Colonial Building

Bannerman Park is a Victorian era urban park located in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. The park is named for Sir Alexander Bannerman, Governor of the Colony of Newfoundland from 1857 to 1864, who assented to an Act establishing the park and donated land for the purpose in 1864. The park occupies the city block bounded by Bannerman Road, Military Road, Rennie's Mill Road, and Circular Road excluding several residential lots carved out of the southwest corner.

Government House is the official residence of the lieutenant governor of Newfoundland and Labrador. Government House was a by-product of the wave of administrative initiatives that took place during the 1820s. The royal charter of 1825 bestowed official colonial status for Newfoundland. The first governors of Newfoundland were naval officers who resided on their flagship, anchored in St. John's harbour. However, Admiral Richard Edwards decided it would be more apt for the Governor to live ashore, and thenceforth the governor resided at Fort Townshend, where the first Government House was constructed. Completed in 1781, it was intended to be a summer house for the governors, but remained in constant use until the present structure was finished in 1831. Never intended for winter use, the inhabitants complained of the cold, and Francis Pickmore even died there in the winter of 1818. The building plans for Government House were drawn up in England. The Ordinance had told the Treasury that workmen's wages were too high in Newfoundland, and subsequently, workmen in Scotland were engaged and arrived in St. John's to begin construction in April 1827. The original plan as conceived by Governor Cochrane was for a Palladian style two-storey house, plus basement. When completed in 1831, Government House cost £38,175, which was five times the original estimate; equal to £3491958.09 today. The two-storey building consists of a centre block flanked by slightly lower wings on the east and on the west. The exterior is of rough, red sandstone quarried at Signal Hill, trimmed with English Portland stone. The construction of the new Government House was meant to reflect the proper status of the governor of a province that was now a proper British colony, and a key part of the Empire. The principal rooms for entertaining—a salon, dining room, and ballroom—along with the main entrance hall were laid out in such a manner as to allow for ceremonial processions, and pomp befitting a governor.The Lieutenant-Governor's residence is where the Canadian Royal Family and visiting foreign dignitaries are greeted. Inside are also reception rooms, offices and support facilities; the Lieutenant-Governor's office is the site of swearing-in ceremonies for Cabinet ministers, where Royal Assent is granted, and where the Lieutenant-Governor receives the Premier. The site was designated a National Historic Site of Canada.

The Murray Premises is a National Historic Site of Canada located in downtown St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. The Murray Premises was renovated in 1979 and now contains office suites, restaurants, retail stores and, most recently, a boutique hotel. The buildings once served as a fishery premises, with facilities for drying and packaging fish and warehouses for fish, barrels and other items. The oldest of the buildings is the one facing on Beck's Cove. It was built after the 1846 fire and for a time served as both shop and house.

Rawlins Cross (also Rawlin's), formed by the intersection of Prescott and Flavin Streets, Monkstown, Rennies Mill, Queens, and Military Roads, is a well known St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador landmark. Military Road, built in 1773, was one of the first roads in this area that joined Fort William with Fort Townsend. Monkstown Road (formerly Georgetown Road) was built in the early 19th century and Prescott Street around 1840. It is on the edge of Monkstown, which is part of the Georgetown Improvement Area and Downtown St. John's. Rawlins Cross takes its name from the Rawlins family who had a grocery store there from at least 1864. Another early business was grocer, James G Pennicuick. T J Eden later had a grocery business in Rawlins Cross, which was bought out by W J Murphy in 1919, as well as O'Mara-Martin Drugs, established in 1892. W J Murphy had initially worked in the drugstore, and T J Eden's before establishing a grocery store nearby at the top of Prescott Street.It was the site of the first traffic light for the city that was manually operated by a police constable. A commemorative plaque for the St. John's Electric Light Company is located at Rawlins Cross, although the business was established on nearby Flavin Street in 1885. The popular Newfoundland Celtic Rock band, Rawlins Cross, formed in 1988, takes its name from this St. John's landmark.

