St. John's
City
City of St. John's
From top, left to right: Sunset from Signal Hill, Row Houses, Cabot Tower on Signal Hill, the Basilica of St. John the Baptist, the Confederation Building
Flag Logo [1][2][3]
Motto:  Avancez (English: "Go forward")
St. John's Location within Newfoundland and Labrador Show map of Newfoundland and Labrador St. John's Location within Canada Show map of Canada
Coordinates: 47°28′56″N 52°47′49″W / 47.48222°N 52.79694°W / 47.48222; -52.79694[4]
Country	Canada
Province	Newfoundland and Labrador
Census division	1
Historic countries	Kingdom of England Kingdom of Great Britain United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Dominion of Newfoundland
Discovered	24 June 1497 (Not as an established settlement, but as fishing grounds)
Established	5 August 1583 by Royal Charter of Queen Elizabeth I
Incorporated	1 May 1888
Named for	Nativity of John the Baptist
Government
• Type	City Council
• Mayor	Danny Breen
• Governing body	St. John's City Council
• MPs	List of MPs Seamus O'Regan (L) Joanne Thompson (L)
• MHAs	List of MAs John Abbott (LIB) Siobhán Coady (LIB) Bernard Davis (LIB) Jim Dinn (NDP) John Hogan (LIB) Paul Lane (IND) Loyola O'Driscoll (PC) Tom Osborne (LIB) Sarah Stoodley (LIB)
Area  (2021[5])
• City	446.02 km2 (172.21 sq mi)
• Urban	178.0 km2 (68.7 sq mi)
• Metro	931.56 km2 (359.68 sq mi)
Elevation	0–192 m (0–630 ft)
Population  (2021 census[5])
• City	110,525
• Density	247.8/km2 (632.1/sq mi)
• Urban	185,565
• Urban density	1,042.5/km2 (2,700/sq mi)
• Metro	212,579
• Metro density	228.2/km2 (591/sq mi)
	20th Largest metropolitan area in Canada
Time zone	UTC−03:30 (NST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−02:30 (NDT)
Postal code	A1A–A1H, A1S
Area code	709
NTS Map	1N10 St. John's
GNBC Code	ABEFS[6]
Total Dwellings	54,067 (2021)[5]
Median total household income	$75,000 CAD (2020)[5]
GDP (St. John's CMA)	CA$13.2 billion (2016)[7]
GDP per capita (St. John's CMA)	CA$63,965 (2016)
Website	stjohns.ca

St. John's is the capital and largest city of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It is located on the eastern tip of the Avalon Peninsula on the island of Newfoundland. The city spans 446.04 km² (172.22 sq mi) and is the easternmost city in North America (excluding Greenland).^{[8][9][10][11]}

Its name has been attributed to the belief that John Cabot sailed into the harbour on the Nativity of John the Baptist in 1497, although it is most likely a legend that came with British settlement. A more realistic possibility is that a fishing village with the same name existed without a permanent settlement for most of the 16th century.^[12] Indicated as São João on a Portuguese map from 1519, it is one of the oldest cities in North America.^[13] It was officially incorporated as a city in 1888. With a metropolitan population of approximately 212,579 (as of 9 February 2022), the St. John's Metropolitan Area is Canada's 20th-largest metropolitan area and the second-largest Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) in Atlantic Canada, after Halifax.^[14]

The city has a rich history, having played a role in the Seven Years' War, the American Revolutionary War, and the War of 1812. Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi received the first transatlantic wireless signal in St. John's.^[15] Its history and culture have made it into an important tourist destination.^[16] St. John's was referred to as Baile Sheáin (Johnstown), in the poetry of Donnchadh Ruadh Mac Conmara (1715–1810), and among speakers of the Irish language in Newfoundland.^[17]

History

Early history (1500–1799)

St. John's was used by fishermen setting up seasonal camps in the early 1500s.^[18] Sebastian Cabot declared in a handwritten Latin text in his original 1545 map^[19] that St. John's earned its name when he and his father, the Venetian explorer John Cabot, in the service of England, became the first Europeans to sail into the harbour, on the morning of 24 June 1494 (per British and French historians, in 1497),^[20] the feast day of Saint John the Baptist.^[9] However, the locations of Cabot's landfalls are disputed.^[21][22] A series of expeditions to St. John's by Portuguese from the Azores took place in the early 16th century, and by 1540, French, Spanish and Portuguese ships crossed the Atlantic annually to fish the waters off the Avalon Peninsula. In the Basque Country, it is a common belief the name of St. John's was given by Basque fishermen because the bay of St. John's is very similar to the Bay of Pasaia in the Basque Country, where one of the fishing towns is called St. John (in Spanish, San Juan, and in Basque, Donibane).^[10]

