My Dunlop Dream – 66-68 Coburg Street – originally owned by ship builder Joseph K. and Martha Dunlop

The first home I fell in love with in Saint John is 66-68 Coburg. Over a socially distanced drink I would be happy to share why we did not go ahead with making an offer. This home remains the one that got away from me.

It may not be spectacular to look at outside now but inside it is beyond fantastic. It sits in a neighbourhood people may scoff at, but it was historically a wealthy part of the city with distinguished homes and all sorts of interesting people live in this community. For three interior shots of this home check out: image 1, image 2 and image 3 ca.1905 by EP Jellicoe. Edmund [sometimes also spelled Edmond] Percy King Jellicoe, born to King and Caroline Jellicoe, was a photographer. Born in England ca. 1866-1867, EP Jellicoe, noted as a photographer immigrated to Canada in 1902 arriving in Saint John, NB onboard the Lake Superior. Edmund, a widower, married Flora Werner in Vancouver in 1915. He died in 1956 in Vancouver and was noted as a plumber with Social Services signing the registration suggesting there was no one to provide adequate information. Edmund Percy Jellicoe had been a portrait photographer based in London.

Please juxtapose the pics above with modern day images.

This home has, as my realtor describes it, the best owner’s suite in Saint John – see below for a smattering of beautiful details.

Separating the two large living and sitting rooms are arches that have been filled in. I found similar arches, though not as ornate in 147 Douglas Ave – see below.

The original owner of 66 Coburg was Joseph Kidd Dunlop. Joseph K. Dunlop was the son of John and Isabella Kidd Dunlop from Coleraine Ireland.  Joseph K. Dunlop had the following siblings:  John (who married Nancy Rainnie), Thomas A,. and Elizabeth Margaret who married William Rainnie (brother of Nancy) in 1855 of firm Rainnie & Dunlop, Ship Builders (John Dunlop Sr was of the same firm) located at the Little River of Saint John.  Lloyds of London provided insurance for both Rainnie & Dunlop and for JK Dunlop.

From the New Brunswick Museum Archives:

Martha Ann Russell Burrell and Joseph K Dunlop married in June 1862 in Saint John. 

Martha Ann Russell was the daughter of George and Margaret Russell.  Prior to marrying Joseph K Dunlop, Martha married James Burrell in Saint John in March 1853.  Below is a 7 Sep 1852 advert for James Burrell’s store at King and Germain.  

James and Martha had one son, James G. Burrell, Dec 1854.  According to the 9 Mar 1855 Weekly Chronicle “On Wednesday morn. while James BURRELL was engaged in examining the gas meter which stood on his shelf in his shop, King St. immediately under the ceiling, the ladder on which he was standing slipped and fell to one side, his head unfortunately striking the ground. He was raised almost immediately, but life was extinct. A little blood trickled from the ear and nose showed that the concussion of the brain had caused his death. He leaves an aged mother, a widow, and we believe, one child. – Freeman”

From the New Brunswick Museum Archives:

As early as 1859 Joseph K. Dunlop is noted as working at the Kennebecasis River Shipyard of Thomas Edward Millidge (who sold his shipyard in 1872).   See this McLeans article for more ship building details.

In Millidgeville in August 1864 Joseph K and Martha lost their firstborn, daughter Martha Jane aged 14 months and 16 days.  Martha and Joseph subsequently had children Joseph Kidd, Christine Jane, John (born and died in 1873 according to his tombstone), and Isabel Margaret. 

Here is the family grave in Fernhill which includes children Martha and John.

The New Brunswick Museum’s archives house an 1872 insurance record insuring a boat built by JK Dunlop in Courtenay Bay for $20,000.

The family appears to remain in Millidgeville living beside John Dunlop, also a ship carpenter.   The maps below are from 1875 showing Milledgeville.  We can see JK Dunlop listed on what is now Manners sutton Road.  Note, people had to pay to be on the map so not all persons are listed.

In 1873, their son John died and Millidgeville is not mentioned.   In 1873 and 1876 Joseph bought property as did Martha in 1875 (one from Moses Lawrence).  See mortgage records at end of article (interesting – rereading them I see names around millidgeville including Drury, Brothers, and McCorkery and Uptown names like Moses Lawrence and Peters).

