by John Edward FitzGerald

Bannerman House, located at 54 Circular Road in St. John's, is a large two and one-half storey residential single family dwelling built of wood. It is a nineteenth century merchant's house, of which there are many found around Newfoundland. The house has a relatively steep hip roof with gable ends, and a chimney bears the date 1849, fixing the date of the house at 1849 or possibly earlier. The principal entrance to the house is located on the east side of the building on the first floor, and at the rear of the house there is a two-storey wing on the north-east end. While the home has undergone several other modifications, it is one of the oldest in the Circular Road-Rennie's Mill Road area, and has been occupied by a variety of notable owners. This essay will outline the history of the property and occupants of the house, and indicate the importance of Bannerman House to the built heritage of its neighbourhood, city, and country.

The history of the property begins in 1810, when an apprentice butcher named John Mitchell (?-1846) came to Newfoundland from Dorset, England by way of Waterford, Ireland. In St. John's he began working for William Thomas, a prominent provisioning merchant, and we may infer that Mitchell progressed professionally, financially, and socially. On February 6, 1815 John Mitchell was married to Ann March (?-1867), a "spinstress" and offspring of the prominent March family of Old Perlican, by the Rev. David Rowland, the Church of England minister of St. John's.

Soon after his marriage John Mitchell went into business on his own and became successful in the butchering trade, at first providing victuals for British naval vessels and other ships entering port, and then expanding into the provision of produce from various St. John's farms. By 1836 Mitchell was well-established in St. John's, and involved in several real estate transactions in Old Perlican. Under the administration of Governor Sir Richard Goodwin Keats (1813-1816), in recognition of the requirements of increasingly permanent settlement, the Crown had begun the practice of leasing lands in Newfoundland for agriculture. In 1847 Ann Mitchell purchased land from the Crown which the Mitchells had previously leased, perhaps for some time, a property bounded by the north side of the Circular Road, the east side of the then Old Portugal Cove Road, the south side of Rennie's River, and the west side of the old road to Torbay, now King's Bridge Road. According to St. John's historian Wallace Furlong, on the smaller of the two grants, located at the south-west section of these properties, the Mitchells built their residence, which today is Bannerman House. Jemima March (later Mrs. Michael T. Knight), the daughter of Ann Mitchell's brother Stephen, also lived in the house with the Mitchells, as may have at least one servant, Johanna Walsh.

John and Ann Mitchell made considerable progress in their business, and the large tract of land was used for the grazing of animals, and growing vegetables and flowers. Ann established two small hothouses on the east side of the residence in which to start seeds, and the farm soon became very well-known for its production of vegetables and every variety of flowers, especially at Easter-time. According to Furlong,
Whether it was for special occasions or gatherings such as the "Regatta", a key football match (an auld firm game), a hockey game of keen competition, the event would be magnified in size or intensity by the expression..."they were there from Mitchell's". Should one be successful in showing up with a rate catch of the speckled beauties, from a 24 May fishing excursion on return of the "Trouter's Special", someone in the crowd at the Railway Station in St. John's would be heard to utter "Boy, he must have got them from Mitchell's," or, "such beauties, he could only have got them from Mitchell's".

Because of the abundance and excellence of the Mitchell's produce, the Mitchell name became an enduring Newfoundland synonym for unsurpassed quality, quantity, or diversity.

For another agricultural reason, the farm of John and Ann Mitchell gained even greater notoriety. It appears that John Mitchell's pastoral inclinations were shared with least one other neighbour, Governor Sir John Harvey (1841-1846). On January 14, 1842, Harvey gave the inaugural address and became the patron of the Agricultural Society of Newfoundland, but John Mitchell does not seem to have been a member of the Society, despite his fame and proficiency as a farmer. While Harvey cultivated his reputation for healing sectarian and political rancour, and was known as a "political physician" who wielded a "talismanic wand," restoring "order, peace, and happiness to the country", his son Frank was a constant thorn in his side, and has been described by historian Paul O'Neill as "probably the blackest sheep to ever occupy the governor's mansion." Late one night in 1843 while stealing vegetables from Mitchell's farm, the younger Harvey aroused John Mitchell, who in the dark, shot at and wounded the unknown intruder. While there may have been no love lost between the governor and Mitchell, it seems that following the shooting the property came to be widely known as "Mitchell's Garden". By this evidence we also have the earliest reference to habitation in a Mitchell house on the site.

