13 Building for Permanence

13

BUILDING FOR PERMANENCE

before embArking on its grAnd survey of the greAt lAkes, the hydrographic survey team produced a map that described plans for the future Point Frederick yard. This was undoubtedly an effort involving both Commodore Edward Owen and Commissioner Robert Hall. Many or all of the ideas would have travelled with Hall to London and formed topics of discussions with the Admiralty and Navy Board.

Much of what is contained in the map insert, shown in Fig. 13.1, reflected Hall’s wish to replace the wooden buildings with stone ones. But the plan went farther and laid out a vision of permanence, with a dry dock and stone walls, similar to but smaller than the Royal Navy yards they knew. The larger yard enclosure would expand and include the base of the hill north of the dockyard gate. A canal to be dug across the isthmus between the inlets would be within the enclosure. The canal would create a moat-like water communication between Navy Bay and Kingston Harbour, and with the bridge raised, would isolate the dockyard, making it an island. The existing roads would be straightened and improved, and lines of stone cottages would be constructed along the west shore for the accommodation of shipwrights, officers, and members of the civil establishment.

The centrepiece of the dockyard would be the great stone storehouse and dry dock. The largest building, made of wood, would be a seasoning shed, an acknowledgement of past problems with ship rot. Boathouses, built of

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3

2

1 5

4 wood on stone foundations, were to be constructed in the mast pond, not far from a magazine. Also proposed was the removal of a storehouse, the officers’ quarters and offices, the foreman’s house, and the porter’s lodge. A large area with a garden was to be reserved around the hospital, but there was no plan for a separate dwelling for the naval surgeon. While many of the most ambitious ideas were not realized, many were, and the evidence can be found today. There was no proposal for a new commodore’s residence, although there had been one earlier. An image of a new commodore’s dwelling, or Admiralty House, appears in a sketch map of December 10, 1815.1 The residence was to be located on the small knoll on the west shore of the hill where shanties were located. Work on the residence was started but then stopped when the army identified the location as a potential defensive position.2 The provisional lieutenant governor, Sir Frederick Robinson, proposed constructing a small defensive work on the knoll and cancelled the building project.3 Acting for Hall while he was away, storekeeper Edward Laws sought another site for the Admiralty House.4

Shipbuilding continued into 1816. New contracts were issued to gangs of shipwrights, including, once again, French Canadians from Quebec. Construction of HMS Beckwith, built to meet the needs of the army, was extended through the winter until it was launched on July 8, 1816.5 Lieutenant

Fig. 13.1: The future of Point Frederick in 1816: (1) seasoning shed for planks (not built); (2) canal (not built); (3) stone terraced quarters for officers and shipwrights (partly built); (4) stone wall (built); (5) front and back roads (built); (6) storehouse (built smaller); and (7) smithy (built).

5 7 6

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David Wingfield, who had been on Lake Huron assisting the hydrographic survey, returned to Kingston and was given command of the Beckwith. He sailed the new vessel to Fort George, transporting an army regiment on August 25, 1816. After a quick visit to Niagara Falls, he sailed back to Navy Bay, where he soon discovered that a staff reduction included him. He left for England within days.6 At some point, the Beckwith was renamed the Charwell and continued to sail on the lake.

In addition to the Charwell (Beckwith), two more transports were built. Others were planned, including two corvettes. There remained a sense that the Royal Navy presence in Kingston would continue for years to come. A visitor described the scene at Point Frederick in August 1816 as

an uninterrupted line of wooded shore, seem conducting you to the heart of a wilderness, known only to the hunter, and his prey: you emerge from a wood, double a headland, and a fleet of ships lies before you, several of which are as large as any on the ocean: others, of equal dimensions, are building on the spot, where, a few months since, their frame-timbers were growing. Two sources of astonishment here rise in the mind: first, the magnitude of the resource called into action; secondly, the object which called them forth … the navy-yard employs twelve hundred laborers. (Considerable reductions have lately taken place in the whole establishment.)7

