Item
St. Croix Courier
Feb 28/1952
Fraser Keay elected mayor of St. Andrews.
St. Croix Courier
March 13/1952
Dr. Mowatt tells IODE of Saxon customs
St. Croix Courier
March 27/1952
News Notes: covered rinks: First one in St. Andrews thought to be "in an old building behind McMonagle's foundry, which occupied the site of the present Seaside Inn tennis courts. That rink operated in the years 1903 and 1904." Source F. L. Mallory
St. Croix Courier
April 3/1952
Chicago Black Hawks arrive in St. Andrews for game against Senators on Maritime Tour. Score discreetly omitted.
Good review of David Walker's 3rd novel "The Pillar." "The Storm and the Silence" number one; "Geordie" number two.
August 15, 1952
McLeans Magazine
The Salty Spell of St. Andrews
Ian Sclanders
A musketball discarded by Champlain clinched Canada's claim to St. Andrews. Since then this New Brunswick haven has lured a Bonaparte, two Fathers of Confederation, a parcel of peers and more millionaires per mile than any town in the land.
ST. ANDREWS, N.B., has only fourteen hundred year-round residents. But its liquor store is reputed to sell more imported champagne than any other liquor store east of Montreal, and it has a grocer who stocks caviar and pâté de foie gras, a druggist who sells perfume at seventy-five dollars an ounce, and two China dealers who offer dinner sets priced as high as two thousand dollars. The reason is that St. Andrews is the most fashionable resort on Canada's Atlantic coast.
In this unusual little town, on a peninsula that juts into blue Passamaquoddy Bay, one of the major industries is barbering the tall cedar hedges which surround the estates of the rich with evergreen elegance. There are miles and miles of these hedges. They block the view at every turn, so when E. P. Taylor, the financier, was selecting a piece of property for a seaside retreat he studied the landscape from an airplane. As he circled over St. Andrews, on a sunny morning, typical "summer folks" were doing typical things.
Rt. Hon. C. D. Howe, in grey flannels and white shirt, was out on his broad lawn directing a team of gardeners. Senator Cairine Wilson, in a mud streaked cotton dress, was pruning rose bushes. At the Old Timers' Club, H. D. Burns, chairman of the board of the Bank of Nova Scotia, and Lieutenant-Governor D. L. MacLaren of New Brunswick were playing a spirited game of cribbage.
Miss Olive Hosmer, whose father, the late Charles R. Hosmer, amassed one of this country's fat fortunes, was out driving in her elderly Rolls Royce. Mrs. R. E. D. Redmond, a daughter of the late Lord Shaughnessy of the CPR, and Lady Davis, widow of Sir Mortimer Davis, were watching the bathers at the beach.
Noah Timmins, the mining magnate, and Sir James Dunn, the peppery old baronet who controls Algoma Steel and Canada Steamship Lines, were striding through elm-shaded lanes, while G. Blair Gordon (Dominion Textile) and Dr. Gavin Miller, noted Montreal surgeon, were shooting a round of golf. Howard W. Pillow (British American Banknote) and Harry W. Thorp (Murphy Paint) were swapping yams in the back room of Bobby Cockburn's corner drugstore.
Scores of other upper-rung socialites were disporting themselves at St. Andrews. For St. Andrews, in the summer, is crowded with the kind of people who dress for dinner and describe their mansions as cottages. Year after year they turn up with their butlers, cooks, chauffeurs, limousines, rakish sport cars and yachts. They golf, swim, fish, sail and garden, and go to parties.
A musketball discarded by Champlain clinched Canada's claim to St. Andrews. Since then this New Brunswick haven has lured a Bonaparte, two Fathers of Confederation, a parcel of peers and more millionaires per mile than any town in the land. There are parties morning, afternoon and evening, but these are polite and decorous, for most members of the St. Andrews set have reached or passed middle age and were either born with money or have had money long enough to avoid nouveau riche high jinks. They don't swill champagne. They sip it. Nobody at St. Andrews has ever plunged fully clad into a swimming pool in a gay mad moment, and there hasn't been a first-rate scandal since a prominent matron, out joy riding with a waiter, was killed in an accident. That was years ago.
Some vacationists find the place dull. A disappointed New Yorker complained to a desk clerk at the Algonquin—the posh but sedate CPR inn —that St. Andrews is "too damned refined." But the majority of the summer folks prefer it like that. They frown on tourist traps that might draw a noisy element. When a dude ranch was opened by a promoter from Montreal—with beauteous Broadway cowgirls, Hollywood-style cowboys, and a floor show—they cold-shouldered it out of business in one season.
