling fog and salt sea breeze
We are a people proud and strong
From Newfoundland!
Composed by Peter
Halley, Lyrics by Peter Halley & Kathie Hicks
We had a great visit to St. John's and would have liked to
have another day or two to see even more or to slow down and relax! Stay tuned for the final Newfoundland post
on our visit to Argentia!
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