Now commodore, Robert Hall returned from England to replace Fitz Owen. He arrived on September 9, 1816, after an absence of 15 months. Accompanying Hall were his flag lieutenant and eight midshipmen, appointed to the lakes. Hall was greeted with a cannon salute from his Lake Ontario fleet. He found that progress had been made in the yard and that most of his orders of the previous year had been carried out. Hall still had ambitious plans. He had obtained an agreement in principle from London that the old wooden buildings would be replaced by stone structures as funds became available.8

Many who had served in the war were discharged from the navy at their own request. Enough remained to keep crews on the active vessels and to

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maintain the ships and yard in good order. One can picture the growing fleet of large sailing ships in Navy Bay, each with their reduced crews going through the daily routines of meals, mustering, and the tasks of cleaning, swabbing, polishing, and painting. Occasional gun- and live-firing drills broke the routine as the crews sent cannon shot into the lake. Officers and masters habitually examined the sky, measuring the wind and trying to assess the wind gauge — important when sailing or about to sail. But that would soon change. The era of sailing warships was approaching the end.

The steamship Frontenac made Canadian history on September 7, 1816, when it was launched into Lake Ontario at nearby Bath, signalling the arrival of modern technology. Captain James Mackenzie, a veteran Royal Navy captain, was recruited to command the new steamship. Commodore Hall soon grasped the significance of this development. Shares in the company were available for purchase, and Hall arranged for the Royal Navy to acquire part ownership.9 Soon after the launch, the Frontenac experienced damage to one of its paddlewheels. The ship made for Point Frederick for repairs. People noted with amazement that the vessel could move into a strong wind with one paddle damaged. Hall was likely more than pleased to give the opportunity to his blacksmiths and shipwrights to work with the new technology.

Construction of Hall’s Admiralty House soon began. The large lot that storekeeper Edward Laws had chosen on the west shore of Point Frederick was about 150 yards south of the scow ferry landing. While Hall waited for the work to be completed, he rented a house on Barrack Street in Kingston.10 It may have been during this period that he met Mary Ann Edwards and formed a relationship. He probably spent most working days in his spacious quarters on the St. Lawrence, close to the new dock, which eventually took the name of the ship.

Hall continued to press for a permanent storehouse for the many items of ordnance, rigging, ropes, furniture, small arms, and cannons that he needed stored in a fireproof building. Hall published tenders in December 1816 for the construction of a limestone storehouse that would measure an incredible 500 by 80 feet. But the scope of the project was too much for local builders. With scant interest, Hall began considering a smaller building that was more in line with the capabilities of the locals.11

By March 1817, Hall was living in the Admiralty House, a wood frame, two-and-a-half-storey structure.12 Four great chimneys on the north and

BuIldINg For PermANeNce

south walls bracketed a high-pitched roof similar to that of the hospital. The entrance faced the front road and Kingston. There was a full basement, a main-floor kitchen and living room, and foyer stairs to upstairs bedrooms. There were servants’ quarters in the attic that were reached by a hidden spiral staircase. A commodore’s wharf with adjacent flagpole was centred on the house. Hall furnished the dwelling with Belgian and English carpets, sofas, chairs, tables, elaborate window coverings, elegant china, and a table service for 24. There was a large collection of wine and liquors.13 The former commodore’s house in the dockyard probably went to the master shipbuilder.

So many buildings of wood had been constructed during the war that the threat of fire was constant. As if to highlight this hazard, one of the two-storey barracks at the Point Frederick battery became engulfed and destroyed by a fire in mid-December 1816. The barrack was near the east palisade fence, not far from the former commodore’s dwelling and Slip No. 4. Fortunately, no one was killed and the fire was contained. The loss of the building displaced members of the 37th Regiment and their families.14 The dockyard had so far been lucky regarding fires.