They're so fond of St. Andrews, just the way it is, that they're trying to keep it as changeless as possible in a changing world, a haven with the gracious manners and standards of yesteryear. They carefully preserve its scenery and traditions, shun modern architecture and fill their big houses with antiques.
In deference to their wishes the Algonquin, the pivot around which the social life revolves, hasn't revised its menus noticeably for half a century. It still serves the elaborate kind of meals that have to be digested in an atmosphere of leisure. This hotel, which has two hundred and thirty rooms and two golf courses, didn't discard the last of its Victorian brass bedsteads until 1951 because veteran guests had grown attached to them.
Under the New Brunswick Liquor Control Act, no drinks—not even beer—may be served in public places. Bars, cocktail lounges and beer parlors are illegal. The stately Algonquin has ignored this law and provincial authorities have ignored the Algonquin's well-stocked mahogany bar—an old-fashioned affair with a trapdoor leading to a wine cellar. There's a rumor, which can't be confirmed, that the Algonquin management told the N.B. Liquor Control Board once that if the hotel wasn't allowed to serve drinks it would be closed down, with a loss to New Brunswick of a large and profitable slice of tourist business. Since then, according to the story, the Liquor Control Board has made no complaints.
St. Andrews' second hotel, the Commodore, decided that if the Algonquin could operate a bar the Commodore should be able to do the same thing. This worked for a while but, last year, the Commodore's proprietor was arrested and fined five hundred dollars for being responsible for the illegal sale of liquor on premises. Residents of St. Andrews have an idea that the Commodore's bar would have fared better had it been operated on the same lines as the Alqonquin's bar, which is so inconspicuous and quiet that you could hang around the hotel for a week without knowing it was there. (Open to guests only, the bar is located below the lobby and reached by a stairway on the left-hand side of the lobby. Both the stairway and an outside entrance to the bar have no signs indicating where they lead.)
St. Andrews, with its tide fiats, wooden jetties, sardine boats, lobster traps, golden sand, red cliffs and green slopes, casts a spell over many people. Field Marshal Lord Alexander, when he was governor-general, liked it so much that he stretched a scheduled stay of a fortnight into a month. David Walker, Scottish soldier and author, had a holiday at St. Andrews when he was in Canada before World War II as aiide to Governor-General Lord Tweedsmuir. Captured at Dunkirk, he dreamed of St. Andrews when he was in a German prison camp and bought a house there when he was freed. His last two novels, Geordie, and The Pillar, were written at St. Andrews.
The Rev. Henry Phipps Ross, a United States clergyman with inherited wealth, and Mrs. Ross, were so in love with St. Andrews that they insisted on being buried there. They left three hundred thousand dollars for the establishment of a library and museum at St. Andrews and a like amount for the district hospital. The Waycott trust, which maintains a public-health nurse, and the Harrington trust, which pays for Christmas parcels for the poor, were also set up by bequests from summer folks. Even crusty tycoons regard the town with misty-eyed sentiment. Men like Sir James Dunn provided the funds with which the Old Timers' Club was built at the head of the public wharf. They wanted aged natives to have a cozy spot to meet and talk and play cards. Now they've formed a habit of dropping in themselves to enjoy the companionship of retired mariners and fishermen, with whom they are on first name terms.
The summer folks have genuine affection for the natives and often show it with surprising gestures. When John Cadman Norris, St. Andrews' only Negro, was old and infirm an anonymous Montreal industrialist worried about the fact that "Caddy's" home lacked indoor plumbing. He hired a contractor to add an up-to-date bath room to the bungalow. Caddy drove a team of truck horses on weekdays and pumped the organ in the Anglican church on Sundays. When he died in August 1948 the flags on the Algonquin and on the fancy estates were flown at half-mast and the Hon. Marguerite Shaughnessy wrote a touching tribute which was published in the St. Croix Courier, the district weekly newspaper. A dozen millionaires were among those at the funeral.
