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St. John's: My home town.


'You can take the Newfoundlander out of Newfoundland but you can't take Newfoundland out of the Newfoundlander'... yes bye!

There are two nice panoramas: one of the city and one of the harbour. They are fairly big downloading (especially for dialup) but a great view of each.

St. John's Harbour
There was a time when this harbour would be full of Portuguese and Spanish fishing vessels. When the Portuguese White Fleet was in the harbour it was a sight to behold. They were big 3 masted schooners and there would be so many of them that they would be tied up three and four abreast. It was a beautiful sight. Then there was some sort of trouble with them over fishing inside the 200 mile limit or something. Anyway for whatever reason they haven't been in the harbour for years.

The photo is 55kb.

Victoria Park from Shea Heights
The park was named for Queen Victoria. You can see the green fence in the outfield of the ball field. We used to toboggan, slide and even sometimes skate down that hill. We would start up by the green house at the top of the park and end up right down through the ballfield and, if the snow was good, right on to the bottom of the park. It was great fun.
The big white building at the top of the photo is the Grace General Hospital.

The photo is 74kb.

Victoria Park from the top looking down at the ball field.

In the winter they take down that green fence that surrounds the ball field.

The photo is 59kb.

The white 3 story house in the middle of the shot is one of the houses I grew up in on Hamilton Ave. It was just across from Victoria Park, which was convenient for a kid.

You'll see a garage door on the bottom right. That building used to be a bakery. There is a river that runs into the park, which is covered with concrete these days, but back then it was opened and ran right under the bakery. Of course being a kid I never thought of it but I have to wonder now if they had a rat problem...

The photo is 67kb.

After 184 Hamilton Ave we moved to 208 Hamilton Ave. Not a big move by any stretch. At least I didn't have to leave my friends behind.

It's the house in the middle of the shot.

The photo is 58kb.

The Basilica

In 1834, when Bishop Michael Anthony Fleming revealed his plan to erect a large and imposing stone church as a Cathedral for Newfoundland, St. John's was a small town of some 19,000 inhabitants, of whom about 14,000 were Catholic.

See a link to the Basilica from my St. John's web page.

The photo is 55kb.

The Battery is a St. John's neighbourhood that stretches along the bottom of Signal Hill toward the Narrows. Even today The Battery maintains the look and character of a fishing village. In 1673, St. John's residents used gun emplacements in the "Battery" to ward off an attack on St. John's by three Dutch pirate ships - the name stuck.

The photo is 61kb.

Garrison Hill

Obviously at some time there was a fort or garrison here but I couldn't find anything on the Internet about it. So I'll just have to say I took the photo because it's a nice looking St. John's street.

The photo is 47kb.

Gower Street

Again, I took the photo because it's a nice looking St. John's street. This is looking east along Gower Street

The photo is 55kb.

Holloway Street

Again, I took the photo because it's a nice looking St. John's street.

The photo is 46kb.

This is one of the two panoramas I have here. The file is 346 kilo bytes, big I know but it's a nice looking panorama of St. John's taken from Signal Hill.

The photo is 346kb.

This is one of the two panoramas I have here. It's a nice looking panorama of St. John's Harbour taken from The Battery.

The photo is 187kb.