The earliest record of the location appears as São João on a Portuguese map by Pedro Reinel in 1519. When the English mariner John Rut visited St. John's in 1527, he found Norman, Breton and Portuguese ships in the harbour. On 3 August 1527, Rut wrote a letter to King Henry on the findings of his voyage to North America; this was the first known letter sent from North America. St. Jehan is shown on Nicolas Desliens's world map of 1541, and San Joham is found in João Freire's Atlas of 1546.^[23]

On 5 August 1583, an English Sea Dog, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, claimed the area as England's first overseas colony under Royal Charter of Queen Elizabeth I.^[24] There was no permanent population, however, and Gilbert was lost at sea during his return voyage, thereby ending any immediate plans for settlement.^[10]

By 1620, the fishermen of England's West Country controlled most of Newfoundland's east coast.^[25] In 1627, William Payne, called St. John's "the principal prime and chief lot in all the whole country".^[26]

Sometime after 1630, the town of St. John's was established as a permanent community. Before this, English fishermen were expressly forbidden by the English government, at the urging of the West Country fishing industry, to establish permanent settlements along the English-controlled coast.^[27]

The population grew slowly in the 17th century: St. John's was Newfoundland's largest settlement when English naval officers began to take censuses around 1675.^[23] The population grew in the summers with the arrival of migratory fishermen.^[10] In 1680, fishing ships (mostly from South Devon) set up fishing rooms at St. John's, bringing hundreds of Irish men into the port to operate inshore fishing boats.^[23]

The town's first significant defences were likely erected due to commercial interests, following the temporary seizure of St. John's by the Dutch admiral Michiel de Ruyter in June 1665.^{[citation needed]}

The inhabitants fended off a second Dutch attack in 1673, when it was defended by Christopher Martin, an English merchant captain. Martin landed six cannons from his vessel, the Elias Andrews, and constructed an earthen breastwork and battery near Chain Rock commanding the Narrows leading into the harbour. With only 23 men, the valiant Martin beat off an attack by three Dutch warships. The English government planned to expand these fortifications (Fort William) in around 1689, but construction did not begin until after the French admiral Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville captured and destroyed the town in the Avalon Peninsula Campaign (1696). When 1500 English reinforcements arrived in late 1697, they found rubble where the town and fortifications had stood.^{[citation needed]}

The French attacked St. John's again in 1705 (Siege of St. John's), and captured it in 1708 (Battle of St. John's), devastating civilian structures with fire on each instance.^[23] The harbour remained fortified through most of the 18th and 19th centuries.^[10] The final battle of the Seven Years' War in North America (known as the French and Indian War in the US) was fought in 1762, in St. John's.^[10] Following a surprise capture of the town by the French early in the year, the British responded and, at the Battle of Signal Hill, the French surrendered St. John's to British forces under the command of Colonel William Amherst.^[23][28]

In the late 1700s Fort Amherst and Fort Waldegrave were built to defend the harbour entrance.^[29]

The oldest European settlement in North America controversy

There has been some controversy regarding which European settlement is the oldest in North America. As mentioned above, while English fishermen had set up seasonal camps in St. John's in the 16th century, they were expressly forbidden by the English government, at the urging of the West Country fishing industry, to establish permanent settlements along the English-controlled coast. As a result, the town of St. John's was not established as a permanent community until after the 1630s.^[27] With respect to the oldest surviving permanent English settlements in North America, it was preceded by Jamestown, Virginia (1607),^[30] the Cuper's Cove colony at Cupids in Newfoundland (1610), St. George's, Bermuda (1612),^[31] and the Bristol's Hope colony at Harbour Grace in Newfoundland (1618).^[32] Each of these English settlements were far later than other European settlements in North America, such as St. Augustine, Florida established by Spain in 1565.^[33]

Modern history (1800–present)