So strong is the charm of St. Andrews that a lot of summer folks put roots down there and think of it as their adopted hometown rather than as a resort. Some of them, like Mrs. Redmond, Miss Shaughnessy, Sir. James and Lady Dunn, and David Walker now remain there all year. They take as much delight as the natives in the local legends and in the colorful characters of the past - characters like Dr. John Calef, Robert Pagan, La Coote, the Rev. Samuel Andrews and Christopher Scott. Calef and Pagan, like the other founders of St. Andrews. were United Empire Loyalists. Exiled from the U. S. after the American Revolution they settled at Penobscot, expecting that Penobscot would remain under the British flag. When Penobscot turned out to be Maine they sawed their houses into sections, moved them to St. Andrews by schooner, and nailed them together again. The year was 1783. Calef, a medical pioneer, inoculated five hundred of his fellow citizens against smallpox soon afterward, and was pleased that only three of them died. St. Andrews was just getting on its feet when Maine raised an outcry about the boundary line. The Treaty of Paris stipulated that the border at this point should be the river where Champlain wintered on an island in 1604. It was generally supposed that this river had been the St. Croix, but Maine contended that it was actually the Magaguadavic, thirty miles to the east. This would have placed St. Andrews within the U. S. But La Coote, a renegade French nobleman who had married an Indian, knew that Champlain had been on Dochets Island, in the St. Croix. He led Robert Pagan - a member of the New Brunswick Assembly, there and the two of them dug up a musket-ball, a metal spoon and a clay pitcher left by Champlain. This evidence kept St. Andrews in Canada.
Samuel Andrews, an Anglican clergyman who had been persecuted in New England as a Tory, stole the royal coat of arms of Wallingford, Conn., because he didn't want it in the hands of rebels. He had it with him when he arrived at St. Andrews in 1786 and it hangs there today, in All Saints' Church. Andrews lived on an island which has ever since been called Minister's Island, and which is joined to St. Andrews by a sandbar that is exposed only at low tide. Every Sunday, with his wife behind him on a pillion, he crossed the bar on horseback to hold services.
The Presbyterians had no church of their own and Andrews let them use his. Then, at a public dinner, a member of his flock who had imbibed too much Jamaica rum declared that the Presbyterians, being Scottish, were "too mean to build a church of their own.'' Up sprang a furious Scot, Christopher Scott, from Greenock, sea captain and trader. He announced that the Presbyterians would have a church that would put that of the Anglicans to shame, a church just like that in Greenock—and he would pay for it himself. Greenock Presbyterian Church at St. Andrews, with the green oak of Greenock carved on its white façade, is now as quaint and attractive as any church in Canada.
St. Andrews flourished in the first half of last century. At one stage its population reached six thousand, which made it one of the important centres in British North America. It had sawmills, shipyards and Canada's first paper mill. Its fine natural harbor was busy with sailing vessels and it exported fish and lumber to the West Indies and Britain. John Wilson, who owned ships and mills, had a manor house surrounded by a deer park, and several other dwellings were almost as impressive.
Like neighboring towns in both Maine and New Brunswick, St. Andrews refused to take part in the War of 1812, but the British constructed a series of wooden blockhouses there. Guns that shot twenty-pound balls were mounted on the walls, but none was ever fired and all the balls, much later, were lugged off as souvenirs by the tourists. The main effect of the war of 1812 on St. Andrews was that the community for the next fifty years had a British garrison whose dashing young officers were much admired by the local girls.
Henry Goldsmith, a nephew of poet Oliver, and a poet of sorts himself, drifted into the town in its early days with his wife and six children. He had decided to abandon literature and start a sawmill. He rented a shack for his family and went off to raise money for his enterprise. This took so long that Mrs. Goldsmith and the kids had nothing to eat but wild berries and clams they dug on the sand flats. Then Mrs. Mehetible Calef, the doctor's wife, took them in. She must have been pretty tired of Goldsmiths by the time Henry reappeared. He had been gone six months. Henry never did get his mill going and he finally packed up his brood and sailed for England.
Another oddity, whose real identity is still a mystery was Charles Joseph Briscoe. That, at least, was the name he used. He had no visible means of support but was seldom without funds. He rode through the streets of St. Andrews on a white horse, sitting in the saddle with royal dignity, and let it be known that royal blood flowed in his veins. When he died he left instructions that his private papers, which were in sealed envelopes, should be buried with him; then he wanted his grave opened in fifty years and the papers read by officials so that his identity would be revealed. There was great excitement the day the grave was opened, but the papers were so mildewed and faded nobody could decipher them. The only clue was an ivory miniature of King George IV. This prompted the theory that he was a son of George and Mrs. Fitzherbert, who were secretly married.
