The growth of the churches and charities of a community is a phase of its history well worthy of special record, as being closely associated with its moral and spiritual progress. As to the latter, Kingston and the Midland District were, from the earliest days of settlement, much privileged in the noble character and Christian zeal of the pioneer missionaries who fostered the religious life of the settlers; and to their work and memory it is only just that due honour should be given.
The Rev. John Stuart, afterwards Dr. Stuart, already several times mentioned in these pages, was the first Christian minister who settled in the Province, and has been appropriately styled the “Father” of the Church in Upper Canada. Born in Pennsylvania, of a Presbyterian family from the north of Ireland, the stalwart youth, while studying in Philadelphia, decided to take orders in the Church of England, and, having been ordained in London, was appointed to a mission among the Mohawks in the State of New York. When the Revolutionary War broke out, he found himself, as an ardent Loyalist, ranged on the opposite side from his two brothers, and his position, like that of many in similar plight, growing more and more embarrassing and even perilous, he was obliged to relinquish his mission. After two years of enforced inaction, he was, in 1781, at last permitted to remove to Canada, residing at first in Montreal, where he taught a school, officiated as a deputy chaplain, and visited some of his Indian converts in that district, refugees like himself.
His desire, however, was to follow the general stream of the Loyalists to Upper Canada, and after a preliminary tour through the new settlements, he established himself at Cataraqui, “the only refugee clergyman in the Province,” as he says, receiving the appointment of Chaplain to the garrison, and purposing, over and above his ministry in what was little more than a military station, to maintain an Indian mission in his vicinity. He obtained a grant of land within half a mile of the garrison, to which he occasionally secured additions, and was named as one of the first three Justices of the Peace for the District of Mecklenburgan honour, which for obvious reasons, he declined. As he tells us, he found the people “not the most favourable to morality and industry,” but, as we have seen, he taught the children, while he exhorted the parents, and by his kind and conciliatory influence he undoubtedly did much to raise the moral and spiritual tone of the growing community. His six feet four helped to give him a commanding presence, as well as the nickname of the “little gentleman,’ ‘which testifies to the affectionate esteem with which he was regarded in the place.
As has been already said, there were in 1792, according to the Hon. Richard Cartwright, not more than one hundred Anglican families in the whole of Upper Canada. Of these, thirty were settled at Kingston, not a few of whom had to depend for their livelihood on manual labour. For the first few years Dr. Stuart held his weekly services in a large room set apart for that purpose at the barracks, which furnished a considerable portion of his congregation. But in 1790 it was decided by fifty-four subscribers to build a small church on a block of land granted by Government, and now bounded by King, Brock, Wellington and Clarence Streets. Here, somewhat to the north-west of the present St. George’s Cathedral, and immediately behind the Masonic building of today, the first Kingston church was erected, described by a visitor in 1820 as a “long, low, blue wooden building, with square windows and a little cupola or steeple for the bell, like the thing on a brewery, placed at the wrong end of the building.” The little bell, weighing only 60 lbs., which called the people to worship, was cast in Bristol, England, and though now cracked and unable to discharge its proper function, still hangs as a relic in a Memorial Church at Adolphustown. The church seems to have been first used in 1793, but its interior equipment was only completed in the following year, the whole cost being about $800, subscribed by the congregation. In August, 1794, Bishop Mountain made the first Episcopal visitation, and held the first Confirmation service within its halls.
Dr. Stuart died in 1811, and his ashes rest near those of his son, and others of early Kingston’s honoured dead, in the leafy old precincts of St. Paul’s Church. One of his sons, Sir Charles Stuart, was Chief Justice of Lower Canada, but his eldest son, the Rev. George 0 ‘Kill Stuart, having been educated partially at Harvard, and stationed for some time as a missionary at York, succeeded his father in the rectory of Kingston in 1812, where, for about half a century he was familiarly known as “The Archdeacon,” and where, as has been shown by other references, he was a leader in all movements for the public good. Having inherited from his father much land at Kingston, his kindly nature found great satisfaction in promoting the settlement on it of respectable artisans who desired homes of their own. In this way was built up the district bordering on Barrie Street, long known as Stuartsville, or Lot ” Twenty-four,” in the vicinity of the rambling “Colonial” residence which he built for himself and sold in 1854 to the University. One of his peculiarities, indeed, was a passion for building, which he subsequently gratified by erecting another handsome mansion in a then unsettled district, which was left unfinished, but is now a commodious residence. This slight eccentricity, however, in no way interfered with the universal esteem in which he, and his amiable wife, were held, nor with the sincere regret felt for his death at the ripe age of eighty-six. His only son held high office as a Judge in Quebec, but was never in any way connected with Kingston, where, however, the good Archdeacon’s names and designation are still perpetuated in Arch, Deacon, George, 0 ‘Kill, and Stuart Streets.
