Description of Historic Place

Bardsley Building is a five-storey Italianate brick commercial building on King Street within the Trinity Royal Preservation Area of the City of Saint John.

Heritage Value

Bardsley Building is designated a Local Historic Place for its architecture and for its association with Bardsley Bros.

Bardsley Building is one of a collection of commercial, Italianate and Second Empire buildings that were built between 1877 and 1881 after two thirds of the City of Saint John were destroyed by the fire in 1877. The brick architecture sent a message that the city would be more fire resistant in the future. It was one of four four-storey Italianate buildings of near identical design that occupied an entire block face with the roofs stepped from the first building to the fourth as they ascended King Street. The first building on the lower end of the block face was later replaced and the remaining three buildings had storeys added.

Bardsley Building is also recognized for its association with Bardsley family. The Bardsley’s operated a family-owned business that spanned five generations. The Bardsley brothers occupied this building from the time of its construction about 1881 until about 1890. The company had begun operations in 1849 and ceased operations in 1976. The Bardsley family were an important part of the fashion scene of Saint John and their hats became known all over the world. The third generation of the Bardsley’s were brothers Robert and Joseph who operated their store at this location until the Great Saint John Fire of 1877. The brothers had the present building rebuilt soon after the fire and occupied the east side of the building until about 1890. The hard or “bowler” hat became popular at the time and they manufactured these on the premises. When the business closed, they had a list of 20,000 customers with their style and size of hat on file.

During the Great Depression, Bardsley Building was vacant for a time but from 1932, Maritime Furriers occupied the building for a decade. D. J. McIntyre occupied the west side of the store as a hairdresser in the early days of the building’s history. From the beginnings of Rock n’ Roll, the west side of the building was a music shop until the late 1960’s.

Source: Planning and Development Department - City of Saint John

Character-Defining Elements

The character defining elements that relate to the context Bardsley Building include:
- same set-back on lot with the neighbouring buildings;
- building filling the width of the lot.

The character-defining elements that relate to Bardsley Building include:
- overall similarity with neighbouring buildings;
- height and width proportions of the building’s five-storey rectangular massing;
- brick exterior walls;
- symmetrical window placement and proportions;
- ornate cornice with Roman arch motif on the fascia band;
- Roman and segmented arch openings with decorative moulded continuous sandstone headers;
- vertical-sliding wood windows;
- brick pilaster that runs through the centre of front façade;
- street-level storefront with cornice and tall Roman arch windows and entrances with sandstone keystones.