Loyalist House

Georgian townhouse built in 1817, unchanged since the Loyalist era

Loyalist House is a National Historic Site and one of the oldest unchanged buildings in Saint John, a well-preserved Georgian townhouse dating from around 1817. It was built by the Merritt family, Loyalists who had come to New Brunswick after the American Revolution, and it remained in their possession until the twentieth century. Its survival is something of a miracle in a city that lost much of its old fabric to fires and redevelopment.

The interior is furnished to reflect its early-nineteenth-century period, with original and period-appropriate furniture, household objects, and decorative arts. Guided tours run through the main rooms and give context to the Loyalist experience — the forced resettlement, the difficulties of building a new life in the Maritime wilderness, and the lasting cultural imprint they left on New Brunswick. Admission is modest and the tour takes about forty-five minutes.

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A story
The Merritt family, who built this house, came to Saint John in 1783 as United Empire Loyalists — among the thousands who fled the newly independent United States rather than renounce their loyalty to the British Crown. The Merrits arrived with almost nothing, were granted land by the Crown, and within a generation had built one of the finest townhouses in the city. The house stayed in the family for over a century, which is the main reason it survived intact.