About twelve years after his ministry began, the congregation, which had worshipped for a generation in the little blue church aforesaid, being now considerably larger, decided on building a new edifice on the present Cathedral site, previously occupied by the old Courthouse and Gaol, surrounded by a high palisaded wall. The new building was begun in 1825, and the corner-stone was laid by the Lieutenant-Governor, Sir Peregrine Maitland, on June 25th, with impressive ceremonialthe procession of clergy and public men starting, we are told, from Walker’s Hotel (the original British American) to meet the Governor at the Government Wharf and escort him to the church. It was built of native limestone, of comparatively spacious dimensions, with a handsome stone cupola, though without the dome and pillared portico afterwards added. Its cost, £1,400, was mainly defrayed by a grant from Government, and the contributions of the congregation, the Archdeacon and the Bishop of Quebec assisting. In 1840 the church was greatly enlarged, and after it became the Cathedral Church of the new Diocese it was further remodelled into a very handsome and imposing edifice. This was unfortunately destroyed by fire on January 1st, 1898, but was restored in its present equally stately form by the generous gifts of the congregation and other friends, under the esteemed ministry of the late Dean Smith.
St. Andrew’s Church was the first stone church built in Kingston, and was erected some time about 1820 by the Scottish residents of the town, previous to the arrival of its first much-loved pastor, the Rev. John Barclay, who died five years after his ministry began. It was a plain, substantial building, unadorned save by its cut stone front and well proportioned steeple. It likewise received considerable additions during the thirty-six years ministry of its much esteemed pastor, the Rev. Dr. Machar, regarded in his time as one of the best preachers in Canada. The quaint old building was destroyed by fire during the pastorate of the present incumbent, the Rev. John Mackie, D.D., and a new and handsome structure in the Norman-Gothic style now occupies the site, and is one of the finest church buildings in the city. After the division of the Presbyterian Church, already noticed, two other congregations were formed in Kingston, respectively styled the “Scotch Free” and the “Irish Free.” The first body built for itself Chalmers Church, whose minister was the Rev. R. F. Burns, later of Halifax. The original church was pulled down and replaced by the present Chalmers Church, under the still active ministry of the Rev. Mr. McGillivray, D.D., while the second built the present Cooke’s Church, since enlarged and remodelled, whose first pastor, the Rev. A. Wilson, long ministered to its people.
The zeal of the Methodists of Kingston in building largely with their own hands their original places of worship has already been noticed in connection with the progress of the town. A Methodist church seems to have existed in Kingston in 1810, prior to the small wooden edifice on Bay Street which served them for a number of years. This was probably the one which, by the courtesy of its congregation, supplied that of the first St. George’s Church with a place of worship while the second church was being completed. The circumstance is well worth recording as an instance of the good feeling and brotherly fellowship between different classes and creeds which prevailed in old Kingston, due, doubtless, to the influence and example of its leading citizens, who dwelt together in unity and worked in hearty co-operation for the best interests of the town for a number of years. The present handsome Sydenham Street Church was built in the fifties, but has been much enlarged and improved, and its pulpit has been occupied by a long succession of good men and earnest preachers, the Rev. Egerton Ryerson, as has been noticed, being the resident minister at the time of Lord Sydenham’s lamented death. Several of the Kingston churches have had their “baptism of fire,” and the Queen Street Methodist Church, burned down some twenty years ago, arose from its ashes larger and handsomer than before. A smaller church on Brock Street has been diverted to other uses, and a new brick church on that street, crowned by the tallest spire in the city, was built within the last twenty years, while some smaller ones in the suburbs attest the activity of this large and zealous body.
Returning to the Anglican churches, St. Paul’s, built in old English style, with a massive tower, in the ancient burial ground, where, amid the ashes of so many other early citizens, rest those of the Rev. Robert D. Cartwright, was erected as a memorial of him. It was burned down about 1854, but speedily rebuilt. St. James’ Church, a handsome Gothic structure, was erected in the late forties, its first pastor being the Rev. R. V. Rogers, who has already been referred to as one of the early headmasters of the Grammar School, and its second the late Rev. F. W. Kirkpatrick, son of the first Mayor of the town, whose premature death in 1886 was deeply regretted, and who was then succeeded by the present incumbent, the Rev. Archdeacon Macmorine.
