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Charles Gove was an enterprising merchant in Saint John when, with the inception of the St. Andrews and Quebec Railway, he moved to St. Andrews, convinced that the town would boom when it connected to Quebec City via Riviere du Loup on the northern shore of the province. This was about 1858, when the railway was close to reaching Woodstock. Unfortunately for Mr. Gove's business investments, the railway stopped at Woodstock and St. Andrews never became Quebec's winter port on the Atlantic.In St. Andrews Mr. Gove was first appraiser and preventive office of the Port, later Collector of Customs. He built a steamboat wharf near Market slip, also a large wharf and warehouse at the Lighthouse Point, land which later became the property of the CPR.
His handsome house on Parr Street showed the interest in the mansard style common in the middle of the century. His brother, Dr. Samuel T. Gove, built a similar residence in 1859 on Montague St. In later years the Gove house became a rundown tenement. Within the last decade the ell was replaced a the original part of the building renovated.