From the New Brunswick Museum Archives:

In 1874, Joseph is noted as working at Marsh Creek as a foreman for James Hamilton Moran. During the 1877 fire, Joseph Dunlop and his crew from the shipyard are credited with saving James H. Moran’s house on Chipman Hill with its frescoes painted by craftsmen brought from Italy.  Joseph K. Dunlop is a pallbearer at James H. Moran’s 1879 funeral.  In 1879, Joseph K.’s father John died. As noted in Daniel F Johnson’s New Brunswick Newspaper Vital Statistics “The death of John DUNLOP of (St. John) city, age 72, is announced today. Not many days ago, Mr. D. appeared to be in excellent health and noon yesterday his son, Joseph K. DUNLOP, well known shipbuilder, was not aware that his father was seriously ill” and “d. At his residence, Brindley St. (St. John) Monday 28th inst, 72nd year, John DUNLOP, native of Coleraine, Ireland and 48 years a resident of New Brunswick. Funeral from his residence Thursday half past 2 o’clock.”

The Dunlop residence at current 66-68 Coburg St. was built by the architect D.E. Dunham along with the residence next to it owned by Moses Lawrence based on a news advertisement placed by Dunham on 8 Nov 1875 indicating “Tenders are invited for the Erection of Two Wooden Dwellings Two Stories with Mansard Roof, fronting on Coburg near Peters Street.” Information kindly provided by the archives of the New Brunswick Museum.

It appears that the DE Dunham firm was seriously damaged in the great fire of 1877 which would explain why I have failed to find any architectural drawings for this stunning home.

Oddly, in the 1877-1878 McAlpine’s directory for Saint John and Portland I found George Stewart – chemist and druggist – noted at 66 Coburg. Was this a mistake? In 1879-1880 and onwards I found Joseph K. Dunlop (sometimes Dunlap), ship builder, Courtenay Bay, at 66 Coburg.

Joseph K. Dunlop is noted as being active in St. Andrew’s Church on Germain St.  St. Andrew and St. David was built on St. Andrew’s Presbyterian which was destroyed by the 1877 fire.  In 1881, Joseph is appointed a Justice of the Peace.  Census records from 1881 show Joseph K, shipbuilder, and Martha Ann living with her son James G Burrell, and son Joseph K and daughters Christine J. and Isabel Margaret, along with Martha’s mother Margaret Russell.  The family is living in the Wellington Ward of Saint John where Coburg is located.  In 1889 Joseph K is noted on the board of Port Wardens.  In 1889 , the first reference to 66 Coburg is found by myself when it is noted as the residence of Joseph K. Dunlop where his mother-in-law Margaret died (although the mortgage, newspaper advert, and census records suggest it was built in the late 1870s).

In the 1891 census, Joseph, shipbuilder, and Martha are living with all four surviving children and son Joseph K is noted as a shipping clerk and James Burrell as a clerk of some sort.

In Feb 1892, Christine, daughter of Joseph K. and Martha, married George Scammel Cushing at 66 Coburg St. The invitation to their wedding can be found in the archives at the New Brunswick Museum on Douglas Ave in the records of their daughter Eileen Christie born in 1893. In December 1892, Joseph K.’s mother Isabella died “At the morn. and eve. services in the Reformed Presbyterian Church yesterday, Rev. A.J. McFarland referred in feeling terms to the Christian life of the late Mrs. John DUNLOP, sr. who for over half a century was a member of the church. The deceased left three sons and one daughter: John DUNLOP, Joseph K. DUNLOP, Thomas A. DUNLOP and Mrs. William RAINNIE. The funeral takes place this afternoon at 2:30 o’clock.”

On 29 Apr 1899, Edwin Leonard Beer, mining broker, married Isabel Margaret Dunlop in Saint John, NB.  On 24 Feb 1901 at 66 Coburg St., Margaret Leonard[e] Beer was born to Isabel Margaret and Edwin Leonard Beer signed by EL Beer with Columbia, BC as address.   Oddly, Margaret’s birth was registered a second time. It was not uncommon to not register a birth and for many reasons people would register a birth many years later. What is unusual is Margaret’s year of birth in the late registration of 1940 is noted as 1903 not 1901 and her mother signed the late birth registration. The 1901 birth year is further substantiated by the 1901 census with finds Joseph Dunlop, retired ship builder, living with his wife Martha A, step son James, 2 domestics, and accountant son-in-law Edwin Beer, with Isabella and granddaughter Margaret. Note son Joseph Jr. was not with the family.