The first Roman Catholic church, St. Joseph’s, was built for the use of the French people in Kingston, and one of its first missionary priests, the Rev. R. Gaulin, afterwards Bishop of Kingston, has already been specially mentioned in connection with the War of 1812. The first Bishop of Kingston was the Rev. Alexander McDollen, a native of Highland Scotland, and educated in Spain, who came to Canada in 1804. his diocese was the whole of Upper Canada, and from the time when he first entered upon his pastoral duties, with little assistance in the Province, he was accustomed to travel from Lake Superior to Cornwall, often through uninhabited wilds, on horseback, on foot, or in Indian canoes, sharing the “fires and fares” of the savages, or the privations and poor cabins of his humble parishioners, in the spirit of the apostolic missionaries of earlier times, and of some in our own Northwest to-day. He helped by his influence to raise the 2nd Regiment of Glengarry Fencibles during the War of 1812, and was consecrated in 1822 Bishop of Kingston, where he officiated for a number of years, greatly esteemed and revered by all classes of citizens. The high and commanding site on which stands the fine Gothic Cathedral elsewhere mentioned, together with that of the adjoining Bishop’s palace and grounds, formerly called Selma Park, was his generous gift, and the Cathedral vaults contain his tomb. Another much respected early ecclesiastic was the Rev. Father Dollard, whose name was once a household word in Kingston. Not far from the Cathedral stands a large, substantial building, now the Hotel Dieu, formerly the home of Regiopolis College, already noticed. On what was formerly part of the same block stands a tasteful stone schoolhouse, known as the Christian Brothers’ School, one of the Separate Schools of Kingston, the other being called St. Vincent’s School, and occupying the site of the old St. ‘Joseph’s Church, now removed.
The Congregational and Baptist Church edifices are of comparatively modern erection, the oldest of the latter, however, being now disused, as a new one is in course of erection. The first Congregational Church in early days enjoyed for many years the ministrations of the Rev. K. M. Fenwick, latterly Professor Fenwick, of Montreal, who died there in a ripe old age, and whose only son, Dr. Kenneth Fenwick, one of Kingston’s most distinguished surgeons, was, to the regret of all, prematurely cut off by blood poisoning.
The Salvation Army’s meeting-place, if it cannot boast of architectural pretensions, must not be entirely passed over, as it exercises a most important influence in its own sphere, and has been a power for good in many lives since its advent in Kingston in 1883 ; but it, of course, belongs entirely to modern Kingston, and is rather beyond the limits of this outline.
If the churches of Kingston, in addition to their actual purpose and higher functions, constitute the main part of the architectural adornment of the city, the County Courthouse, devoted to the interests of law and order, claims, from its architectural beauty and effective site and setting, a first place in the aesthetic assets of Kingston. It is built of the light limestone of the locality, which when cut and seen at a distance almost suggests marble, and in style is purely Greek, with massive Ionic pillars adorning its façade. It stands on elevated ground, the cricket ground and city park sloping down in front towards the blue waters of Lake Ontario, while several of the most imposing towers and spires are grouped behind it. Immediately in rear stand the Gaol and the official residence appertaining to it, while close by is a Registry Office in the same chaste Greek style as the Courthouse. In front of the latter has been placed an ornamental fountain, as a memorial of the late Sir George Kirkpatrick, who died Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario, who was for some years member for Kingston, and was the eldest son of its first Mayor. In the foreground is a spacious cricket-field, and, nearer the lake, the city park, with its shady avenues and flower-beds, and at one corner a fine statue of Kingston’s long-time member, Sir John Macdonald. It should possess a similar memorial of another distinguished Kingstonian, Sir Oliver Mowat ; and statues of the French founders of the place, Frontenac and La Salle, would also be most appropriate, as supplying an object-lesson in our history. Taken in connection with the smaller Macdonald Park, on the water front below King Street, the whole constitutes a beautifully situated and spacious recreation ground. It was originally a common used for military parades, but was laid out as a park in the early fifties, under the judicious supervision of one of Kingston’s early surgeons, Dr. H. Yates. Ontario Park, some miles out of town, lying along the margin of the lake, forms a pleasant resort on warm summer days, when the coolness of the lake breezes and the dashing surf make a welcome change from even the well-shaded Kingston streets.