The Kingston dockyard stayed active, even though it was below wartime strength. It is evident that transport ships and possibly warships ventured onto the lake. But neither the Americans nor British wanted to risk breaking the peace, so any captain would have sailed with great prudence. On April 5, 1817, it was announced that the following ships were still commissioned on Lake Ontario: the Kingston (Prince Regent), 56 guns, Commodore Sir Robert Hall; the Burlington (Princess Charlotte), 42 guns, Captain N. Lockyer; and the Charwell (Beckwith), 50 guns, Captain Montresor.15 HMS Radcliffe was launched in March, although the reason for one more gunboat is not clear.16 The St. Lawrence was not listed, having been decommissioned. Hall had moved his broad pennant to the Kingston.

At the end of April 1817, Hall was using his funding authority to rebuild the yard. John Marks, the purser of the St. Lawrence, moved into the position of agent victualler, and working from his office in the hospital, sent out for tenders for projects to transform the yard.17 Joiners were sought to finish a frame house on Point Frederick. A contract was offered to construct a dwelling at the naval hospital, similar to earlier requests for two houses. The following month, tenders were called to build yard gates and “two small buildings which will be attached to them.”18 This indicated the beginnings

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of construction of hinged metal gates and the stone perimeter wall, although there is no evidence of stone buildings at the gate. Although bids were requested to build a stone wall beyond the dockyard enclosure to include the residential area,19 this large project was not likely started. A commission was offered to complete the stone wall around parts of the dockyard by mid-October 1817.20 Contracts were also tendered to build roads, according to plans that were available for review. Installation of the dockyard gate bell occurred in the summer of 1817.21 Some have thought that the bell was brought to Canada by John Marks.

About this time, the Point Frederick artillery battery began to be referred to as Fort Frederick.22 Perhaps due to his plan to upgrade the Point Frederick roads, Hall published a note in the Kingston Gazette suggesting the need to establish a ferry service from Kingston to the Point Frederick scow ferry dock,23 something that had existed in the past but seems to have disappeared.

Until now, there had been little interest in developing the military reserve north of Front Road and south of businessman Richard Cartwright’s village lots. This was the area originally designated by Gother Mann in 1788 as a common. Small buildings had cropped up along Front Road, usually near the ferry, including a tavern and slaughterhouse. The issue came up because the army commander was concerned that the navy would expand northward, although the area seems to have been undeveloped and left as “brushwood and trees.”24 It was not used by the army until the late 1840s.25

Hall continued to proceed forward with his plans, apparently confident he was developing a permanent naval establishment. This suddenly changed at the end of May, when he received news of an accord between the American and British governments. As a result of the agreement, which was described in orders dated February 26, 1817, Hall was directed to place the remainder of the fleet in ordinary and reduce the manned strength. The number of naval members was decreased to a peacetime establishment of 45 all ranks. His new gunboat, HMS Radcliffe, was laid up with the others.

The treaty, which was clearly known by the Navy Board when it generated Hall’s orders months before, was the Rush-Bagot Agreement, signed on April 28, 1817, to demilitarize the Great Lakes and accomplished by an exchange of notes. While ratification by both the United States and Britain came later, the terms were effective immediately and remain today.

BuIldINg For PermANeNce

The U.S. representative, Richard Rush, wrote that

this Government … agrees that the naval force to be maintained upon the lakes by the United States and Great Britain, shall, henceforth, be confined to the following vessels on each side, that is —

On Lake Ontario to one vessel not exceeding 100 tons burden, and armed with one 18-pound cannon. On the Upper Lakes to two vessels not exceeding the like burden each, and armed with like force, and on the waters of Lake Champlain to one vessel not exceeding like burden and armed with like force.

And it agrees that all other armed vessels on these lakes shall be forthwith dismantled, and that no other vessels of war shall there be built or armed.26

Hall was to strike his broad pennant, since there was no longer a prospect of battle. He would serve as the commissioner only, with the responsibility of maintaining the yard and preserving the mothballed fleet to the best degree possible. In practical terms, this meant that Hall would discharge most of the naval personnel and end contracts related to maintenance of the vessels. Hall would still need a few sailors, workmen, and civilian contractors to secure and preserve the vessels and store their rigging, fittings, armaments, and other items. And with all of the naval supplies in the yard and in other storehouses in Canada, the need for a large stone storehouse remained.