Joseph Kidd Dunlop Jr. moved to Grand Forks, BC and worked with his Beer brother-in-law. Joseph’s wife Alice arrived in BC after marrying him on 8 Feb 1899 at the courthouse in Ramsey, Minnesota. 

In 1911, Joseph K. Jr., Alice, and son Joseph and daughter crossed the border at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan immigrating to the US and planning to go to Duluth, Minnesota.  When son Joseph Kidd Dunlop’s birth was registered in NB it was registered in 1943 by Alice Jane Coates Dunlop living in Medford, Massachusetts and indicating son Joseph was born in Saint John in 1902 while his father Joseph was in Grand Forks, BC which includes Columbia, BC where Edwin Beer worked.  Alice’s obituary notes that after marriage and a time in Grand Forks when Joseph K worked in the lumber industry, Alice and John moved to Milwaukee where they remained until Joseph K. died and then Alice moved back to Medford where she was from and lived with her daughter for the last decades of her life.

In 1917 there was an update for the citizens of Saint John re the Dunlop family.

Martha Burrell Dunlop Harman Hopper, daughter of Joseph Kidd and Alice Coates Dunlop married for the second time in 1929 in Moncton, New Brunswick – I like her profession noted as “at home with her people.” I also appreciate that Martha’s middle name is Burrell which was the last name of her step-uncle – James Burrell whose father was no relation to Joseph Kidd Dunlop Sr. When Alice died, Martha was living in Medford and her brother JK Dunlop was living in Texas.  See Joseph Kidd Dunlop Jr.’s obituary below:

In the 1901 census, Joseph and with Martha were living with her son James, a bookkeeper, and daughter Isabel with her husband Edwin, accountant, and granddaughter Margaret.

Joseph K. Dunlop died on 4 Apr 1903 at 66 Coburg St of heart failure and is buried in Fernhill Cemetery.  He is followed by his brother John in 1905 who died at his residence at 149 Waterloo St.

We know from the Evening Times that in 1907 Martha got a telephone installed at 66 Coburg.

Sadly Martha died a few years later on 28 Dec 1910 from cancer at 66 Coburg where her son James Burrell was still living.  Both residences on Coburg and Waterloo are very close to Dunlop Lane which lead directly to the shipbuilding yard in Courtenay Bay where Joseph K. worked and not from from Brinley where their father lived and Cartleton where their mother died.

Dunlop Lane leads to this property, see excerpt from 1875 map, showing the J.K. Dunlop Ship Yard on Marsh Creek / Courtenay Bay.  I am dying to know more about the “Female Home” on the property.

I did not find James Burrell in the 1911 and 1921 censuses nor Isabel and Edwin Beers, or the Cushing family. This makes me suspect that when Martha died the Coburg house left the Dunlop family possession.

James G. Burrell died in Amherst, NS on 20 Sep 1925 and his sister Isabel Beers signed his death certificate.  He was interred at Fernhill Cemetery in Saint John, following his funeral at 23 Queen Square which was the home of niece Eileen. Most of the Dunlop family, with the exception of Joseph Kidd Dunlop Jr. and his wife and children, are buried in Fernhill. 

It appears that Isabel and Edwin Beers also lived in Amherst, NS. Margaret Leonard Beer married Donald Leonard Cooper on 1 Jun 1929 in Amherst. Edwin died in Amherst in 1934 and is buried in Fernhill as was his wife’s ashes and daughter Margaret Cooper and son-in-law Donald Cooper. Margaret’s residence when she died in 1968 was the Anchor Light Motel in Saint John.

The Cushings remained in Saint John. Eileen, Joseph K and Martha’s granddaughter, eventually volunteered at the archives in Saint John and she donated records from her family.  George Cushing died in 1934 and Christine died in 1947. Eileen died in 1991 at the age of 97.

The wonderful archives in the New Brunswick Museum notes “Joseph K. Dunlop (1836-1903) was a shipbuilder. From 1860-1871 he was a master builder at the Kennebecasis shipyard of Thomas E. Millidge, designing and building some twenty-five vessels. He established his own shipyard at Courtenay Bay from 1872-1890 where he built 14 vessels.”

We see a newspaper article in Jun 1911 listing this beautiful mansion for sale.

By Jul 1912 the building had not sold and was set to be auctioned.  

Not long after the mansion is being let as apartments.

In the 1931 census we can see three families renting the home.

[see mortgage records below]