The St. John's metropolitan area is the most populous census metropolitan area (CMA) in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. With a population of 212,579 in the 2021 Canadian Census, the CMA is the second largest in Atlantic Canada and the 22nd largest CMA in Canada.The St. John’s CMA has an estimated population of 212,579 as of 2021. The CMA comprises the City of St. John's and twelve other communities, the largest of which are the town of Conception Bay South and the city of Mount Pearl.

The National War Memorial in Downtown St. John's is the most elaborate of all the post World War I monuments in Newfoundland and Labrador. It was erected at King's Beach on Water Street where, in 1583, Sir Humphrey Gilbert claimed Newfoundland for England (following John Cabot's 1497 expedition). It was formally unveiled on Memorial Day, July 1, 1924 by Field Marshal Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig. The Great War Veterans' Association and the Newfoundland Patriotic Association launched the campaign to have the National War Memorial established. They developed a committee to establish the design and undertake the fund-raising to pay for the proposed memorial. Construction of the memorial was supervised by Lieutenant-Colonel Father Thomas Nangle, the Roman Catholic Padre of Royal Newfoundland Regiment and (Ret) Captain Gerald (Gerry) Whitty.

The Nickel Independent Film Festival (otherwise known simply as the Nickel Film Festival) is an annual film festival held in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The festival was conceived in 2001 by filmmaker Roger Maunder to allow local filmmakers to exhibit their film and video work. The festival is named after the Nickel Theatre which was the first theatre in Newfoundland to have talking film feature movies. Since then the festival has grown to include other Canadian and even international short films, features, documentaries and music videos. The festival is held at the LSPU hall which is run by the Resource Centre for the Arts, an artist-run company. In 2020, the festival celebrated its 20th anniversary virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada. The program featured premieres of shorts and features, workshops, film challenges, and a retrospective of classic Newfoundland titles from the festival's two decades of screenings, all screened on an online platform.

The LSPU Hall is a large wooden structure in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. Located on 3 Victoria Street, it is currently the home of the Resource Centre for the Arts (RCA). The name comes from a previous owner, the Longshoremen's Protective Union (not to be confused with the Fisherman's Protective Union). The Hall is a registered heritage building. In its mission statement the Resource Centre for the Arts states that it "aims to provide accessible, supportive and well-resourced programs and venues, with a primary focus on the creation, development, and advancement of the performing arts in Newfoundland and Labrador".Many prominent artists from Newfoundland and Labrador have performed at the Hall, including Mary Walsh, Andy Jones, Rick Mercer, Bob Joy, Jillian Keiley, Allan Hawco and Danielle Irvine.

The Basilica-Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador is the metropolitan cathedral of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. John's, Newfoundland and the mother church and symbol of Roman Catholicism in Newfoundland. The building sits within the St. John's Ecclesiastical District, a National Historic District of Canada. The Basilica-Cathedral was the largest building project to its date in Newfoundland history. Construction lasted from the excavation of the ground in May 1839, through the laying of the cornerstone in May 1841, until the completion and consecration on September 9, 1855. At this time, it was the largest church building in North America and remains the second largest church in Canada after Saint Joseph's Oratory in Montreal and the largest cathedral church in Canada. The Basilica-Cathedral is one of the few buildings in St. John's to survive the Great Fire of 1892. On October 17, 2007, Bishop Martin Currie of the Diocese of Grand Falls was appointed archbishop of St. John's. He assumed his position on November 30, 2007, and retired on 29 January 2019. On December 12, 2018, Bishop Peter Hundt of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Corner Brook and Labrador was appointed archbishop of St. John's. He took canonical possession of the diocese on 29 January 2019.

