If these walls (and streets) could talk: Moncton's hidden history

While buildings can be historical reminders because of their architectural merits, it's often the stories that come out of them that leave the biggest impact.

Lawren Campbell, cultural and heritage co-ordinator at Moncton's Resurgo Place, knows about the interesting stories buriedin sometimes ordinary-looking buildings.

"I know the history and I know some stories.There's a little extra vibe I get when I pass by these kinds of buildings," said Campbell, speaking to Information Morning Moncton.

Here are the stories hidden in plain sight several Monctonneighbourhoods.

Bootlegging and businessmen

The Mintobuilding, at 190 Robinson St., is now home to a restaurant, but its business history goes back more thana century.

Some of that business was entirely legitimate, some not.

On the legal side of things,there once was a hardware store on the ground floorand the top floor of the building was called the Minto Showrooms, a space where travelling salesmen could set up their versionof today's pop-up shops.

"They'd advertise in the newspaper," said Campbell, letting people know they were in town "for two weeks selling ...whatever it was, dishware, whatever ... And they would rent out these sample showroom."

But there werealso some illegal dealings in the building at one time, such asthe bootlegging operation the hardware store owner, Carl Doull, had during prohibition, he said.

The Canada Temperance Act set up a framework that allowed provinces to go dry, which New Brunswick was between 1917 and 1927.

But booze was still flowing in the cityand the police believed Doull was behind it, according to Campbell.

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Lawren Campbell is the culture and heritage coordinator at Resurgo Place.

Police raided thebusiness several times but never found anything, he said, until one police officernoticed the exterior foundation was longer than the interior basement, by about the width of a barrel of whiskey.

"They break a hole in the wall and find his stash of liquor barrels," said Campbell.

"They could have used the hidden trap door to access from the room above in his hardware store."

Doull spent some time in Dorchester Penitentiary, but was often issued weekend passes, which Campbell said was due to the judge thanking him "for his public service of supplying liquor to everybody."

Cookie-cutter houses at odd angles

After the Second World War, thousands of dwellingswere built across the country to house returning soldiers and their families.

A neighbourhood in Moncton, north of Mountain Road,has 100 of these homes, all built using the same plansand constructed at breakneck speed.

"They did those 100 houses in 66 days, including electrical and plumbing," said Campbell.

But as plans are made, plans will change.

The original plan was that each street of houses around Alexander Park,including Humphrey and Leslie streets, would end in a cul-de-sac.

But the fire marshal rejected that idea, saying fire departments needed access through those roads.

They did this after the houses were already built and situated as if a cul-de-sac were coming, leading to some off-kilter footprints.

"The houses were already built, sitting on a cul-de-sac that's no longer a cul-de-sac," said Campbell.

"So you actually have quite a few near the midsection of that subdivision that are at weird angles."

Immigration and success

Some of the stories are more personal and would be similar to many others in Moncton, stories of people who come from away and create new lives.

One is the story of a building on the corner of King and Main streets, once the home of Pascal (Tony) Baiani, a local businessman who immigrated from Italy.

He wanted to get to the West to visit a sick relative during the early 1900sbut because of a pandemic found himself stuck in Moncton, said Campbell.

Eventually he made it out to his relative but then found his way back to Moncton, where he built the structure at King and Main, moved inand started a family.

"[A relative] I've spoken to said he remembers going to that apartment in that building and he remembers the grandmother's cooking. And he remembers Pascal sitting with his pipe by the window overlooking Main Street and just serenely kind of taking in the scene."