The Big Dig: 100 Found Photos of Water Street, St. John’s Circa 1984
While digging through files and photos and archives and collections to gather valuable volumes of information for our ongoing Secret East archival series, we started to find a lot of street photography from around St. John’s, Newfoundland that we had never seen before. St. John’s has always had an appetite for nostalgia, so it is rare to find such comprehensive collections of photos that haven’t already been widely circulated.
As Newfoundlanders, we’ve gotten great at remembering and memorializing historic and culturally significant events. However, it is the everyday lives of Newfoundlanders that we at Secret East have been most interested in exploring in our throwback series. While major political events and news-worthy headlines are ultimately important for the history books, we like to makes things a bit more personal. We want to know the people: where did St. John’s townies shop? Where did they eat? What records were they buying and where were they buying them? Where did they hang out? What live entertainment were they taking in? These details are what contextualize our culture and make up the fibres of our history.
Fitting to our cause, we came across these pages of an old black and white photo magazine put together at MUN in 1984. In the project entitled Street Scapes, a series of photos from east to west of Water Street were profiled, titled only by address and occupancy name. We clipped roughly 100 photos of businesses and buildings that comprise a pretty amazing walk through the downtown district of St. John’s in 1984.
Since we began sharing these photos, we have received a lot of great information and feedback from various parties who were involved with the original project. Street Scapes was an endeavour by CameraMUN supervised by Lynn Byrnes. The project was implemented to train new photographers, and we love that we are now able to give proper credit to the photographers and darkroom technicians: Garry Burry, Louise Kearney, Russell Kelland, David Maher, Tony Norman, Brian Rideout and Geoff Whelan, as well as to researchers: Regina Abbott, Michelle Bennett, Doug Lacey, Scott Powers.
Take a step back 35 years and experience Water Street in St. John’s, Newfoundland circa 1984:
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- Matchless Paint Factory, 14 Water Street
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- Helene Wilson Ltd, 26 Water Street
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- Hiscocks Rentals, 73-77 Water Street
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- Harveys Oil, 87 Water Street
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- Officers Club, 88 Water Street
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- S.O. Steel & Sons, 100 Water Street
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- Curry House, 106 Water Street
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- Javelin House, 109 Water Street
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- East End Club, 110 Water Street
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- Marine Outfitters, 119 Water Street
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- Adul Corrections Division, 120 Water Street
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- Before & After, 124 Water Street
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- National Office Equipment, 125 Water Street
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- H & B Take Out, 126 Water Street
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- Marshall Building, 127 Water Street
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- Club Max / Tae Kwon Do, 130 Water Street
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- Long Brothers Ltd / The Sandwich Shoppe, Savings & Investments, 132-134-134A Water Street
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- Royal Trust Building, 139 Water Street
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- TD Building, 140 Water Street
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- Terra Nove Communications, 152 Water Street
Happy Gardens, 165 Water Street
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Water Street Continued:
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- Afterwords Bookstore, 166-168 Water Street
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- Harris & Hiscock Ltd, 167 Water Street
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- Delgado Building, 169 Water Street
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- Tasters Delight, 172 Water Street
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- Commerce House, 173 Water Street
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- The Hair Masters, 174 Water Street
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- London, New York and Paris, 175 Water Street
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- Kitchens Queen, 176 Water Street
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- The London, 177 Water Street
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- The Admiral Pub, 178 Water Street
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- Martins Oil Patch, 180-182 Water Street
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- H&R Block, 191 Water Street
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- Parker & Monroe, 193-195 Water Street
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- The Fishing Admiral, 203 Water Street
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- Atlantic Place, 215 Water Street
Funland Games Arcade, 201 Water Street
The Hair Factory, 216 Water Street
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- Temporarily Yours, 218 Water Street
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- Ultrasound Ltd., 244 Water Street
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- The Mermaid, 248 Water Street
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- Mr. Submarine, 252 Water Street
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- Shelly’s Restaurant, 252 Water Street
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- The Sports Shop, 256 -258 Water Street
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Mary Brown’s Fried Chicken, 260-268 Water Street
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- Neyle-Soper Hardware Co. / Cabot Optical, 274-276 Water Street
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- Bowring Building, 277-281 Water Street
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- O’Brien’s Music, 278 Water Street
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- Royal Shoe Repair, 280 Water Street
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- The In Thing, 282 Water Street
