The House

Loyalist House,
A National Historic Site

120 Union Street, Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada

Loyalist House was built by David Daniel Merritt, a United Empire Loyalist from New York. The house, finished in 1817, remained in the possession of several generations of the family until it was acquired by the New Brunswick Historical Society in 1959. It is a fitting memorial to the first fifty years of the Loyalists in Canada, and a tribute to the excellence of the early craftsmen of Saint John.

In 1783 Thomas and Amy Merritt of Rye, New York emigrated to Saint John with their family from New York City. Thomas was a Loyalist, forced leave his home because he had signed a protest against the American Revolution in 1775. His son Thomas served in the Queen’s Rangers on the side of the British Crown and later moved to Upper Canada. Another son, David Daniel, built “the house on the hill,” now Loyalist House. David Daniel, who was nineteen when he arrived in Saint John, became an active member of the new community, prospering as the proprietor of a business near Market Square. According to family tradition, sometime after 1810 work began on a new residence for the Merritt family on the comer of Union and Germain streets. The house was completed in 1817.

David Daniel died in 1820, as did his father, leaving the house to his son, David Jabez. Upon his death in 1884, it passed to his daughter, Louise Harrison, and her son, Louis, in 1941. Louis’ son, David, was born in 1946. The house was continuously occupied by the Merritt-Harrison family for about 150 years. It was acquired by the New Brunswick Historical Society in 1959, upon the death of Louis Harrison, through private, municipal, and provincial assistance. It has been operated as a seasonal museum since 1961. The Merritt House, a fine example of Georgian architecture, is the oldest wooden building in Saint John which has not been structurally altered since it was built. It stands today almost exactly as it was in 1817.

Like many early wooden buildings from this era, the North and East exterior walls are faced with clap- boarding (originally of cypress wood), because these sides were mostly affected by the weather. The South and West exteriors are shingled. Much of the wood used in the construction of the house is pine, from the upper St. John River.

While plain on the exterior, the house has interiors of very handsome proportions, and some fine examples of wood carving. The hand-carved mouldings and arches and fireplaces are particularly noteworthy. Over the front door, with its original brass knocker, is a striking fanlight semi- circular window. The main hallway features a gracefully curving stairway. Between the front and back hallways are curving doors which at first appear to be part of the paneling. The interior displays fine details of craftsmanship and its generous spaciousness suggests the elegant way of life for which it was obviously designed. Some of the furniture in the museum belonged to the first generation of Merritts to live in the house; other pieces were imported from Britain or the United States or were locally made by artisans such as Thomas Nisbet.

The Merritt house remains one of the few notable buildings in the uptown area which survived the Great Fire of 1877. As a museum it interprets the material culture and lifestyle of an upper-class Saint John family from c. 1820 to c. 1900. Like many families, the Merritts prospered from the city’s role as a major port.

By 1833, as the city expanded, the distinct identity of the Loyalists faded because of immigration and intermarriage with other national and ethnic groups, notably British immigrants who began to arrive after 1815. The city and province also lost people to outmigration to the United States.

Loyalist House commemorates the first fifty years of the Loyalists in New Brunswick and the early artisans of Saint John to whom it stands a silent tribute.

Operated by the New Brunswick Historical Society