St. Andrews hoped to be the chief Atlantic port of British North America and by 1835 John Wilson was proposing a railway to Quebec. He even imported laborers from Ireland to build it but his scheme failed. Saint John and Halifax, picked as the eastern terminals of the transcontinental railway lines, became the ports. Although a branch line was later run into St. Andrews, the town by then had begun to wither and its population was declining.
In the 1860s a number of its large houses were for sale for a song. Two were bought by Sir Charles Tupper and Sir Leonard Tilley, both Fathers of Confederation, as summer places. Tupper and Tilley were the forerunners of the summer folks.
In 1888, when the future of St. Andrews looked bleak, Boston promoter named Cram organized the St. Andrews Land Company and a forgotten rhymester wrote:
Capitalists from Boston
Have said. "We'll buy the town."
And millionaires from Calais
Have planked their money down.
The St. Andrews Land Company, backed, as the verse suggests, by investors in Calais, Me., built The Inn, as the Algonquin was originally called. Then in 1890 two extraordinary met visited St. Andrews. One was William Cornelius Van Home (later Sir William), the other Thomas George Shaughnessy (later Lord Shaughnessy) —the second and third presidents of the CPR. They relaxed in the cool salt breezes of St. Andrews, were enchanted by the scenery, and resolved to make the place their personal playground.
Van Home purchased Minister's Island: Shaughnessy bought Fort Tipperary, the quarters of the British garrison. The CPR purchased The Inn, christened it the Algonquin Hotel and tacked two wings onto the building.
On his island Van Home spent a fortune creating the most flamboyant and luxurious seaside haven in Canada. The mansion there is so big-you could easily get lost in it. The Indian rug in the living room is so heavy that eight strong men are needed to lift it. The granite fireplaces in the main rooms are fifteen or twenty feet wide and at either side of these are ornately carved Italian pillars, covered with gold leaf. In the living room there's a grand piano fitted with a player attachment—Van Home liked to sit and pump the pedals while he gazed through the windows at his gardens.
On all the walls there are huge pictures with gilt frames, at least half of them painted by Van Home, one of the most enthusiastic and prolific amateur artists this country ever had. His studio is still there, just as it was when he was alive, with his paints and brushes in a massive oak chest—an Italian antique which bears the date 1642.
Van Home had boundless energy and seldom slept more than two or three hours. One night when entertaining friends he announced he intended to stay up and paint the moon shining on Passamaquoddy Bay. Next morning when they came down for breakfast the picture, finished and framed, was hanging in the dining room. It's still there, four feet by five. Scooped out of solid rock on the island shore below a cliff is a swimming pool. A stone tower with a circular stairway rises to the top of the cliff. When Van Home died in 1915 his daughter Adeline, a huge jolly woman, summered at St. Andrews until her own death after World War II. Minister's Island will be inherited by a great granddaughter of Sir William when she comes of age. Meanwhile it is rented each year to Thomas Mathis, a former New Jersey senator, and his brother-in-law Mr. Berry, a former judge, both of Toms River, N.J. They ban the sight-seers whom Adeline had always welcomed.
The Shaughnessy estate, far more modest than the Van Home, is now the home of the Hon. Marguerite Shaughnessy. Shaughnessy retained part of Fort Tipperary, but tore down the officers' quarters and barracks and built an impressive residence.
As for the Algonquin, the hotel which was the pride and joy of Van Home and Shaughnessy, it operates only from June to September and has rarely shown a profit. The original structure was burned forty years ago and was replaced by a much more elaborate and fireproof building, to which there have since been additions.
The rates at the Algonquin are steep, up to twenty dollars a day. But, at the height of the season, it has to turn business away and, according to the manager, Pat Fitt, the guests stay longer than at any other hotel in Canada. The regulars who come year after year generally remain for six weeks or two months.
The hotel's Sunday evening buffet suppers are a St. Andrews institution and draw most of the social set. The wives of the rich appear sparkling with diamonds and decked out in the more expensive creations of Dior, Fath and Schiaparelli.
Algonquin guests swim in Katy's Cove, an arm of Passamaquoddy locked in by a dam. There, the notoriously cold water of Passamaquoddy is heated by the sun, and a string orchestra serenades the bathers. Besides the Algonquin and the Commodore, St. Andrews has smaller places like Forest Lodge, a spacious homestead converted into an inn.
