By Ines Keane
The name of the city is a small mystery. The Canadian Encyclopedia says the origin of the name “St. John’s” is unknown, and that the earliest recorded use is on a Portuguese map from 1516 to 1520 that labels the place “Rio de San Johem”. A letter from an English seaman, John Rut, in 1527 calls it the “Haven of St. John’s”. That is a lot of paper for a town with no founding date.
The harbour first
Everything in St. John’s follows from its harbour. The encyclopedia describes it as approached through a long, narrow channel and protected by high hills. In 1527, it says, Rut reported Norman, Breton and Portuguese ships there. By the middle of the seventeenth century the place was the major administrative and supply centre for the Newfoundland fishery. After 1870 its role as the fish-export centre declined, and the port turned toward supplying and servicing fishing fleets. Merchants’ private finger piers once extended from warehouses on the south side of Water Street.
Fire, again and again
The same article lists fires in 1816, 1817, 1819, 1846 and 1892, and says the Great Fire of 1892 destroyed 2,000 houses. Our reading: a city that burned that often has been rebuilt more than once, so the streets visitors walk are not a single period. The encyclopedia gives a population of 110,525 in the 2021 census.
Signal Hill
Above the harbour stands Signal Hill. According to the Canadian Encyclopedia, a signal cannon was placed there in the late sixteenth century, stone fortifications followed in the late eighteenth century during the Napoleonic Wars, and flags flown from the hill warned ships of weather and sea hazards.
The signal from Cornwall
On 12 December 1901, both sources agree, Guglielmo Marconi received the first transatlantic wireless signal on the hill, a Morse code transmission sent from Cornwall. The encyclopedia says only that Marconi chose the site for an experiment.
The painted rows
Visitors know the downtown streets as Jellybean Row. Destination St. John’s, the local tourism body, calls it a nickname for rows of brightly painted houses found throughout the downtown. It names Gower and Duckworth Streets and the hills toward The Battery as the most photographed stretches.
The provincial tourism site gives a second layer. It says a locally owned hardware store found a set of paint chips more than fifty years old, and that the store’s owners worked with the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador to create the Heritage Colours of Newfoundland. The colours carry place names, among them Ferryland Downs, Little Heart’s Ease, Mussels in the Corner and Charmer.
A winter visit
Parks Canada says the grounds at Signal Hill are open year-round and that its page carries weather and seasonal safety guidance. We give no hours, fees or trail lengths, because the pages we read did not give reliable ones. Our reading: a short walk up the hill in December suits the history better than the summer crowds the visitor pages describe.
What kind of sources these are
A national encyclopedia, a federal agency page, two tourism bodies and Wikipedia. We read no archive, map or museum catalogue.
What we left out
Hours, fees, tour operators, restaurants, the names of living people at the hardware store and the heritage foundation, and any claim about what is sold in the shops downtown.
Quick answers
Why is it called Jellybean Row? According to Destination St. John’s, the name is a nickname for rows of brightly painted houses found throughout the downtown.
What happened on Signal Hill in 1901? Wikipedia and the Canadian Encyclopedia both say Marconi received a Morse code signal sent from Cornwall on 12 December 1901.
Is Signal Hill open in winter? Parks Canada says the grounds are open year-round.
Related on this site: wild-lowbush-blueberries-canada-wild-vs-cultivated, quebec-winter-carnival-bonhomme-ice-palace, montreal-smoked-meat-origins-cure-vs-pastrami
Roam first. Shop later.