A blockhouse built in the town during the War of 1812 is now a National Historic Site. I used to protect the town from American privateers, but Atlantic Canada also profited handsomely from privateering during the war. Similar Blockhouses were built in Lunenburg and Saint John, three such blockhouses with a battery were built in St. Andrews. Privateers never attacked the town. Although the blockhouses used to be common, only two have survived.
St. Andrews is also known for its architecture, some of its early buildings were built in Castine, Maine before being moved here after American independence. The houses were constructed in the 1770s and moved here a decade later when the town was founded.
The town’s heritage is well-explained through brief but informative plaques on almost every other building in its core. The churches are well-known to be some of the best preserved in the province. The Greenock Presbyterian church built in 1824 is named after a place in Scotland and features the emblem of an oak tree from Greenock, Scotland. The Baptist Church was built in 1865 and is one of the finest examples of a Carpenter’s Gothic church in Canada.The Roman Catholic Church of St. Andrew was built on the site of a graveyard in 1825 replaced by the current structure in 1886.
The houses of two sheriffs survived and are heritage buildings. John Dunn, second sheriff of Charlotte County ran his office out of his house completed in 1790. Sheriff Elisha Andrews’ house was built in 1820 of brick is an elegant rectangular house of Neo-classical style.
A rare salt-box style house built in 1785 was preserved with federal funding. The town thinks it was one of the original houses floated in from Castine, Maine, on a barge. The 1840Charlotte County Court House is the best preserved courthouse in New Brunswick, the ornate royal coat of arms was carved in 1858.
Next to the court house sits the old gaol, which has been converted into a climate-controlled county archives. It operated as a 17-space jail from 1834 all the way to 1979. Prisoners convicted of lighter crimes were housed upstairs while violent criminals were interred downstairs. The last hanging happened here in 1942.
