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George A Knodell was a native of Nova Scotia, who was born in circa 1835. He came to Saint John in about 1860, and by 1863 he was working as a local printer. He married Jane Hoyt of Bridgetown, Nova Scotia who predeceased him in 1902.
George was active in the Liberal party, and for three years, 1886-1888, George was a member of the Saint John Common Council, representing Prince Ward, one of the uptown wards. While a member of the Common Council, he served as chairman of the harbour ferry committee, and also served for some years as a liquor license commissioner.
For about thirty years he was chairman of the Saint John Municipal Home, who was also a member of St. Johns (Stone) Church. George and members of his family lived in the uptown area, on Waterloo Street, Elliott Row, Leinster Street, and Pitt Street. He died of pneumonia in 1921 at the age of 86, and was buried in Fernhill cemetery.
William Morgan Smith and R.C. John Dunn were prominent Saint
John architects. Smith was born in Saint John and attended the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology in Boston and worked for Boston architect William Ford.
He established his Saint John practice in 1875. Dunn was also born in Saint
John, in 1837, the son of a cabinetmaker and lumber manufacturer. He also
studied in Boston and worked for Boston architect George Meachum and Chicago
architect W.W. Boyington. They formed a partnership in May 1876 and continued
as partners until May 1878. It is also hypothesized that John Dunn worked with
the famous architect H.H. Richardson, but this was before his rise to fame in
the late 1870's.
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They designed two Second Empire residences on Manawagonish Road, and two tenament buildings and a resort at Lily Lake. After the Great 1877 Fire they did the police station on King Street East, a block of three buildings for Stores on North Market Square (area of the present City Hall), a residence at the corner of Queen and Sydney streets, and the George McLeod residence on Orange Street. They also designed the Carleton Ferry House.
In 1879 Smith was appointed government architect in Saint John. In 1880 he prepared the plans for the Carleton Baptist Church on Charlotte Street west. His date of death is unknown.
Dunn gained prominence with the construction of the Pugsley
building on Prince William Street, the drill hall at the Barrack Green (not the
present building), Engine House No. 1 on King Street East (now demolished), and
the Furlong Building at the corner of Princess and Water Streets. He also
supervised construction of the Prince William Street Post Office at the corner
of Princess street, and the construction of Trinity Church. Outside Saint John
he did the Department Building in Fredericton and the Gloucester Court House in
Bathurst. Dunn died in 1902.
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