The vacation trade is the town's economic mainstay. The rich employ more than a hundred hedge trimmers, gardeners and handymen, keep the Algonquin humming, and spend so freely that the sales volume of the merchants doubles in July and August. And thousands of tourists who aren't rich flock to St. Andrew's to have a look at the celebrities and peep through the cedar hedges at the mansions. Most of the notables discourage them with icy stares and no-trespassing signs, but Senator Cairine Wilson likes to see the visitors have fun. She leaves the gates of Clibrig open. Her estate has two miles of drives which wind through rows of tall trees past gardens, orchards and duck ponds.
The shops of St. Andrews aren't striking from the outside but, in a way, they are a tourist attraction too. O'Neill's grocery store, which dates from 1823 and is called the Modem Food Market, is a case in point. It displays delicacies from all parts of the world—Dutch meats, French truffles, Russian caviar, green turtle soup from the West Indies flavored with Spanish wine, orange-blossom honey from Florida, ravioli from Italy, cheeses from half a dozen countries, and everything imaginable to mix or eat with drinks.
A few doors away at Cockburn's drugstore there are shelves of costly and exotic perfumes—not the kind usually stocked for a community of fourteen hundred.
Fraser Keay, the mayor of St. Andrews, and Jack Stickney both have China stores with plates priced up to fifty-five dollars apiece and dinner sets priced up to two thousand dollars. Stickney's shop was started by a relative who wore, on special occasions, a silver suit. For extra-special occasions, he had a gold suit. Among the summer folks of his day was Charles Bonaparte, great-grandnephew of Napoleon, and they vied with each other in sartorial in splendor. Charles had a white umbrella.
Another St. Andrews store keeps scores of farm women in funds. It's the Charlotte County Cottage Craft, an organization run by Kent and Bill Ross. They took it over in 1945 from Miss Grace Helen Mowat, who launched it thirty-five years ago with capital of ten dollars. She revived weaving and other handicrafts among farm wives, supplying them with designs and raw materials and paying them for their finished work. Today it is a thriving enterprise. Grace Mowat, who has had two books published, is one of St. Andrews' three authors, the others being David Walker and Guy Murchie. St. Andrews also has more than its share of scientists for it's the site of the chief fisheries biological station on the Canadian Atlantic coast, with a permanent staff of twenty-five biologists.
Another of the little town's claims to fame is that it is the biggest lobster shipping centre in North America. Conley's Lobsters Ltd. founded more than a half a century ago by Edward Conley, who is now in his eighties, buys about six million pounds of live lobsters a year and expresses them as far away as the Pacific coast. Most of the hotels, restaurants and night clubs in Canada and the U.S. serve Conley lobsters.
In the summer in St. Andrews the natives are too busy catering to vacationists to enjoy the weather or the scenery, but in winter, when the Algonquin and all but a handful of the mansions are shuttered and empty, they relax, and groups like the St. Andrews Music, Art and Drama Club come to life. This club won the award for the best costumes in the 1952 National Drama Festival.
The natives prefer the winter. "Summer folks," one of them explains, "are wonderful people. They're our bread and butter. But the kind we get here can pay for service and want a lot of it —and giving service can tire you out."
The late Jack Ross, a barber, used to close the season a bit early—unofficially, of course. By mid-August he'd start sitting outside on the steps of his shop, trying to look as though he didn't know the difference between clippers and a mowing machine. If a stranger asked him when the barber would be in he'd shrug unhappily.
"I couldn't say." he'd reply. "That fellow's so darned unreliable you can't depend on him at all."
St. Croix Courier
April 17/1952
News Notes: Earliest Opening on Record. The Algonquin Hotel will open its doors to the public on May 31 this season. This date, as far as we can learn, is the earliest in history for the swanky hostelry to be underway. From opening day till the end of June, practically every minute of the time will be taken up with conventions, both large and small. After the usual rush of July and August, conventions are again in the order of the day and the doors will finally close on Sept. 17, which will make the season a real long one.
