Historic Mount Allison: First Men’s Residence (1894-1899)

The first dedicated University men's residence opened in August 1894. Impressive in scale for this time period, the four storey building was 200 feet long with a 90 feet long ell wing. It was a brick construction with stone trimmings, a mansard roof, and twenty-seven front windows. The design of the mansard roof and window dormers evoke the Second Empire style which was near its peak when the residence was built. The residence stood at a right angle to York Street, near where the Bennett and Bigelow residences now stand, and was built on land leased from George T. Bowser.

In the rear the large central ell provided space for a dining room and kitchen on the ground floor, and an assembly hall on the second floor. The main part of the building contained student rooms, and on the main floor: offices of the Y.M.C.A and Eurhetorian Society, a parlour, a reading room, the Dean's apartment, and a suite of rooms reserved for hospital or infirmary purposes. There was also a hospital with a separate entrance over the servants' apartments. There were three styles of rooms: small sized rooms for single students, large rooms to accommodate two students, and adjoining rooms meant to be used as a separate bedroom and study to be shared by two students. [1]

It was destroyed by fire in June 1899, and the Second University Men’s Residence was built on the same site. Bowser had bequeathed the land to the university in 1898.

Notes

[1] The Argosy, vol. XX, November 1893, p. 18.