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- Grace Building, 285 Water Street
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- Nonia Nfld Handicrafts, 286 Water Street
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- Johnson Insurance, 288 Water Street
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- Diamond Jewellery, 290 Water Street
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- Scotia Bank, 291-293 Water Street
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- Bartlett’s Store, 292 Water Street
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- Atlantic Optical, 294 Water Street
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- Harley Tavern / Roxy Entertainment / PJ’s, 295-301 Water Street
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- Footwear Supplies, 296 Water Street
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- Capital Lounge / Continental Cafe, 302 Water Street
O’Brien’s Music, 278 Water Street
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- Thompson’s Jewellers Ltd, 303-305 Water Street
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- Melendy’s, 304 Water Street
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- Hudson’s Bay Company, 306-308 Water Street
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- Tootons Ltd, 307-309 Water Street
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- E & W Restaurant, 310 Water Street
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- Wilansky & Sons Ltd, 312 Water Street
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- Avalon Jewellers, 316 Water Street
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- The Popular Spring Garden Restaurant, 317-319 Water Street
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- Dick’s & Co, 320 Water Street
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- Laracy’s Gift Shop, 322 Water Street
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- Sports Craft, 324 Water stREET
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- Sally’s, 325 Water Street
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- William Chafe and Son’s Ltd, 328 – 330 Water Street
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- Lee’s, 329 Water Street
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- Montreal Trust, 331 Water Street
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- Trans Canada Loans / Mario Hairstylists, 332 Water Street
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- Templeton’s / Jeans N’ Things, 341 – 343 Water Street
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- The Arcade, 349 Water Street
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- Topcuts, 350 Water Street
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- Steers Ltd / Leon Alexander, 366-368 Water Street
Woolworth, 351-355 Water Street
Lucky’s Chop Suey House, 364 Water Street
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- Pipers, 369 Water Street
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- Second Page Bookstore, 372 Water Street
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- Standard Bedding Co / City Hardware & Paint, 386 Water Street
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- Murphy’s Barber Shop, 388-390 Water Street
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- Friar Tuck Pub, 392 Water Street
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- Popeye’s Grille, 294 Water Street
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- Orchid Grill, 402 Water Street
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- G.J. Shortall, 404 Water Street
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- Kaguar Limited, Water Street
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- Murray Premises / Newfoundland Liquor Store, Water Street
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- Central Water Street
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- Central Water Street
Since we began sharing these photos, we have received a lot of great information and feedback from various parties who were involved with the original project. Street Scapes was an endeavour by CameraMUN supervised by Lynn Byrnes. The project was implemented to train new photographers, and we love that we are now able to give proper credit to the photographers and darkroom technicians: Garry Burry, Louise Kearney, Russell Kelland, David Maher, Tony Norman, Brian Rideout and Geoff Whelan, as well as to researchers: Regina Abbott, Michelle Bennett, Doug Lacey, Scott Powers.
This project was undertaken by cameraMUN led by manager Lynn Burns to train photographers-5 vols were published
The Streetscape photographs can be found at as Coll-168 at Memorial Libraries’ Archives & Special Collections which has been digitized and is keyword searchable here http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/landingpage/collection/archives#C50. This collection consists of photographs of St. John’s buildings, both houses and commercial properties, mainly in the older, downtown portion of the city, together with a brief historical note on each building. It was created as a student summer project sponsored by the Council of the Students Union, Memorial University of Newfoundland, over several summers between 1983 and 1987, to photographically document St. John’s buildings. Lynn Byrnes was the Project Co-ordinator with the Council of the Students Union.
OMG! the memories!!! Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!! I left in 1984, I grew up in St. John’s, I loved that city! But not anymore! I ‘ve been back a number of times over the last 30 years to visit family and I have to say it is not the city I left! The drugs, the crime. the disgusting people! I have little or no time for St. John’s and it breaks my heart to say it! I’ve lived in Ontario now for 35 years and have met a number of Newfoundlanders up here as well and many have said the same things about St. John’s and how its changed because of the money from the oil. I once told a fella from down home that I hoped Newfoundland never prospered! and he asked why would I say something like that and I told him straight up that the only good thing that comes from sudden prosperity is jobs, but the list of bad things is the length of your arm….. I guess I was right! I know it sounds awful, buts its how I feel. One of the most saddest days of my life was when it was announced that the constabulary where going to start carrying guns! I was a matter of great pride for me to tell people here in Ontario that our police never carried side arms, we were the only major police force in North America that out police force didn’t need to carry firearms…. what a great sense of pride that gave me and a lot of other Newfoundlanders as well…so sad that its not that way anymore.