Courier
April 24, 1952
Fire at Chamcook
Last Thursday fire destroyed most of the old hotel and diningroom located in the north corner of what is generally known as Chamcook, sometimes called St. Andrews North or Norway. A grass fire which got beyond control in the high wind eventually began licking at a small wooden structure attached to the rear of the kitchen and then roared on into the interior of the tile-walled building itself. Ironically enough, this little wooden shack at one time housed the small chemical engine later purchased by the St. Andrews Fire Department, which was one of the first pieces of fire equipment to answer the alarm. Little could be done however as the water supply was practically nil and the old hydrant system had not enough pressure to fill the large hose. Finally the booster tank equipment from St. Stephen arrived and succeeded in knocking the fire down somewhat but its 500 gallon supply was soon exhausted. The volunteer department from Bayside with a small portable pumper was also hindered in its efficient operation. Eventually the wooden roof and its partitions fell in below the cement walls and was under control, giving the whole structure the appearance of a huge stove with the covers removed.
. . .
New Front
Quoddy Coal company is enlarging its office on Water Street and installing a new plate glass window and entrance. The old glass frame which has been removed is probably the last of its kind on the front street. It was the type which could be cornered with shutters in days gone by.
Buildings Razed
In two other locations buildings are being torn down. One is the wooden ell at the rear of the brick building formerly owned by Edwin Conley. The other is the old ice house belonging to the Commodore Hotel. It had outlived its usefulness and was no longer needed. This old frame of a building was a landmark and a certain amount of tradition has been connected with it. Situated only three feet away from another building of similar size at the rear of the Ross property, the two buildings formed a narrow corridor known to the old timers as the "Dardanelles." It was through this friendly sheltering passage that many an old-timer would go when he felt the need of a stimulant from the little dispensary located at the far end of the passage. Those were the horse and buggy days that are now no more. Nearly all those old-timers have disappeared, and now the "Dardanelles" have disappeared too.
St. Croix Courier
May 15/1952
Harvey Studios owned by Frank T. Pridham of Fredericton. Expanding New Brunswick chain into Maine with purchase of W. C. Tracy Studio. New Manager of St. Stephen Studio Murray Dorcas.
St. Croix Courier
May 22/1952
Photo of Heads of Staff at Algonquin. 240 staff. Heavy bookings this year. Miss B. M. Peppers, head housekeeper; J. Horsfall, Assistant Manager; E. C. Fitt, Manager; J. B. Campbell, Accountant; Back row: F. R. Fields, Chief Steward; L. E. Rowland, Chief Clerk; M. C. McGee, Chief Engineer; A. "Tony" Didier, Chef; A. D. Skinner, Golf Pro.
WWII caused great advances in transportation. Old band tradition of coming out to welcome soldiers home nearly forgotten as they come and go with great regularity now.
St. Croix Courier
May 29/1952
Eight conventions booked for June. Algonquin improved in readiness for Season.
Preparations to handle one of the biggest seasons in history are almost completed at the Canadian Pacific summer resort hotel, The Algonquin, at St. Andrews by-the-Sea. Under the deft management of E. C. "Pat" Fitt, a complete "face-lifting" job on many parts of the hotel has been under way for the past two months.
Old friends and regular guests of the hotel will notice a marked change in the lounge and other public rooms as well as in many of the guest rooms and the Casino. It is a change which has smartened up the appearance of the rooms and at the same time has retained the same intangible charm of the Algonquin which has made it, for years, an internationally renowned resort.
In the main lounge the walls have been painted two attractive shades of green while the overhead lighting has given way to 31 standard and table lamps. The smaller rooms of the lounge, the library and the music room have been done over in blending shades of gray and yellow. The gray tone has been carried through to the main foyer and into the elevator ante-room.
A new and larger switchboard has been installed to serve a complete new phone system throughout the hotel. Bedside monophones now replace the old wall phones in each room. The hotel's plumbing, too, underwent considerable change. Copper piping has replaced all the old lead piping. Ten more private bathrooms have been modernized with recessed bathtubs and showers and matching fixtures. The walls have been refinished with tile in an attractive shade of yellow.
The exterior of the hotel has not been overlooked. The floor of the spacious verandah, which extends across the front of the building and along one side, has been torn up and replaced with terra cotta red concrete. Brilliant hues of reds, greens and blues will contrast with the velvety green rolling lawns in front of the hotel, for all the outdoor furniture has undergone a drastic and pleasing color change. Transformed from its former uniform while it now adds a splash of gay summertime color to the overall scene.
The ever-popular Casino has been completely redecorated inside and one of the rooms downstairs has been transformed into a "rainy day" playroom for children. It has a complete assortment of play equipment to delight any wee tot's heart.
Katy's Cove also came in for modifications. The lawn in front of the bathing houses and the new tea house now slopes in a gentle turf terrace right down to the sand beach. A new entrance, arched with an attractive sign, has been added and the former driveway and parking area has been converted into additional lawn area and now lends itself admirably as an ideal spot for afternoon tea outside.
