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A Great Builder -
Isaac Smith, 1795-1871
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A Great Builder: Isaac Smith
Responsible for Many Important P.E.I. Buildings
published
by The
Guardian, Charlottetown,
PEI - Tuesday - June 29, 1999
Editor’s note: One of Prince Edward Island's most beloved landmarks, Province House; takes on an added significance at this time of the year when Islanders celebrate Canada Day and their place in Confederation. The following is a profile of Isaac Smith, the man who was the architect of Province House.
BY MARGARET CRAWFORD SMITH, SPECIAL TO THE GUARDIAN
Isaac Smith was born at Harome, near Helmsley, Yorkshire, England in 1795. He was a son of Richard Smith, a tenant farmer and his wife, Catherine Marwood. He and his brother Henry emigrated to Prince Edward Island in 1817 on the ship Valiant from Hull.
We have not been successful in learning anything of his early architectural training in England but we assume that he was apprenticed to a master builder here. He was a youth of 22 years of age when he arrived on the Island.
His early employment with the government did not require any great architectural skill, and one of the first payments to him listed in the Government Warrant Book for 1818 was for construction of a road harrow for which he was paid seven pounds. Later work included repairs to the block house, ferry house and the court house .
In 1820 he built a new Guardhouse on the site of “Fairholm” across from Holland Grove, the residence of the governor, which was located where the First Baptist Church now stands.
Isaac Smith's next contract with the government was for the construction of a round market on Queen Square in 1823. This market house was designed by John Plaw and cost 426 pounds to build. Isaac’s brother, Henry, worked with him on this project.
Public building on the Island at this time was held back by the system of proprietory land tenure. The proprietors were to collect quit rents from the tenants and these payments were to defray costs of government. Many proprietors remained in England and refused to pay the quit rents so public building was delayed until the Island was permitted to levy taxes for this purpose.
In 1830 a Land Assessment Act was passed by the House of Assembly. This act placed a tax of two shillings per 100 acres of land on the Island for a five-year period. One thousand pounds was to be appropriated annually for defraying the expense of erecting a residence for the lieutenant governor and a Central Academy in Charlottetown. Jails were to be constructed in the three counties, and also other public buildings. This act was approved by the British governor in 1832 and the Island Legislature was quick to and a great boom in public building started.
During the 1830s, Isaac Smith furnished plans and specifications for every new public building on the Island. The Charlottetown Jail was built on Pownal Square, now Connaught Square, in 1831 and the Central Academy in 1832.
Tenders were called for the construction of Government House on September 4, 1832, In 1789, Governor Fanning had designated 100 acres of land overlooking Charlottetown harbour as the location of a future residence for the representative of the Crown. Isaac Smith and Nathan Wright furnished the plan and specifications and they, along with Henry Smith, were awarded the contract.
Government House is a most graceful frame structure of neoclassic design. Its most notable feature is a portico supported by four pillars extending the full height of the house. In November 1834, the contractors were paid £62 for importing from England four mantle pieces for Government House.
The construction, of the Georgetown Court House and Jail and the St. Eleanor’s Court House - Jail was completed in 1833. Privately during this period Isaac Smith designed and built several houses. One of these, a beautiful house of Island stone, built for Edward Burton, a lawyer, in Winsloe, is still standing.
In 1836 he designed and built St. Paul’s Church on Queen Square. This was a white frame church facing Great George Street which was demolished when the new Harris designed stone church was built in 1895-96.
At the opening of the legislature in 1837, Governor John Harvey suggested that Charlottetown. needed a public building for the deposit and safe custody of public records. In April 1837 the legislature passed another Land Assessment Act to raise the 5,000 pounds estimated cost of the building. The act was approved by the British government in 1838.
In 1837, at the request of Governor Harvey, Isaac Smith had drawn preliminary plans and specifications for the intended Colonial building to accommodate public offices and the two houses of the legislature. Assembly member Edward Palmer recommended that the design be altered to include space for the Supreme Court. This plan was rejected at that time by the majority of the members. However, in August 1839 a competition was advertised for the best plan of a Colonial building to include accommodation for a Supreme Court which “may hereafter be doomed advisable.”
The building was to contain accommodation for the Legislative Council and the House of Assembly, rooms for the president of the Legislative Council and speaker of the House of Assembly, conference and committee rooms, library, galleries for strangers, fireproof closets for the safety of public records, apartments in the basement for the housekeeper and waterclosets.
The closing date for the submission of plans, estimated and complete specifications for the brick or stone Colonial building was January 1, 1840. Isaac Smith was awarded 20 pounds for the most approved plan. His 1839 plan was placed before the legislature during the 1840 session but the majority of members were opposed to voting the additional funds for the accommodation of the Supreme Court.