On February 17, 1846, John Mitchell died outside his stable around two o'clock on the afternoon, of an apparent stroke. Because Mitchell died intestate, his wife Ann applied for and received status as administratrix of the estate, which just after John's death was valued at L 1500 sterling. On October 27, 1847, Ann received title to the lands and the buildings upon them, and soon thereafter began to partition and sell the farm's land along Circular Road to King's Bridge Road. During 1847 and 1848, twelve buyers came forward, including Ann's brother, Stephen. These financial transactions netted Ann L 2219 and 5 shillings, and may have facilitated renovations, repairs, changes to, or a re-building of the home which would explain the date 1849 on one of Bannerman House's chimneys. Just as significantly, the partition and sales of the lands of Mitchell's Garden also created the lots of land on which the houses of Circular road were later built, and in which many of the leaders of Newfoundland were to live and play outstanding roles in the island's history. The homes later erected on Circular Road became magnificent architectural expressions of the power and place of Newfoundland mercantile society, and in a real way, they may be considered as the grandchildren of Bannerman House and its lands.

While we may precisely date the house at 1849 or earlier, the origin of its name, or perhaps the activities of its namesake, are more Byzantine. In 1864 Governor Sir Alexander Bannerman (1857-1864) agreed to add a portion of the governor's land to land already allocated for a public park in the neighbourhood of Government House. Bannerman's donation was probably a parting goodwill gesture at the end of a turbulent political career. When he arrived in Newfoundland from the Bahamas in 1857 he found himself embroiled in sectarian politics. In 1860 Bannerman dismissed a magistrate for Trinity Bay which had been appointed by the Executive Council, and in response, the Council threatened resignation. In 1861 Bannerman dismissed the Liberal government of John Kent because Kent had accused the governor of conspiring with the Conservative opposition to defeat a government bill. But despite ample opportunities for political scandal or rumours of scandal because of the various politicians connected with Bannerman House, particularly Stephen March and Michael Knight's father, Thomas, no instances of these are known which could account for the name of the house. Whether Bannerman House got its name by being on the edge of the park to which the governor lent his name is not known, nor is it known whether a later resident of the house gave the house its name. Legends abound that the house acquired its name because Bannerman bought it, or had it built for a mistress, or because an earlier governor visited it by means of an underground tunnel which connected Government House and Bannerman House. These stories remain to be proven true, but their weed-like persistence perhaps indicates the extent of vernacular belief in the great age of Bannerman House, and a widespread acknowledgement that the home is historically significant to the community.

Following the death of Ann Mitchell on February 24, 1867, title to Bannerman House and its diminished lands passed to Jemima March and her husband Michael T. Knight. Jemima Knight died on October 18, 1908, but before and after this, the home was shared with others who lived at the same address. City Assessment Rolls for 1903 list the property as been shared with Sir Marmaduke Winter, who lived at Bannerman House until 1905 when he completed Winterholme and moved there. Under the Knights, Bannerman House became two residential addresses, which it later was while Winter's family lived there. At his death on August 7, 1916 at age 84, Michael Knight was buried from Bannerman House.

While the Knights lived at Bannerman House, the sharing or sub-letting of the house led to the division of the title to the whole house. After Knight's death, Sir Marmaduke gradually acquired the property in an attempt to re-consolidate the title. At one point during Sir Marmaduke's ownership, Bannerman House was occupied by his son Robert Gordon Winter, who briefly moved to Gower Street following his marriage, where a son Gordon Arnaud Winter was born. According to the Hon. Gordon Arnaud Winter, as a young boy lived in Bannerman House until he was about age nine. Just prior to World War I, the house was formally divided into two units, not one, and about one third of the house at the western end was occupied by a Mr. Summers. Following the war in around 1919 or 20, Robert Gordon Winter required more space for his family, and in 1921 he began construction on an extension to the rear of the house, and made internal modifications by removing a wall. In order to do this, Mr. Winter believes that the whole house must have come into Winter family possession by this time, but before the modifications were complete, in 1921 the Winter family vacated Bannerman House and moved to King's Bridge Road. Sir Marmaduke's wife Alice died on 19 March 1924, and he died on 11 August 1936.

On December 16, 1927, Sir Marmaduke sold Bannerman House and the property for $15,000 to William Angus Reid (1895-1961), Secretary of the Reid Newfoundland Company, which in 1898 assumed ownership, completed building, and operated the Newfoundland Railway. On May 9, 1930, Reid sold the house for $12,750 to Dorothy Crawford, wife of James Crawford, a director of Browning Harvey Ltd. On July 17, 1969, Mrs. Crawford sold the house and property for $29,500 to Donald Snowden, a businessman and consultant. Following Snowden's death in 1984, the property was sold on May 2, 1984 by the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Newfoundland as Administrator Pendente Litem of the estate to Dr. S.A.J. and Mrs.V. Walker of St. John's. On June 16, 1987, a municipal permit was issued to the Walkers for the completion of various repairs and the demolition of a portion of Bannerman House, known as the "carriage house".
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In the early 1990s, the owners of Bannerman House wished to demolish the house and replace it with a modern structure. After considerable lobbying by the Newfoundland Historic Trust, and the presentation to City Council of an earlier version of this essay, the owners were persuaded to sell the house. It was purchased by the sociologist Dr. Marilyn Porter of Memorial University. She devoted much of her time and resources to restoring the house to its mid-Victorian grandeur. Contractor Aidan Duff levelled the floors, repaired the wishbone chimney arch, restored plaster, windows, and the attic, and built a conservatory on the west side of the house. Some of the original birch bark and horse hair insulation was even retained. In 1995, the Newfoundland Historic Trust awarded Dr. Porter and Bannerman House the Southcott Award for excellence in Historic restoration, and for making Bannerman House her home.

