Doug Grant
ca.1899 This photograph is a new acquistion whic I don’t believe has been published before. It was not dated but it resembles others that were taken about the same time and contains the same elements on the Court House Green. One building in the picture that we know something about is the house on the left side, “The Gaoler’s House”, which was built during 1897-98 to provide accommodation for the Governor of the Jail, Albert D. McDougall. Wall Street Methodist Church, in the centre, is much as it looks these days. The congregation had contracted in 1896 with Kingston architect, Joseph W. Power, to design a major expansion. The larger church as we see it here, contained extensive alterations and an improved new sanctuary, apparently patterned after the one he had provided for Sydenham Methodist Church in Kingston. The older Bank of Montreal building is on the right. It was built and opened in 1857. © copyright -
September 2009
On the Green itself, notice the old cannon in the centre. This gun was later moved to the Brockville Armoury and , I believe, it is the one found there now. There is also a stepped platform to the south of the cannon which may have been used for public performances. The boundary was marked by wooden posts on which 3 chains were strung all around the perimeter. Taller stone pillars were placed at six strategic entrance points. Two of these can be seen here. The last item to point out is the wooden electrical post. It is, however very hard to see one of the new electrical arc lamps suspended from a rod at the top. This latest invention was powered by direct current and was part of a set of new lamps placed along the main street and in this location. These arc lamps were later replaced in 1912 by the set of alternating current clustered globe lamps.
Source: from a photograph taken while visiting the area by Marsden A. Kemp (d.1943). He was an amateur photographer who lived in Kingston and Picton, Ontario. His extensive collection of glass plate negatives is in the Archives of Ontario.