PART 1 OF 2 by Connor DeMerchant: 

McKean and Fairweather: Architects of the Saint John City Market

In December 1874, the City established a Market Committee to assess proposals for a new market building. After an open competition among local architects, the design submitted by partners McKean & Fairweather won the contract. This two-part series of posts will provide some biographical information on the two men whose architectural design continues to be admired today. 

Curiously, references to McKean and Fairweather’s involvement in the design of the Saint John City Market is omitted or only briefly mentioned in contemporary accounts of their achievements in favour of other designs deemed more significant. 

John T. C. McKean (1840-1911)

John Thomas Chalmers McKean was born on October 27, 1840, in St. Andrews, New Brunswick, to John McKean (1800-1868) and his wife, Charlotte (Milliken) McKean (1805-1876).[1] He was the fifth of the couple’s eight children. The McKean family moved to Saint John from Charlotte County shortly after John T. C. McKean’s birth and received his early education in the city.

In June 1866 McKean married Annie Matilda Winters (1843-1908), daughter of John Winters, Esq.[2] Together they had a family of five children, only two of whom lived to adulthood. The family resided on the corner of Waterloo and Richmond Streets for many years.[3]

John McKean received his architectural training in New York through the office of Vaux and Withers, two of the most of influential American architects of the nineteenth century. McKean also studied under architect Matthew Stead in Saint John.[4]

McKean began his professional career in Saint John in 1870 and quickly established himself as one of the city's leading architects. In 1872, he entered into partnership with G. Ernest Fairweather, a collaboration that lasted until 1880.[5] Together, the pair designed numerous notable buildings, including of course the Saint John City Market. 

In February 1892, McKean entered into a partnership with architect R. C. John Dunn.[6] Together McKean and Dunn designed a number of local buildings, including Assumption Catholic Church (1905-6), and Macdonald Consolidated School in Kingston (designed 1903), which burned in 1909. 

Throughout his career, during which there were several lengthy periods when McKean worked independently, he designed several important public and industrial building in Saint John and the surrounding area. This included the Hampton Court House (built 1872), the Intercolonial Railway Station (1883), and the St. John Cotton Company Mill (1882–83), among many others, as well as a number of private homes.[7]

In his private life McKean was heavily involved in Saint John society. As a young man he joined the Freemasons, a fraternal organization of which most men of standing in the city were members. He was also an early member of the St. Andrew’s Curling Club. In 1858, when in his late teens, McKean was one of the founding members of the “24^th of May Club.” Restricted in membership to a small group of friends, McKean and several others would go on an outing each year on the Queen’s birthday, now better known as Victoria Day. This club, which eventually grew to include the sons of original members, met for over fifty years and was still gathering each year as late as 1915.[8]

After a long career that left a lasting mark on New Brunswick's built heritage, John T. C. McKean died on October 22, 1911, at the Home for Incurables in Saint John, just days before his seventy-first birthday. His cause of death, which while left off his death certificate was included on his burial permit, was locomotor ataxia, a degenerative disease caused by untreated syphilis. He was buried in Fernhill Cemetery.[9]

[1] Rev. Gideon T. Ridlon, History of the Families of Millingas and Millanges of Saxony and Normandy.  (Lewison: Journal Press, 1907), 87. 

[2] “Married,” Christian Visitor, 14 June 1866. 

[3] Fernhill Cemetery Records 

[4] “J. T. C. McKean Died Yesterday,” Telegraph Journal, 23 October 1911, Pg. 10.

[5] Ibid. 

[6] “Notice of Co-Partnership,” Telegraph Journal, 26 February 1892, Pg. 2.

[7] https://dictionaryofarchitectsincanada.org/node/1480 and various newspaper articles 

[8] “24^th of May Club,” The St. John Standard, 27 May 1915, Pg. 5. 

[9] Death Certificate (NB Vital Statistics) and Saint John Burial Permit (Family Search)

Photo source: NB Museum: http://website.nbm-mnb.ca/ics-wpd/exec/icswppro.dll