Great Grinning Gargoyles! The ‘Art of the Grotesque’ Smiles Down on Canada’s Oldest City

Source: By JENNIFER KENT

Posted: 10/02/09 12:46PM

Filed Under: Canada Travel Guide

Ever get the feeling you’re being watched?

If you happen to be in Saint John, New Brunswick, the feeling may well be legitimate. In this old port city of stone and fog, there are eyes everywhere. All you have to do is look up.

Waaaaaaay up.

And there they are--crouching on window sills, clinging to roof gutters, perched on church spires, even leering from between the bars of wrought-iron gates—the twisted, grimacing visages of gargoyles.

Ferocious beasts, mythical creatures, winged demons, even human forms sometimes distorted and misshapen survey the city from atop as many as fifty historic buildings in Saint John’s uptown core. On Carleton Street alone, some forty faces peer down at passers-by from atop the Gothic spires of Saint John Stone Church.

Following the Great Fire of 1877 which razed most of the city, Saint John was rebuilt in stone, a measure taken in an effort to prevent such a tragedy from happening again. In the months and years following the fire, stone masons and carvers flocked to Saint John by the hundreds, lured by the guarantee of steady employment as the city struggled to resurrect itself from the ashes. Many left a personalized signature of their craft in the form of ornamental grotesques. Stone figures and faces, carved in a variety of styles, bedeck the city’s roof-tops. Some sculptures may have been representative of a local tale or legend, while others might have simply depicted individuals who owned or lived in the building. In other instances, the monstrous stone figures with their garish grins and twisted features may have been mounted to ward off evil spirits or demons.

Some of Saint John’s most famous stone faces may be found on the Chubb Building located at the corner of Prince William and Princess Streets. Known locally as “Chubb’s Corner,” the building was originally built by prominent businessman and newspaper magnate, Henry Chubb and was rebuilt after the Great Fire by his son, George. What caused something of a local sensation, however, was the completion of sixteen grotesques in 1878, carved in stone above the third-storey window. According to local legend, the stone carver, one James McAvity, took the liberty of carving the faces in the likenesses of several well-known Saint John citizens of the day. Among them were Mayor Sylvester Earle, Mr. Chubb himself, a prominent lawyer or two, and (if we are to believe local lore) all of the members of City Council. Chubbs Corner, it should be noted, is strategically located across the corner from the original City Hall. From their third-storey vantage point, the delightfully malicious mugs would have looked directly into the City Hall offices... the insinuation (one can only assume) being that Council was being closely watched at all times and had better conduct itself accordingly!

The term “gargoyle” is actually something of a misnomer. Technically, gargoyles have a waterspout issuing from their mouths, their function being to drain water away from the roof. (The word gargoyle shares the same root as “gargle” and comes from the Old French word gargouille which means “throat”). Figures without waterspouts are more properly referred to as “grotesques.” In fact, there are--allegedly-- only two true gargoyles in Saint John. These can be found just a few blocks uphill from Chubb’s Corner at 210 Germain Street. One is a strange satyr-like figure while the other depicts a large, bearded man. The identity or symbolism of these two figures has, however, been lost in the mists of time. What you can be sure of, is that almost no matter where you go in Uptown Saint John, there will be eyes looking down on you.