Despite these developments, Hall pressed forward with some of his 1817 contracts, using up approved funds. The naval yard would stay open, so there remained the necessity to replace the fire-prone and rundown buildings with those of stone. With a vision related to the great stone walls and buildings of the British naval yards, Hall attempted to create a Royal Navy dockyard in miniature, starting with better roads, stone buildings, and construction of a stone entrance and perimeter wall. Toward the end of the year, Hall directed storekeeper Edward Laws to acquire 20 books of gold leaf and a half pound of Prussian blue for “painting and ornamenting the King’s Arms over the Dock Yard gate.” 27

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Fig. 13.2: The

dockyard entrance as depicted in a sketch from 1841, showing gate piers supporting an arch over the entrance. The cipher would have been within the framed rectangle at the top of the arch.

An English traveller, John M. Duncan, described the result 18 months later. Arriving in 1819, he visited the dockyard by taking the ferry from Kingston to the scow landing. He followed “a path,” probably the front road, from the shore to a large gate over which the letters G.R. were placed. He described the letters as a “well known double cipher” worn a few years before on the front of soldiers’ caps.28 This sketch (Fig. 13.2) provides our best glimpse of the appearance of the early gate, although vague photographic images from the 1860s suggest that the arch survived until the end of the British era in 1870. Fig. 13.3A depicts the dockyard gate about 1874 after the arch was removed. The width of the entrance was narrow compared to today. Note the similarity in appearance to the Royal Navy Sheerness Dockyard gate, built in England at about the same time. In particular, the vertically placed cannons were common to navy dockyards, as shown in Fig. 13.3B.

The gate cannons in the case of Point Frederick are British. The two at the RMC gate were recently removed and inspected by historian John Grenville, who determined they were manufactured in Britain between 1702 and 1714 because of the rose-and-crown cipher. Both were spiked and had their trunnions broken, typically done in battle to deny reuse if captured by an enemy. Similar cannons have been found in the wrecks of the Burlington (Princess Charlotte) and the Kingston (Prince Regent) in Deadman Bay where they were used as ballast. It is possible that the RMC cannons were among some left at Fort Frontenac, perhaps having been captured by the French at the Battle of Fort Oswego in 1756. They may have been pulled out of this group destined to be used as ballast in the 1814 frigates, the time the first gate was built.

Construction of the dockyard gate was likely the first step in building the stone perimeter wall. A large job, construction probably began in 1817.

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The date of completion is less certain, but no later than October 1820.29 A map that included Point Frederick, based on 1817 survey data, shows the completed wall.30 The average height of the wall was 13 feet. Its length was 3,323 feet, not including 200 feet where it crossed the yard at the north end.31 Maps from 182432 and 182933 show that the completed shape of the wall closely matched that displayed in a 1933 aerial photograph from the National Air Photo Library (NAPL). Only a small section of the wall remains today near the RMC gate.

Before the stone wall was erected, the wooden fencing built during and after the war was pulled down. New lines were surveyed for the stone wall foundations that were arranged in straight, angled segments (see Fig. 13.4). This must have involved some negotiating with the army, especially concerning the road that followed the fence to Fort Frederick. From the yard gate, the wall was placed in steps along the north part of the yard to the base of the Navy Bay sandspit. The other half projected along the west shoreline and around the south yard until it reached the eastern shoreline (see Fig. 13.4).

The early roads on Point Frederick north of the dockyard likely evolved from the demands of residents, scow ferry traffic, and later, Point Road wagons. The pre-war maps do not clearly show the routing of a front road, although they do suggest that a centre road or path was present. This may have suited the early Provincial Marine residents, who might have resented carts being pulled through their lakefront property lots. After the start of the 1817 road construction, the front road was likely surveyed, straightened,

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Fig. 13.3A: On the

left, the dockyard gate circa 1874, just before the creation of the RMC. Two cannons were buried vertically, muzzles up, and used as bollards to protect the stonework from damage. This practice was started by the British in the early 19th century utilizing captured enemy cannons. Fig. 13.2B: This

photograph of the Royal Navy Sheerness Dockyard gate, built in 1820, reveals similar placement of cannon bollards.