The Benevolent Irish Society (BIS) is a philanthropic organization founded on 17 February 1806, a month before the Feast of St. Patrick, in St. John's, Newfoundland. It is the oldest philanthropic organization in North America. Membership is open to adult residents of Newfoundland who are of Irish birth or ancestry, regardless of religious persuasion. The BIS is a charitable, fraternal, middle-class social organization founded on the principles of "benevolence and philanthropy", and had as its original objective of helping the growing numbers of poor in St. John's, and providing the necessary skills which would enable people to better themselves. The rules of the BIS prohibited members from formally discussing political or religious questions, but the Society occasionally took a public political stand. In 1829 it participated in a large parade through St. John's to celebrate Roman Catholic Emancipation. In the early years of the nineteenth century, St. John's had a large Irish population with some members of affluence. Many of these Irish both saw social needs which were not being met by government, and desired to belong to a fraternal, gentlemanly organization. Under Bishop O'Donel's patronage, they founded the BIS under the motto He that gives to the poor lends to the Lord. By the 1820s, many BIS members were beginning to play prominent roles in the political life of Newfoundland and the Irish community in St. John's. By the 1840s the BIS had become so wealthy and influential that, next to the House of Assembly and the governor's council, the BIS was able to marshal considerable resources to address social problems and needs. In 1876 it sponsored the establishment in St. John's of the Irish Christian Brothers, and assisted with the maintenance of the Saint Bonaventure's College and the opening of St. Patrick's School. In 1996, the then Taoiseach of Ireland, John Bruton, visited the BIS in St. Patrick's Hall on St. Patrick's Day. The headquarters of the BIS, fronting on Queen's Road, backing on Military Road opposite of the Basilicia, with its side on Garrison Hill, was converted into a condominium residence in the late 1990s/early 2000s; the price of a single condo unit can reach over 1 million Canadian dollars. The BIS is now based about two minutes walk west at 30 Harvey Road.

The Nickel Theatre was the first movie theatre in Newfoundland. Part of the five-cent picture show craze that brought daily movies to almost every city and town all across North America, the Nickel opened in the Benevolent Irish Society's St. Patrick's Hall on July 1, 1907, one of a chain of B.F. Keith's Nickels in New England and Eastern Canada. Three more five-cent shows opened in St. John's by October 1907, all in large pre-existing community halls like the Nickel, rather than the small storefront nickelodeon typical of the time in the United States, Ontario, and larger cities in Canada. The Nickel is remembered fondly as the beginnings of moviegoing in Newfoundland, its name used today for the local film festival. While cinema had debuted in December 1897, and moving pictures played in St. Patrick's Hall before 1907, the Nickel indeed offered the people of St. John's daily public amusement for the first time.

The Bank of British North America Building built in the Italianate style was constructed in 1849 for the British Bank of North America, Newfoundland's first commercial bank. The building was built after the St. John's fire of 1846 by Halifax architect David Stirling. The British Bank of North America was formed in 1835 and opened its first colonial branch in Newfoundland in 1837, with other branches soon to follow in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, British Columbia, Yukon and in California. From 1857 to 1894 the building was acquired by the Commercial Bank of Newfoundland and had replaced the original hipped roof with a mansard roof. In 1892 it sustained more fire damage in the fire of 1892, it was of the few structures that survived the devastation. It was reconstructed by William Howe Greene, who had also built the Supreme Court House and Cabot Tower. In 1895 the Bank of Montreal moved into the building and two years later, the only Newfoundland bank to survive the 1894 Crash, the Newfoundland Savings Bank, moved into the building. Then again in 1962 the Bank of Montreal purchased the Savings Bank and reacquired the building. In 1985 the Bank of Montreal donated the building to the City of St. John's. This style later became popular in Canada. Newfoundland’s first commercial bank from 1849-1857. In the following century the building housed a few other banks. From 1857 to 1894 The Banks of Newfoundland, then from 1895 for two years Bank of Montreal and Newfoundland Savings Bank from 1697 to 1962 and Bank of Montreal again from 1962 to 1985.At present the building is home to the College of the North Atlantic's Anna Templeton Centre established as a non-profit crafts and arts training and education centre. The building was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1990. The Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador designated the site a Registered Heritage Structure on May 3, 1991.