I think we would have had termination vistas at the end of every street that met the harbour.

This is a cool Photo I found of the Anglican cathedral under construction .. you can see another church to the right and a bungalow where the Masonic Temple is now (this was before the great fire)

http://www.spiritofnewfoundland.com/...20pre-1892.jpg

Photo from the Memorial University's archives
http://www.spiritofnewfoundland.com/location/

That's a very cool photo. The church on the right may have been Presbyterian, and was replaced by the Kirk. The house on the right would have been very modern at the time, and, ironically, probably wouldn't meet today's heritage regulations.

Being a graduate of the Dept. of Geography I should suggest you all check out:

http://collections.mun.ca/cdm4/description.php?id=96

tons of old photos of St. John's including some pre-1880's

Soooo many good photo's on that collection...

wow that's amazing! I can't stop flicking through them!

Water street had decent sidewalk clearing in 1904:

http://www.pbase.com/image/148831241.jpg
Source, MUN archives, via: http://www.facebook.com/#!/VintageStJohns

Just wondering if someone knows of any pictures of Newfoundland's Tallest Building, the Confederation Building (east building) Under construction. I don't think I've ever seen any pictures of it U/C.

Also, for some of our historians, were there ever any previous concept designs for the Confederation Building released to the public?? It would be very interesting to see!

I looked on the net, but couldn't find any. I am certainly not old enough to have any of my own!

No luck with construction photos but I did find two of the design model and a couple of the newly built building, circa 1960
http://i1327.photobucket.com/albums/...pscbe935ea.jpg
http://i1327.photobucket.com/albums/...ps22e54d66.jpg
http://i1327.photobucket.com/albums/...ps24cfb2c9.jpg
http://i1327.photobucket.com/albums/...ps2b79eb2f.jpg
http://i1327.photobucket.com/albums/...ps1ca670f5.jpg
Anyone remember the fountain in Long pond
http://i1327.photobucket.com/albums/...ps84f13efd.jpg

Cool photos! It's too bad that track and field thing across the road down over the hill was never built. I find it very strange to think that at the time, confederation building was literally on the edge of the city. Basically built out in the woods! Thanks for sharing :)

They also had planned to build a large stadium didn't they? it was to have a larger capacity than mile one does today .. I'm sure we talked about this on SSP a couple of years ago. anyone want to refresh our memories? :)

I remember there were huge plans for that area and pippy park back in the day

I came across this photo, and was going to post it myself, until I checked and saw it was already here. I was estimating the date as between 1855 and 1885 based on the half finished Cathedral construction - it is actually dated 1870 as posted above. The only other things I was going to add to the description were the presence of Fort Townshend at the top, and what appears to be the first Presbyterian Church (built 1843), the small white church near the center. At this time the churches were very much what symbolically defined the city. I guess the waterfront buildings did too, and many looked similar to the Murray Premises.

I can't get over how sparsely populated that part of town looks!

^ That area was the frontier of the city at the time (1960s), there was almost nothing of the city "north" of Confederatiion Building. There has also been lots of infill since in the areas shown.

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Some interesting "then and now" photos of St. John's can be found here:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/media/set...4475147&type=1

That model is so neat, it used to be on display somewhere in the building. Just wondering, did you find those online, or from some other source, I'm pretty sure I've never seen them before, but very cool! Back then Prince Phillip Drive was just a two lane road without too much traffic, and the parking lots were smaller. I know there was a fountain in the pond at one time. There was also a similar floodlit fountain in front of the Colonial Building.

Here's a picture I found of mourning, after the confederation vote

http://www.heritage.nf.ca/law/images...w_flag_500.jpg
http://www.heritage.nf.ca/law/flag.html

And businesses along Water Street were draped in black tarps as a symbol of mourning as well. I wish there were pictures of that - I've not yet found any.

wow look at this!

This was after the death of the king

http://www.library.mun.ca/qeii/cns/p...oto0404005.jpg
from the MUN library
Death of Edward VII, May 9, 1910
http://www.library.mun.ca/qeii/cns/p...oto0404005.jpg

I find the fact the Colonial Building was designed with a single, regular-sized front door incredibly odd... don't you? It's an interesting one.

And great picture. Reminds me of the riot photo from the article you shared on FB (and others I've seen of that event). It seems the Colonial Building (and Bannerman Park) was the popular gathering place in St. John's a century ago, sort of our version of a public square?