One of the most notable and attractive groups of buildings in the residential part of the city is that which belongs to the General Hospital, contiguous to the academic grounds of Queen’s University. Its history, along with that of the other charitable institutions of the place, is not the least interesting portion of the past history of Kingston. The small beginning from which the present important institution has grown was made about 1821, by the little band of capable and large-hearted ladies belonging to the “Female Benevolent Society,” to which reference has already been made in connection with the founding of the first school for the poor. The funds for the undertaking had to be raised by voluntary contributions, and as there was no suitable building available, an old blockhouse was fitted up for the reception of the sick, and served the purpose for some years. It was, however, destroyed by fire, with all its contents, about the end of the thirties, and for a time Kingston was again without a place of treatment for its sick poor. Its loss being severely felt, and a grant of £388 having been voted by the Legislature, the ladies re-opened their hospital in December, 1842, in a building which had been used as an “emigrant hospital” during the severe visitation of cholera already mentioned. The Kingston merchants, as we find from the old minutes of the Society, liberally supplied all the furnishings, thus leaving the funds at command to be used in providing other necessaries. Soon after, a movement was made towards “providing a permanent hospital for the large and growing town,” resulting in the erection of the central portion of the present General Hospital, which, however, was very soon temporarily diverted to other uses, being rented to the Government for the meetings of Parliament during the period when Kingston was the seat of Government. When that was removed to Montreal, the ladies obtained permission to equip two wards in the new hospital building, which were opened in November, 1845; and, during the winter following, eighty-two patients were admitted. The original hospital had been kept open during the winter only, but it was strongly felt by the members of the F. B. S. that it must now be at all times open to receive patients, especially as the population was fast increasing through the influx of immigration and the opening of Government works. A memorial to this effect was drawn up, was endorsed by the visiting physicians and ministers, and forwarded to Government, in order to secure its continued aid, as to which some doubts had been felt. A grant of £390 was, however, shortly transmitted to the Mayor of Kingston for the “relief of the indigent sick.” As the ladies of the F. B. S. felt that the charge of a permanent hospital would soon prove too heavy a responsibility for them to maintain, a public meeting was called, to which their report was submitted, and at which “the cordial thanks of the inhabitants of Kingston were respectfully tendered to the ladies of the F. B. S. for the efficient and praiseworthy manner in which they have managed the hospital under their charge since the year 1821.” It was agreed that the ladies should be relieved of the management as soon as an Act of Incorporation should be secured, and that, in the meantime, they should be requested to continue their charge of it with a committee of gentlemen to assist them.
In the following June, however (1847), an unlooked for emergency occurred in the arrival of a number of immigrants stricken with typhus fever, who had to be crowded into the hospital, to the exclusion of all other patients. The devoted matron of the institution, Mrs. Martin, with her daughter, exhausted by excessive labour, fell a sacrifice to the malady, and the temporary relinquishment of hospital work consequent on this calamity* seems to have closed the formal connection of the members of the F. B. S. with the charity. As a list of their names has been preserved in the old records, it is only right that they should be perpetuated in the city’s honour roll. The list runs as follows: Mrs. (Archdeacon) Stuart, Mrs. Kirby, Mrs. Cartwright, Mrs. Machar, Mrs. Askew, Mrs. Muckleston, Miss Macdonald (sister of Sir John), Mrs. Wilson, Mrs. Richardson, Mrs. Heath, Miss Fowler, Mrs. Rogers, Mrs. Strange, Mrs. D. J. Smith, Mrs. Hagerman, Mrs. Hales, Mrs. Raynes, Mrs. Lang, Mrs. Edie, Mrs. Haines, Mrs. Counter, Miss Winslow, Mrs. Baker, Miss Williamson, Mrs. Earle, Mrs. Macpherson, and Mrs. McLeod. Some of these names have been long forgotten, but the results of their work have endured.
The hospital prospered under its new regime and the energetic efforts of the physicians, who have always been its most active and faithful friends. Though it has never possessed any rich endowment, yet numerous legacies and benefactions have supplied the means for the fine group of buildings that have sprung up, in the course of years, around the original central edifice, which was some years ago partially destroyed by fire, and rebuilt. These, supplied by the generosity of citiezns, include a “Watkins” and a “Nickle Wing,” a “Doran building,” and a handsome Nurses’ Home, the last recently erected. The hospital is provided with spacious wards, pleasant rooms for private patients, and a well-equipped operating theatre, and is a boon not only to the city, but to the whole surrounding country.