Manger Fitt said that advance bookings indicate a heavy season coming up. For the month of June the following conventions have been booked at the hotel. National Association of Master Plumbers and Heating Contractors, May 31 to June 4, attendance 300; Maritime Hospital Association, June 4 to 8, 250; Investment Dealers Assoc. of Canada, June 10 to 13, 300; Canadian Jewellers Association, June 15 to 18; Newcomen Society of England, June 20, attendance 90; Manufacturers Life Insurance Company, June 23-27; Northwest Atlantic Fisheries, June 28 to July 11; Barristers Society of New Brunswick, June 28 to June 30, 150.
St. Croix Courier
June 12/1952
News Notes: In Full Swing
The two largest conventions during the early part of the season at the Algonquin have come and gone. The National Heating and Plumbing Contractors and the Maritime Hospital Association groups had upwards of 350 members each in attendance. The latter organization has chosen St. Andrews five times in the past 6 years as the Algonquin is the only maritime hotel able to accommodate such a large group at this time of the year. Display booths in the exhibition section totalled over 100 units this year.
St. Croix Courier
June 19/1952
New Phone System for Algonquin.
The Algonquin Hotel at St. Andrews opens the season this year with a new telephone system complete in all the details, including a two-position switchboard, power plant and 370 uniphones located at bedside positions. (work done by New Brunswick Tel over winter)
St. Andrews School Board Discusses Buying Gym.
St. Croix Courier
June 26/1952
News Notes: Name band dances are presently being lined up for the Arena this summer. At the moment 2 popular orchestras, namely Guy Lombardo and Blue Bars have been contracted and negations are almost complete to have Blue Bars back again and also to bring Lombardo here for the first time.
St. Croix Courier
July 10, 1952
Senator and Mrs. Mathias and Judge Berry [wife deceased?] of Tom's River, New Jersey, arrived Sunday to spend the summer on Covenhoven, on Van Horne's Island.
St. Croix Courier
July 17/1952
Algonquin Staff name officers of Recreation Club.
Charles Davy, Toronto, was elected president of the Algonquin Hotel Staff recreation Club at the annual meeting. Mr. Davy is chief kitchen steward at the hotel. Other officers of the 230 member association are Al O'Hara, vice-president (manager of Canadian Pacific's communication department at the hotel); and Miss Diane Hickman, secretary-treasurer.
Committees named were: Sports: John Russell and Miss Daphne Walker. Entertainment: Victor Burt and Miss Christine Brown. A program of golf tournaments and tennis matches was mapped out and opened Wednesday evening with a staff beach party. Present at the annual meeting were E. C. Fitt, Manager; Barker Campbell, chief accountant; and Fred Fields, chief purchasing steward.
St. Croix Courier
July 24/1952
Photo of Jack Dillon, New Zealander working as butcher at Algonquin, with 14-pound salmon from Saint John harbour.
St. Croix Courier
Aug 7/1952
Archie Skinner wins New Brunswick/PEI pro title. 9th pro crown. Others: 1934 Fredericton; 1937 Riverdale; 1939 Algonquin; 1941 Algonquin; 1946 Algonquin; 1947 Algonquin; 1951 Riverside; 1952 Edmunston.
St. Croix Courier
Aug 14/1952
News Notes: Louis Prima Coming.
The next big-name band to appear in the St. Andrews arena will be the popular orchestra led by that great entertainer Louis Prima. (Date moved to Aug.20) A unique combination of to drawer modern swing idiom and the old-style New Orleans jazz has made Louis Prima's music a "must" for dancing feet and for those who just like to listen as well. Louis' torrid trumpeting adds not a little to the enjoyment of both classes. (Tommy Tucker band played in July; arena has a ballroom)
St. Croix Courier
Aug 21/1952
News Notes: Myrna Loy
One of the best known and very popular actresses of the Hollywood film colony, Myrna Loy, has been spending a quiet two week's vacation in St. Andrews. In private life the wife of the Hon. H. H. Sergeant of the State Department in Washington, she and her husband have been at one of the Walker cottages located at Schooner Cove. Theatre goers will remember Mrs. Sergeant as the film wife of William Powell in "The Thin Man" series of pictures and she has currently been in "Cheaper by the Dozen" and "Bells on her Toes."