From 1840 to 1842 the assembly was concerned with the land tenure question and it was not until after the 1842 election that attention returned to local improvements.
In March 1842 the assembly granted another £5,000 “for the erection of a building containing all the necessary accommodation and in a style which would be credible to the colony”.
Also, in 1842, an act was passed authorizing the appointment of commissioners to superintend the erection of a Colonial building in Charlottetown. With this act and the voting of £10,000, construction was about to begin. Work commenced in May 1843 and continued for a five year period. Isaac Smith was overseer of the works. The original plan and specifications were used but were altered twice during construction - the final design being larger than the original.
The contract for Nova Scotia stone was awarded to John and Charles MacKenzie, Pictou, N.S. All other contracts were awarded to Island residents. Isaac’s brother, Henry, was awarded the contract for painting and glazing and also Henry Smith, Nathan Wright and Richard Wright were awarded the carpentry and joining contract.
Since the site chosen for the Colonial building was occupied by the Round Market, it was necessary to move the market 294 feet north west so that the foundation could be commenced in the spring of 1843.
Excavation began in April 1843 and was completed in June of that year. The start of construction was officially marked by a ceremony for the laying of the cornerstone on May 16, 1843. This ceremony featured a procession from Government House including masons, a band, the governor, Sir Henry Vere Huntley on horseback, surrounded by his staff, the chief justice, members of the executive and legislative councils, the building committee, heads of departments, magistracy and members of the Independent Temperance Society bringing up the rear. His Excellency performed the ceremony of the laying of the cornerstone.
At this time the wings at either end of the building were added. These had been on the original plan but were defeated to bring the expense within the legislature grant. Porticoes were added to give the building an improved profile. It was necessary in 1847 for the legislature to grant an additional £2,500 for the cost of the alternations.
The total cost of the Colonial building was approximately £16,838 and Isaac Smith was paid 10 shillings a day as overseer of the works. The first meeting of the P.E.I. Legislature in the new Colonial building on January 26, 1847, officially opened the new home of the Island government.
During the construction, Isaac Smith had handled every detail of the work: the design, materials, contracts, furnishing and financial accounting. During this period also he designed and was overseer of the construction of the Lunatic Asylum and Pt. Prim Lighthouse, which was built in 1846 at a cost of approximately £608. In 1845 he directed the interior decoration of the Catholic Church at Rustico.
The Colonial building was the jewel in the crown of Isaac Smith’s architectural career. As he states in his account to the Building Commissioners at the completion of construction:
“As respects the building itself, a high satisfaction will remain to all who have had to sustain the weighty responsibilities of its erection and, of which I have felt my share, that, notwithstanding the difficulties of place and means and circumstances, nothing had been omitted through inattention nor done without appropriate consideration in order to secure the objects to be obtained, with such limited resources, so that, if it were to be erected over again, the experience gained would suggest but little variation in the design and but little in the execution.”
In 1848, Isaac Smith’s architectural career ended when he chose to become an agent for the British and Foreign Bible Society in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island. From his early childhood when, his diary indicates, he attended regularly the Methodist Sunday school in Helmsley, Yorkshire, he was a devout Methodist. A booklet entitled “Methodism on Prince Edward Island” published in 1898 to mark a Charlottetown Methodist Conference says of him: “Of the original trustees, the most widely known was Isaac Smith, an Englishman of most estimable character, good mental powers and an acceptable local preacher.” He had designed and constructed many buildings for the use of his fellow man. Now he would devote the rest of his life to help in the building of God’s Kingdom in this corner of His world.
He travelled for the Bible Society for nearly 15 years and his death occurred at Maitland, Nova Scotia in November 1871. I believe Isaac Smith made a great contribution to P.E.I. architecture. Little recognition was given to his contribution at the time, but perhaps two of the buildings which remain - Government House and Province House will stand as monuments to him.
Several years ago, while I was driving past Province House with our grandson, David, who was then four or five years old, he pointed to the building and said proudly, “That is my great-great-great grandfather’s house.” One small boy will remember this historic building with a great deal of pride.
Of Isaac Smith, I believe it can truly be said that "Providence being his guide, he builded better than he knew."
Margaret Crawford Smith of Charlottetown wrote this profile of Isaac Smith as part of a university history project. Her husband, Dr. Reginald Smith, is a great-grandson of Isaac Smith. Both were neighbours of ours in Charlottetown and lived to the ages of 99 and 96 respectively.
- This Internet version of the article is provided with the much appreciated permission of the author, Margaret Crawford Smith. -