Government House (Newfoundland and Labrador)

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Government House
(St. John's, Newfoundland)

The front of Government House, St. John's.

Government House is the official residence of the Lieutenant-Governor of Newfoundland and Labrador. Government House was a by-product of the wave of administrative initiatives that took place during the 1820s. The royal charter of 1825 bestowed official colonial status for Newfoundland.

The building plans for Government House were drawn up in England. The Ordinance had told the Treasury that workmen's wages were too high in Newfoundland, and subsequently, workmen in Scotland were engaged and arrived in St. John's to begin construction in April 1827. The original plan as conceived by Governor Cochrane was for a two-storey house, plus basement. The building was to be enclosed within a 12 foot ditch which, popularly mistaken to be a moat, was merely designed as a provision for allowing light into the basement level. When completed in 1831, Government House cost £38,175, which was five times the original estimate and an enormous expense at the time. The two-storey building consists of a center block flanked by slightly lower wings on the east and on the west. The exterior is of rough, red sandstone quarried at Signal Hill, trimmed with English Portland stone.