Charlie Spivak to be last band of summer. (no review of either Lombardo or Prima)
St. Croix Courier
Aug 28/1952
Charles Cowan, summer resident, donates 100 dollars to arena. Artificial ice plant installed 5 years ago (1948) at cost of $22,500; still owing 12,000 to town at cost of 1,000 per year. Rest of arena paid for.
St. Croix Courier
Aug 28/1952
Infant son of E. C. Fitt christened in All Saints Cathedral—Michael Edward.
St. Croix Courier
Sept 4/1952
Weekly Newspapers of Canada Meet at St. Andrews Today. Convention coming to Province for first time. (CWNA—Victor Burt's photo) Special train. 450-500 delegates. "Prominent speaker will address various sessions, and a Trans-Canada broadcast over the CBC network will be made from the closing dinner Saturday evening." First time in 32 year history come to New Brunswick. Ladies to have tea at Clibrig. Notables include James W. Brittain chairman, New Brunswick education Minister, guest speaker Lt. Gov. McLaren. Luncheon Friday W. R. Bird, Litt. D., widely known NS author. Tour of Conley's lobster plant and dinner at Capt. John's Seafoods. CWNA executive listed. (The convention business seems especially busy under Fitt, though he can hardly have organized all of it in advance of his coming)
St. Croix Courier
Sept 25/1952
PC Premier-Elect Hugh John Fleming.
St. Croix Courier
Sept 25/1952
72nd annual meeting of Nb Medical Society held at Algonquin
St. Croix Courier
Oct 2/1952
Archie Skinner wins Maritime Pro Golfers Open in Fton
John McNair 1940-52
Premier of New Brunswick
Liberal Mar 13, 1940
St. Croix Courier
Oct 9/1952
News Notes From St. Andrews
Interesting Facts About the Gaol
There is no definite record as to when the present gaol was built, over the door of the main entrance the numbers 1832 are cut in the stone. It is possible that is the year it was started, but the oldest records show it was not in use ill Nov. 17, 1834, with W. R. N. Law as gaoler. Mr. Law had been in charge of the old gaol, but its location is not stated. The same record book shows that the ship Robert Watt, belonging to James Read, was launched at St. Andrews. There are two books in which are recorded the prisoner's name, offence, complainant or creditor, the officer's name, amount of debt or sentence, time of discharge and remarks. This book was opened in 1850 and runs till 1863. There are 869 prisoners listed in this first book. The second book commences in 1864 and is still in use at the present time. There are 3,757 prisoners listed in this volume, making a total of 4,626 persons who spent time behind the bars from 1860 to the present day. In scanning the records one finds the names of two youths who were arrested for quarreling and fighting on the streets of St. Andrews April 18, 1850. These two lads were only 10 and 12 years of age, and one was released the next day, April 19, and the second on the following day, April 20. The officers who made the arrests were Haddock and Hanson. They were released on the authority of Benjamin Williams and the attorneys connected with the case were Hathway and Kerr. The shortest sentence probably ever served in the local gaol was in 1935 when a man was brought in for debts. As soon as he arrived and the gaoler was giving the officer the receipt, a friend came in and paid his fine and debts. He did not even see the cells but he must be classed as a prisoner once the gaolers received his commitment papers. It is shown in the record book that a certain man had 27 convictions and spent 1,441 days in the gaol. He eventually died in the office of the gaol in 1931. Another man still living had 31 convictions and served 1,106 days. Three other persons respectively with 20, 17, and 18 convictions served 962, 785 and 600 days. These men were all real good pals and often spent the cold winter months in the County Gaol.
St. Croix Courier
Oct 30/1952
News Notes: New Water Lines
New six-inch pipes on Joes Pt. Road from Dodge Cottage to Pottery Bridge. Another opposite Breeze cottage. Prince of Wales from Tipperary to Acadia Road. De Monts also. "These properties were formerly supplied by the CPR from Algonquin mains and each fall when the hotel shut down the water supply ended too. Since some of the properties on De Monts are in use all winter now the new arrangement will give them water service for the full year."
St. Croix Courier
Nov 27/1952
Sonja Henie show in St. Andrews best ever skating spectacular. Surprise even to get her in Canada, let alone St. Andrews.
St. Croix Courier
Dec 11/1952
Huge House trailer: 25 foot plywood trailer driven by member of US Air Force on way to Saint John's. Stayed overnight at Picket Fence.