Rectory House, Newcastle, Miramichi, New Brunswick, Canada

Mr. Withers has designed an excellent timber house for our old and esteemed missionary correspondent, the Rev. J. Hudson. Instead of the usual weather-boarding covering the whole exterior, the constructional timbers are shown and coloured chocolate, while the interstices — made of weather- boarding — are coloured fawn, the roofs, also of wood, being painted green with brown stripes. Mr. Withers has given a great deal of Pointed character to his framework, and the general design is as able as it is picturesque. As a necessity in so severe a climate, there is a very deep cellar under the whole basement; and the roofs, which are very steep for the snow, are so contrived as to have no flat gutters at all. We wonder that one large stove was not so contrived as to warm the whole of this compact house. The material is red pine, but the chimneys and cellar are of local brick. [Ecclesiologist February 1859 Page 74]

RECTORY HOUSE, NEWCASTLE, MIRAMICHI, NEW BRUNSWICK, BRITISH NORTH AMERICA. (With an Engraving.) The Rectory-house, illustrated by the accompanying engraving (plate 10) is being erected as a residence for the Rector of Newcastle, the Rev. J. Hudson, the parish being some 70 miles long, and of proportionate breadth, with three widely- separated churches, all served by this one indefatigable clergy- man. The small town of Newcastle is situated on the banks of the well-known Miramichi river, and in the diocese of Frederic- ton. The superabundance of wood, and the all but entire absence in the locality of any other material for building purposes, necessitated the employment for the most part, for this structure, of the local and world-renowned red pine. The foundations, cellar walls, chimney-breasts, and shafts are alone constructed of brick. The cellars are built with an outer wall of one-and-a-half brick thick, to carry the external framing of the house, and an inner wall of one brick thick, the space between the same being three feet, which is filled in with dry rubbish. This is rendered necessary; and in all cases found efficacious to keep out the intense frost from the winter's store of vegetables. The outer walls, so called, are formed of uprights, 12 inches by 9 inches, with heads, sills, and braces of similar size; the filling-in pieces, or quarters, which stand back from face of post 3 inches, are 6 inches by 3 inches. On the outer faces of these quarters is nailed 1-inch wrought, rebated, and beaded boarding, in widths of about 8 inches, and on the inside 1-inch rough, matched, and rebated boarding. On the inner face of the last-named boarding are nailed upright battens, 2 inches by 2 inches, and these battens receive the laths for plastering, thus making up the thickness of outer walls to 10^ inches, the constructive timbers standing in advance of outer boarding 1 inches. The usual custom is to till the interstices of the walls with sawdust, &c., thus the cold and heat are alike excluded. The roof is formed much in the same way as in an ordinary English house; but in lien of slates, is covered with well-lapped weather-boarding. The mode of heating is by close stoves; and as a great deal of heat ascends the flue, advantage is taken to conduct the heat into the rooms over by means of double flues, and gratings in skirtings. All other fittings are similar to an English house. It is customary to paint the external parts of a house white; but in this case that custom is departed from, and the constructive portions are painted chocolate, the boarding of wall-space a warm cream, the roof grey-green, with a few lines of dark drab to break the monotony. In addition to the cellars, as stated above, the house contains on ground-floor, a dining-room 17 feet by 15 feet, study 15 feet by 15 feet, oratory 15 feet by 12 feet, and kitchen 16 feet by 15 feet, with offices; and on the one-pair-floor, four bedrooms, respectively 17 feet by 13 feet, 17 feet by 15 feet, 16 feet by 15 feet, and 15 feet by 12 feet. The architect from whose design the house is being con- structed, is Mr. R. J. Withers, of 51, Doughty-street, London. It may not be inopportune to mention that the working drawings and details will be found illustrated in Nos. 72 and 73 of 'Examples of Building Construction.'*[The Civil Engineer and Architect's Journal I March 1864 page 57a]

Reference    The Civil Engineer and Architect's Journal I March 1864 page 57a
Reference    Ecclesiologist Volume XX February 1859 page 74