"Construction Date(s) 1892/01/01 to 1895/01/01
Listed on the Canadian Register: 2005/08/17
This three storey row brick structure is located at 333 Duckworth Street, St. John’s. The designation is confined to the footprint of the building.
333 Duckworth Street has been designated for its aesthetic and historical values.
333 Duckworth Street is aesthetically valuable because it is a rare example of brick Victorian row-buildings in the downtown area of St. John’s. Constructed in brick this house has stringcourses on the first and second levels. The main entrance is recessed from the road, as is typical for commercial buildings in the downtown area. This entrance has a transom window above the paneled door and a small shed roof overhangs the entranceway. This building also has two dormer windows which are found just above the eavesline, and they have peaked roofs. This building blends in well with its surrounding buildings.
333 Duckworth Street is historically valuable because of its associations with William Howe Greene (see below). This building was the home of Greene who was one of the major architects in the rebuilding of St. John’s after the Great Fire of 1892. Greene was a prolific architect who designed several prominent buildings in the downtown area, but his most famous building is Cabot Tower, located on Signal Hill. Greene joined the Newfoundland Regiment at the onset of WWI and was discharged in 1919 with the rank of Major, and was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for his war services. He was a great patron of the City of St. John’s and the province as a whole and bequeathed art and money as a parting gift to the people of Great Britian.
Character-Defining Elements -
All elements of the Victorian Style of architecture, including:
-peaked dormer windows;
-mansard roof;
-recessed doorway;
-red brick construction;
-Size, shape, placement and decoration of windows;
-Original door with transom; and
-decorative stringcourses first and second floors."
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"GREENE, William Howe (1865-1937) was active in St. John's, Newfoundland where he was instrumental in helping to rebuild the city after the Great Fire there on 8 July 1892. Greene was born at Great Boughton, Co. Cheshire, England in 1865 and received his high school education in Liverpool. In 1881, at the age of 16 years, he began to article in the office of Edmund Kirby, FRIBA, a prominent architect in Liverpool, and remained there for five years while attending classes in building, engineering and design sponsored by the Liverpool Architectural Society. In 1886, he became a full time assistant to Kirby, then joined the office of Francis U. Holme, FRIBA, and later obtained additional experience under Alfred Culshaw, FRIBA, both of whom were leading architects in Liverpool.
In 1892 Greene was elected as an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects, and promptly departed for Newfoundland in July 1892 after the Great Fire in that city. His family cousins in the Colony of Newfoundland were the Bowring Brothers, of Liverpool and St. John's, owners of the famous wholesale and retail operation in St. John's, and it is likely that they played a role in persuading Greene to leave London and move to Newfoundland (Royal Gazette [St. John's], 30 July 1892). His intention was only to remain there “....for a short time”, but one of the first young architects who he met there was John A. Pearson, a recent arrival from Toronto who had moved to that city in July 1892 after the Great Fire. Greene invited Pearson to form a partnership, and they collaborated for the next two years, completing several commercial, educational and institutional projects, many of which still stand today. Their office was dissolved in June 1894, amid much acrimony, and their difficulties were documented in legal proceedings nearly six years later, with Greene suing Pearson in court hearings (Royal Gazette [St. John's], 24 April 1900, 1).
After 1894 Greene continued to work in Newfoundland under his own name, and remained active until 1914 when he returned to England and served with British Forces during WWI. He was elected as a Fellow of the R.I.B.A. In 1912. He remained in England after the war, but no references to his architectural activity there have yet been found. Green died in London, England on 23 June 1937 and his ashes were later interred at Liverpool (obituary The Times [London], 25 June 1937, 1; obit. The Builder [London], cliii, 16 July 1937, 100; biog. R.I.B.A., Directory of British Architects 1834-1914, 2001, Vol. 1, p. 780; biog. & works in Macmillan Encyclopedia of Architects, 1982, Vol. 2, 246)."
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