Description du lieu patrimonial

St. John Lodge is a large, wooden, two-storey building with a gambrel roof. The former Society of United Fishermen hall is located directly along Route 334 in the Barr’d Islands section of the Town of Joe Batt’s Arm-Barr’d Islands-Shoal Bay. The municipal heritage building designation is confined to the footprint of the building.

Valeur patrimoniale

St. John Lodge, also known as the Society of United Fishermen’s (SUF) Lodge No. 11 or the Fishermen’s Hall, has historic, architectural and aesthetic values.

St. John Lodge has historic value due to its age, its connection to the Society of United Fishermen and its role in the community. The SUF was an important social organization in many Newfoundland outports by the 1880s, and the fraternal benefit society was established with seven charter members at Joe Batt’s Arm-Barr’d Islands in 1875. St. John Lodge was a community social institution for many years, not only as SUF headquarters, but also because it was used for Anglican church services and functions during years when the local parish was without a church building.

The construction of St. John Lodge started in 1909, and has an unfortunate association with a very prominent sad event in the community’s history. The building’s grand opening was scheduled for April of 1917 but on April 7th four local SUF members were lost offshore while hunting seals. Two other local men died trying to locate the first group. The community mourned the six men and the lodge opening was postponed.

St. John Lodge is a good regional example of fraternal building architecture, which tended to draw upon the design of outport merchant buildings. Historic lodges in the Notre Dame Bay area are noted for their size, symmetrical facades, eaves and fenestration. St. John Lodge is a wooden two-storey building with a centered gable-end entrance, projecting eaves with deep, moulded returns, and single or paired arched windows with divisions and label mouldings. It is also one of few examples of lodges in the province which are further distinguished by a gambrel roof, in this instance retaining its wooden shingles.

St. John Lodge has aesthetic value due to its visual prominence in the cultural landscape and its position in a cluster of institutional buildings which includes St. John the Evangelist Anglican Church and the Loyal Orange Lodge. The size and architectural elements of each building announce its historic cultural importance and command attention; as a trio they are truly striking.

Source: Town of Joe Batt’s Arm-Barr’d Islands-Shoal Bay town council meeting minutes of 2008/03/13

Éléments caractéristiques

All those external elements relevant to the architectural value of the building and marking it as a lodge:

-dimensions and two-storey form;
-wooden construction, including wooden shore foundation;
-narrow clapboard sheathing;
-gambrel roof;
-projecting eaves with deep, moulded returns;
-centered placement of gable-end entrance;
-arched, double-hung four-over-four window in the front gable at the top storey;
-double-arched, double-hung four-over-four windows at the first storey;
-and label window mouldings;

And other elements which contribute to its significance in the cultural landscape:

-location of the building amidst a cluster of institutional buildings;
-and its visually prominent location on hilly terrain.