Bannerman House is one of the earliest homes of Circular Road and of the City of St. John's. Its farmlands became the lands of the homes on Circular Road east, and it is therefore the parent property of its neighbourhood, the most notable residential neighbourhood in the city. The variety, number, and significance of the individuals who have occupied or who have been associated with the property, particularly women, make Bannerman House one of the most significant historic homes of St. John's. Its early vernacular style contrasts sharply with the ornate Second Empire merchant houses which were built later in the neighbourhood, and so it makes a vital contribution to the architecture and the streetscapes of Circular Road, Empire Avenue, and Rennie's Mill Road, which now itself is a National Historic District. As an early nineteenth century house in a neighbourhood built during the Victorian period, Bannerman House defines its neighbourhood's history, and speaks of an age now long gone in the history of St. John=s. It provides a very clear built example of Newfoundland's social, cultural, and political transition from an outpost colony, to self-governing independent dominion in the British Empire, and speaks strongly of the accomplishments, independence, vision, and determination of the generations of women who played a vital but often unsung part in Newfoundland history.

8 John Edward FitzGerald, 27 February 1992 and 24 January 2001.

Bibliography

I - Primary Sources

City of St. John's Archives, City Hall:
Assessment Rolls for 1891, 1894, 1897, 1903, 1909, 1915, 1921 for Circular Road.

City of St. John's Registry of Building Permits, Building and Development Services, City Hall: 16 June 1987 to Stephen A.J. Walker.

Crosbie, Gertrude. "Births, Deaths, and Marriages in Newfoundland, 1851-1859", typescript, Maritime History Group, Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1986.

The Daily News, Tuesday, 8 August 1916.

Correspondence of Mrs. Gertrude Emma March Cornick to City of St. John's Heritage Committee, 1 February 1992.

The Newfoundlander, Thursday, 19 February 1846.

Newfoundland Historical Society, Bobbie Robertson to Mrs. Stephen Walker, Bannerman House, 1 May 1985.

Probate Office, Province of Newfoundland and Labrador:
Vol. 4., folio 63;

Provincial Archives of Newfoundland and Labrador:
Vital Statistics 26 E, Anglican Cathedral of St. John the Baptist; GN 3/2/0, Box 1 (Lands Sold) 1831-1880, entry 645.

Registry of Deeds, Province of Newfoundland:
Central District, Vol. 1, p. 399; Vol. 10, pp. 435, 445; Vol. 11, pp. 25, 75, 131, 140, 219, 251, 504, 552; Vol. 12, p. 386; Vol. 13, p. 144; Vol. 16, p. 55; Vol. 18, p. 27, 495; Vol. 32, p. 152; Vol. 70, p. 311; Vol. 101, p. 556; Vol. 113, p. 51; Vol. 1037, p. 462. Northern District, Vol. 6, pp. 340-1, 348. Microfilm Reel A 21, pp. 492-496.

Registry of Crown Lands, Province of Newfoundland, Vol. 2A, folio 511.

II - Secondary Sources

Buckner, Philip. "Sir John Harvey", Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Vol VIII. Toronto, 1985.

Dictionary of Newfoundland and Labrador Biography, ed. Robert H. Cuff. St. John's, 1990, various entries.

Encyclopedia of Newfoundland and Labrador, Vol. I, St. John's: Newfoundland Book Publishers, 1991: Ciwko, T. Valdine, "Bannerman Park"; Vol. III, St. John's, 1991, various entries: Cuff, Robert H., "Michael Thomas Knight"; "Stephen March"; Dinn, Ellen M., and Krauchan, Carla S., "Richard Goodwin Keats".

Furlong, Wallace. "Famous Mitchell's Gardens", The Senior's News, Vol. 2, No. 8 (May 1984): 19-20.

. "The Agricultural Society of Newfoundland, Part II", The Senior's News, Vol. 1, No. 12 (September 1983): 16-18.

Matthews, Keith. "Profiles of Water Street Merchants", typescript, Maritime History Group, Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1980.

Moulton, Edward C., and Robertson, Ian Ross. "Sir Alexander Bannerman", Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Vol. IX, Toronto, 1976.

Murphy, Michael P. The Story of the Colonial Building. St. John's, 1972.

O'Flaherty, Patrick. "Sir Richard Goodwin Keats", Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Vol. VI, Toronto, 1987.

O'Neill, Paul. The Oldest City - The Story of St. John's, Newfoundland. Erin, Ontario, 1975.

Prowse, Daniel W. A History of Newfoundland, 2nd. ed., London, 189