Restoration work is now underway on the historic Loyalist House on Union Street and is expected to be completed in May.
Organizer of the work Barry Ogden says the windows need to be taken out, and the siding, chimney, gutters and drain pipes need to be fixed. The New Brunswick Historical Society, which owns the building, already had masonry work done in the basement as well as electrical work. However —
“They were facing a $600,000 bill and the government didn’t have the money to do it, the provincial government and they then looked at maybe it would be done in a five to 10 year period,” says Ogden. “So once we got a hold of it we figured out the biggest cost was staging and a couple other things Irving Oil has come in as the major contributor and we should be done by the end of May.”
Loyalist House was originally owned by the Merritt family who came from New York to Saint John in the 1700s with the Queen’s Rangers after defeat in the American Revolution. The building is one of the only buildings in Saint John to survive the Great Fire.
Along with Irving Oil Ogden says Dowd Roofing and a number of tradespeople are also involved in the project.
