New Release - St. Andrews in Pictures
This site is devoted to the history of St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada. I have set it up specifically to advertise my four books--The Algonquin, Minister's Island and St. Andrews: An Historical Scrapbook, and St. Andrews In Pictures, but also to offer in partially digested or redigested form some of the material that went into their making. St. Andrews has an interesting history for a tiny town. Founded in 1783 by United Empire Loyalists after the Revolutionary War, it was a booming ship-building town and exporter of lumber in the early decades of the 19th century. But after Britain embraced free trade and removed the various protective tariffs and trade preferences that had made New Brunswick so prosperous, St. Andrews went into a long but deadly decline. It was partially rescued from this malaise by tourism. In the latter decades of the 19th century the area became suddenly attractive to the denizens of crowded seaside resorts in Maine and Massachusetts, and when the Canadian Pacific Railroad completed its Short Line connected Montreal with New Brunswick at McAdam, many well-to-do big-wigs from Montreal began to stream in for the summer term. Among them were such famous and wealthy individuals as Sir William Van Horne and his friends. For a time St. Andrews was one of the wealthiest little seaside resorts on the East Coast. The local newspapers--St. Andrews had seven--document these changes well. Most of the material presented on this site comes from these venerable weeklies. I have also made an effort to show the other, less glossy side of St. Andrews: what you might call life on the street: executions, jailbreaks, fires, storms, curious individuals, and whatnot. I hope you like this site and feel free to both ask for more information or submit it to me.