The New Brunswick Historical Society has nominated the historic Sydney Street courthouse to be included as part of the country’s top 10 endangered places list for this year, which is chosen by the National Trust for Canada.
The society is looking to save the nearly 190-year-old courthouse which is a national historic site of Canada and whose future is uncertain. The courthouse closed back in 2013 with the opening of the Peel Plaza law courts.
According to the National Trust website, their annual list of endangered places “shines a national spotlight on historic places at risk due to neglect, lack of funding, inappropriate development or weak legislation” and committee co-chair and lawyer John Barry has no doubts the courthouse will be added to this year’s list.
“We very much suspect it’s going to be quickly approved and it’ll be noted across Canada,” says Barry, “we’d be glad to remove it from the application but right now it’s an endangered building.”
With the city now searching for a new space for City Hall, the courthouse has been suggested as a possibility, and in fact, the courthouse did at one time actually contain a council chamber.
Barry says while it’s not big enough to have all the offices, it could work if you spread the municipal offices around King Square. He says that there is work to be done, but structurally the building is in ‘fantastic shape.’
“We have so much history and so much heritage, and that attracts people,” says Barry. “To lose such an important part of our heritage would just be a disaster for the city in promotion and making it an attractive place to come.”
Mayor Don Darling has said that the courthouse is under consideration.
The list of the top 10 endangered places in Canada will be announced in May.
Last year, the historic St. Stephen post office was included in the list.
