Rennie's Mill Road, Back of the Barrens, King's Bridge Road - St. John's, Newfoundland
Posted by: 
elyob
N 47° 34.415 W 052° 42.165
22T E 371941 N 5270311
The information panel is beside Commissariat House.
Waymark Code: WMT0NG
Location: Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
Date Posted: 09/04/2016
Views: 4
In addition to the history of Rennie's Mill Road described below, the sign also describes the barrens, Circular Road and King's Bridge Road.
Rennie's Mill Road
This part of the city contains many of the oldest and most architecturally significant private residences in St. John's. Although Rennie's Mill Road was built up in stages in the nineteenth century, the many homes constructed by the firm of James and John Southcott are a distinguishing feature. The Southcott brothers came to St. John's from Exeter, following the Great Fire of 1846 and were soon prominent builders. James' son, John Thomas Southcott, joined the firm in about 1875 and was the first trained architect in Newfoundland. He introduced the Second Empire style (so named for the Second French Empire of Napoleon III).
Although this neighbourhood contains many of the best examples of the Southcotts' work, the Southcott Style was much imitated in the rebuilding of the city after the next Great Fire in 1892. It is one of the distinguishing characteristics of domestic architecture in downtown St. John's.
The name Rennie's Mill Road was not applied until late in the nineteenth century. The road follows an eighteenth century path across the Barrens to Freshwater.
This path was upgraded by military engineer Robert Pringle in the 1770s, to connect the King's Road up from the harbour to Portugal Cove Road via a bridge over the River - and became known as the Road to Pringle's (or Brine's) Bridge, where it turns left and follows the river to Freshwater.
Pringle's Bridge Road remained a district of small farms, with scattered country estates of the gentry, until the mid 1800s. The Great Fire of 1846 convinced several prominent merchants to abandon the practice of living above their Water Street premises. As the mercantile class came into its own, permanency and prosperity led many to build their estates in the outskirts.
A building boom along Rennie's Mill and Monkstown Roads came in the 1870s and 1880s. In those days St. John's had a population approaching 25,000 and, having just rejected union with Canada, began with Victorian optimism to assert itself as the capital of an independent country.