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Fig. 13.4: This map

from approximately 1830 shows the complete stone wall. The red arrows mark the straight wall sections. The blue arrow marks the gate. The north sections were often deteriorated due to the wet, swampy ground base. The south and east sections were removed in 1847 when Fort Frederick was rebuilt.

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and paved using clay and limestone to improve the primitive paths that had arisen during the war.

The first portion of the front road is approximated today by the walking path under Memorial Arch, as well as Valour Drive. The road generally paralleled the shoreline, passing in front of the 1818 location of the Admiralty House, south of today’s Memorial Arch, then coursed inland around the hospital property. It then curved slightly right down the hill, probably to ease the change of grade, and intercepted the back road at an angle near the yard gate.

Although no longer in use and forgotten, part of the road was still visible in outline in a 1933 aerial photograph (see Fig. 13.5B). Archaeological excavation has discovered a portion of this road. It measured 18 feet in width and was composed of broken limestone pressed into clay, reminiscent of an early macadam road. Ditches dug into the bedrock that would have improved road drainage attest to the high quality of the work.

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An earlier and narrower road was discovered under the clay base, signs of the old cart path34 that cut through the shanty village. When the new road was built in 1817, it certainly led to demolition of some of the shanties, adding numbers to those pulled down during the cancelled project involving a commissioner’s residence on the knoll.

Work on the back road was delayed for several years. An 1824 ordnance plan map shows that the back road was unaltered at the time of that survey.35 A Royal Engineers map from 1829 reveals that the back road was rerouted and straightened sometime between 1824 and 1828.36 The straightening put the road farther west, near the west border and on the opposite side of the burial ground. The road was also widened and routed from the dockyard gate, along the north shoreline of Navy Bay Inlet, then uphill east of the barracks and straight north until it intersected Front Road in Pittsburgh Township. Today’s Verite Avenue follows the north portion of this road.

Evidently using his earlier authority to build and replace with stone, Hall continued with some building projects during the summer of 1817, raising the two small stone buildings associated with the naval hospital. Approved before he received news of the demilitarization, and while demand for hospital services was declining, Hall went ahead with the hospital cookhouse and a dwelling for the surgeon.37 The stone cookhouse, which survives today

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Fig. 13.5A: This

detail of a 1933 NAPL photograph of the hill shows the front road as it is today. Fig. 13.5B: The lines

have been added to show the outline of the original front road, present from about 1817 until 1874.

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Fig. 13.6: The naval

hospital cookhouse, now the RMC Commandant’s Guest House, was built during the summer of 1817. (see Fig. 13.6), was constructed at a distance from the hospital that lessened the threat of a cooking fire. The surgeon’s house was built nearby by Kingston contractor John Cummings, a prominent businessman, lawyer, and landowner. The four walls and basement of the 1817 dwelling remain within the extensively remodelled RMC Commandant’s Residence. The exterior stonework of the original can be seen on the west and east faces of the current building. While there are no photographs of the original structure, there are a few sketches and painted images.38

The hospital was closed at the end of 1817. The building remained in use as an office, notably by victualler agent Marks, and was later used as a barrack and storehouse. The cookhouse today functions as the Commandant’s Guest House, one of the oldest structurally unchanged buildings in Kingston and perhaps the oldest in continuous use in the Canadian Forces.

The changes made by Commissioner Hall starting in 1815, and especially during the summer of 1817, were fundamental and lasting and have defined the shape and landscape framework of what would become the Royal Military College. The wharves and waterfront, blacksmith building, storekeepers’ shop, stone wall, Royal Navy gate, slipways, road system, and surgeon’s quarters were created by Hall. They would survive and become part of the RMC.

These were the accomplishments of Sir Robert Hall during his delayed and brief tenure as commodore and resident dockyard commissioner.