The members of the F. B. S., being relieved from the cares of the hospital, turned their attention to the founding of another useful institution for the needy, in line with the work of outdoor relief in food and clothing which they had already been conducting. The words of Mrs. Cartwright, the able secretary of the Society, thus describe the object of the new venture :
“During the summer of 1847 the crowded state of the hospital and the general prevalence of fever throughout the town prevented the operations of the Society from being carried on in the usual manner ; but, several successive meetings having been called, towards the close of the season, it was at length agreed that ‘efforts should be made for the establishment of a House of Industry, as the most effectual means of affording relief to the many destitute beings left among us by the recent calamitous season of sickness and destitution arising from the awful visitation of famine in Ireland.” As a result of these efforts a stone building then at the head of Princess Street, was secured for the reception of widows and orphans from the emigrant sheds, under the immediate superintendence of a committee of gentlemen, assisted by the ladies of the F. B. S., who undertook to “devise means of employment for the inmates of the institution and promote the sale of articles made there.”
Having thus established this much-needed charity, the F. B. S. applied themselves to provide for the permanence of the institution as “a place of refuge for the destitute, and calculated to check imposture and mendicity ;” and they speedily established a school in connection with it, and provided a teacher to instruct the ignorant orphan children who constituted a large proportion of its inmates. As it was feared that the institution might be closed for lack of funds, an earnest appeal was issued by the F. B. S. “deprecating the idea of casting out so many helpless beings to cling to a miserable and precarious mode of living about town, in wretchedness, begging and vice, or to wander through the country, uncertain whither to bend their steps ;” and urging that an effort should be made to secure a grant of land and erect suitable buildings. This memorial at least served to keep the Refuge open, though only a few women and children were for a time retained in it ; and Francis M. Hill, Esq., Mayor in 1847, did what he could to promote its interests.
In 1852 a deputation from the F. B. S. visited the newly elected Mayor, John Counter, Esq., “to press the importance of measures for the prevention of street begging and other plans for ameliorating the condition of the poor.” Shortly after, the ladies were requested to collect funds, under the Mayor’s authority, for the House of Industry ; and the wife of the Mayor, with Mrs. Cartwright and Mrs. Machar, were requested by the trustees to form themselves into a committee, with power to add to their number, in order to take a general superintendence of the school held in it, and of the female department of the institution generally, which they long continued to do.
The school, of course, was discontinued when the Orphan’s Home was opened for the children ; but the Refuge for the destitute continued to grow with the needs of the place, though for many years most inadequately housed and equipped. For thirty years past, however, it has been more fittingly established in a building belonging to the city, which has been from time to time enlarged and improved, in order to make it a more comfortable shelter for the “destitute, homeless and infirm who are obliged to seek a home within its walls.” The most notable addition for this purpose which it has received in later years was supplied by private liberality, in the wing built in 1887 as a “Home for the Aged,” the generous gift of the late Dr. Skinner and his family, intended as a Home for aged couples, or for the more respectable class of needy aged women. It is managed by a Board elected by the subscribers, with four representatives from the City Council: About 1889 a proportion of ladies was for the first time elected on its Board, asconsidering its past historywas but fitting ; and during the years that have followed, its domestic equipment and arrangements have been greatly improved, while it has continued to prove a friend in need to many homeless poor in Kingston and the surrounding country.
In the same year, 1852, the F. B. S. prepared to found another benevolent institution in Kingston by reconstituting itself under the name of the “Widows’ and Orphans’ Friend Society,” its object being defined as “the amelioration of the physical and moral condition of destitute widows and orphans, of vagrant children, and the children of sickly, dissolute or worthless parents.” At first, this object was pursued by assisting poor widows in any way that circumstances required, and by opening in the House of Industry a free school for poor children, which included those previously taught there, mainly by volunteer teachers. This school was soon attended by sixty needy children, who were supplied with a mid-day meal of bread and soup, as well as with necessary clothing, great attention being paid by the visiting ladies to their moral training and to the formation of cleanly and industrious habits. The ladies also superintended the work of such female inmates as were able to do useful work for their own benefit. But the needs and unhappy circumstances of these children-inmates led the indefatigable members of the F. B. S. to turn their attention to the establishment of an Orphan’s Home, on which, thereafter, their efforts were mainly concentrated. A small house and a competent matron were secured, and the “Home” was begun with about a dozen children, most of them taken out of the House of Industry. The Society was launched with an excellent working constitution, and has always been smoothly worked thereon by a large committee of ladies elected annually by the subscribers. In course of time, through the liberality of private citizens and the good management of its Board, a suitable piece of land was purchased, and a handsome and substantial building erected for the abode of the well managed and flourishing institution which has succoured, taught and cared for so many destitute children, and which has such a warm place in the hearts of the people of Kingston. One of its most generous benefactors was the late esteemed John Watkins, also a benefactor of the hospital; and in addition to the ladies already named in connection with its foundation, may be mentioned those, once well known in Kingston, of Mrs. and Miss Logie, Mrs. Mair, Mrs. Harper, Mrs. Williamson, Mrs. S. and Mrs. T. Kirkpatrick, Mrs. Hugh Fraser, and Mrs. F. George, as having taken a specially active part in its origin and progress.
