New book exploring historic streets is ‘nice gift’ to Saint John

As the oldest incorporated city in Canada, Saint John, N.B., has enough history to fill dozens, if not hundreds, of history books; Brenda McDermott should know since she’s written a few of them herself.

McDermott, a Saint John native, traced the past of the Port City’s original streets and layouts, documenting them inside a massive, two-volume book that details every block and building on the historic peninsula.

“This one evolved,” McDermott said. “I had a little bit and I kept going until I had enough. You don’t realize it’s going to be that big until it’s done.

“I just kept going.”

“Historic City Blocks” features more than 1,400 pictures of every nook and cranny of the original Saint John lots laid out by Loyalist Paul Bedell in 1783.

“Every street will have the meaning of their name and it also has all of the people who drew the lots when they came here,” McDermott said. “If it was a historic place, I have a blurb on each of those. It includes every block from Union Street to the waterfront. A lot of the street names have changed.”

McDermott previously published “Urban Renewal Saint John: A City Transformed” in 2008, which documented the buildings in the Port City that were destroyed between the 1960s and 1980s. It was an intensive project and her latest effort was just as demanding, if not more so.

“This took me 10 years,” McDermott said. “It was a long process. I couldn’t believe that much information existed. This is my hometown city so I have that definite connection.”

University of New Brunswick-Saint John professor Greg Marquis provided the foreword for the book, noting how it shows how the Port City has evolved over the decades.

"I've always described Saint John as a city of neighbourhoods, so here's a chance to do a close examination of that," Marquis said.

McDermott said the book includes photos of Saint John stretching from the 1940s to the present day. She feels it’s important to create a document of such an historically significant Canadian city.

“It’s an important city and having a book that brings all of that together is a nice gift and a nice thing to leave the city,” she said.

McDermott will be selling the book at the Saint John City Market from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. every Monday to Saturday. She said she will be there until she is sold out.

-With files from Avery MacRae

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