The Hotel Dien was early established by the Roman Catholic portion of the communityoriginally in a plain stone building on Brock Street, with a convent attached–the Sisters officiating as nurses. It has now grown to much larger dimensions, and, a few years ago, was removed to the large building erected for Regiopolis College, when its successor was transferred to the former Merchants Bank. It is well equipped with all modern appliances; has received handsome additions, consisting of a chapel and a Home for the nursing sisters ; and, like the General Hospital, yearly cares for many patients from the city and adjoining country.
The House of Providence is another institution under the auspices of the R. C. Church, analogous to the House of Industry in its purpose, but intended for more varied grades of beneficiaries. It is a large and imposing edifice, important additions having been made in recent years; andbesides ample accommodation for its large staff of religieuses, and its more special provision for the destitutecontains a comfortable boarding department and also one for the care of orphan or destitute children.
One other charitable institution must be mentioned, the “Home of the Friendless,” a haven to which destitute and forlorn mothers may bring their infants to be taken care of, when unable themselves to maintain them, and where the most friendless may receive counsel and a helping hand. This merciful charity arose out of the knowledge gained by benevolent ladies of the mortality arising from baby-farming, and the institution, though forced to struggle with very small resources, has, like the other charities of Kingston, grown in capacity and usefulness, and been a means of relieving much distress and saving not a few infant lives.
The origin of the City Poor Relief Association for affording outdoor relief in cases of need, may also be traced back to the F. B. S., of which it may be considered the lineal descendant, as it has been managed for about half a century by a committee of ladies on much the same lines on which the original Society endeavoured to meet the needs of the destitute in the earlier years already referred to, leaving to the city so many beneficent results of its activity. The funds for the charity are mainly collected, as well as administered, by the committee of ladies who freely devote time and labour to investigating the cases of need reported, and relieving them after due enquiry. A similar Society, bearing the name of St. Vincent de Paul, exists under the auspices of the R. C. Church, for the poor of that body, and the two Societies work in friendly co-operation for the good of their needy fellow-citizens.
Before leaving the institutions of Kingston, reference should be made to the Provincial Penitentiary and to Rockwood Hospital for the Insane, though neither, properly speaking, belongs to Kingston, and both are situated outside the city’s bounds. The mass of buildings required by the Penitentiary was begun in the early fifties, and the place usually contains from four to five hundred prisoners, sent for serious offences from all parts of Ontario. Workshops and quarters for officials are included in the great fortress-like structure, which is enclosed by lofty stone walls, flanked by towers for observation. The residence of the Warden of the Penitentiary stands opposite the prison-gate, and, with its well kept grounds, is an ornament to that quarter of the city.
The Rockwood Hospital for the Insane was begun about 1856, and has from time to time been receiving large additions ever since. It is situated in beautiful and extensive grounds, which, like those of the Penitentiary, adjoin the lake, and were formerly the property of Mr. John S. Cartwright. The spacious buildings afford accommodation for several hundred inmates of both sexes, for whose comfort and cure skill and kindness do much, and frequently with very beneficial results. Unhappily, the institution is always too well filled.
The pretty suburban village of Portsmouth, lying between the Penitentiary and the Asylum, contains a number of good houses, and two picturesque churches Anglican and Roman Catholicbut no longer boasts the busy shipyards which once gave employment to a large number of men ;the industry of shipbuilding, so far as Kingston is concerned, being mainly carried on at Garden Island, about two miles distant from the city.
The Story Of Old Kingston:A Growing TimeA Political CrisisKingston As The Capital Of CanadaAn Educational CentreChurches And CharitiesSixty Years AgoDecree Of Louis Xiv. Granting To La Salle The Seigniory Of CataraquiRead More Articles About: The Story Of Old Kingston