On 24 April 1800, the "United Irish Uprising" occurred when 19 Irish soldiers who were part of the British garrison stationed in Newfoundland mutinied. The mutineers, who were suspected to be members of the Society of United Irishmen, fled to the countryside after the mutiny failed, and were apprehended in a matter of weeks and court-martialled. Of the 17 mutineers captured, 8 were executed, 4 were let go while 5 were sentenced to penal transportation.^[34]

The 18th century saw major changes in Newfoundland: population growth, beginnings of government, establishment of churches, reinforcement of commercial ties with North America and development of the seal, salmon and Grand Banks fisheries. St. John's population grew slowly. Although it was primarily a fishing station, it was also a garrison, a centre of government and a commercial hub. St. John's served as a naval base during the American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812.^[23]

Guglielmo Marconi received the first transatlantic wireless signal in St. John's on 12 December 1901 from his wireless station in Poldhu, Cornwall.^[15] St. John's was the starting point for the first non-stop transatlantic aircraft flight, by Alcock and Brown in a modified Vickers Vimy IV bomber, in June 1919, departing from Lester's Field in St. John's and ending in a bog near Clifden, Connemara, Ireland.^[35] In July 2005, the flight was duplicated by American aviator and adventurer Steve Fossett in a replica Vickers Vimy aircraft, with St. John's International Airport substituting for Lester's Field (now an urban and residential part of the city).^[36]

During the Second World War, the harbour supported Royal Navy and Royal Canadian Navy ships that were engaged in anti-submarine warfare. It was the site of an American Army Air Force base, Fort Pepperrell, that was established as part of the "Lend-Lease" Destroyers for Bases Agreement between the United Kingdom and United States.^[10] The base included several US-manned coast defence guns, and a Canadian-manned battery of two Lend-Lease 10-inch M1888 guns was at Fort Cape Spear.^[37][38] The base was transferred to Canadian control in 1960 and is now known as CFS St. John's. The Knights of Columbus Hostel fire in December 1942 saw 99 military and civilian lives lost.^[39]

St. John's, and the province as a whole, was gravely affected in the 1990s by the collapse of the northern cod fishery, which had been the driving force of the provincial economy for hundreds of years.^[40] After a decade of high unemployment rates and depopulation, the city's proximity to the Hibernia, Terra Nova and White Rose oil fields led to an economic boom that spurred population growth and commercial development. As a result, the St. John's area now accounts for about half of the province's economic output.^[41][42]

As of 2012, St. John's contained 21 National Historic Sites of Canada.^[43][44]

Fires

St. John's was destroyed by major fires in 1816, 1817, 1819, 1846 and 1892, when each time a large part of the city was destroyed. The most famous was the Great Fire of 1892.^{[45][page needed]}

On 12 February 1816:

...about eight o'clock, a fire broke out in a house in a part of the town in St. John's in Newfoundland known by the name of the King's Beach, and speedily communicated to the houses adjoining, and burnt with so much fury, that one hundred and twenty houses, the homes of about a thousand men, women, and children, were consumed before the conflagration was stayed.^[46]

There were two citywide fires in 1817 "known jointly as 'The Great Fire of 1817'.^[47] Then in 1819 fire "destroyed 120 houses".^[48]

There was a further major fire in 1846, which started at the shop of a cabinetmaker named Hamlin, located on George Street off Queen Street, when a glue pot boiled over. The fire spread along Water and Duckworth Streets destroying all of the buildings in its path aided by the large quantities of seal oil that were stored in the merchants' premises. The fire was also aided by an attempt to blow up a house on Water Street which scattered burning embers across the city.^[49]

The final major conflagration of the nineteenth century began on the afternoon of 8 July 1892 atop Carter's Hill on Freshwater Road. Initially, the fire did not cause any widespread panic; however, a series of catastrophic coincidences caused the fire to spread and devour virtually all of the east end of the city, including much of its major commercial area, before being extinguished.^[50]

Geography

St. John's is along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, on the northeast of the Avalon Peninsula in southeast Newfoundland.^[51] The city is North America's most easterly city, excluding Greenland;^[8] it is 475 km (295 mi) closer to London, England than it is to Edmonton, Alberta.^[52] It is also closer to all of Ireland than to Miami, also on the east coast of North America.^[53][54] The city is the largest in the province and the second largest in the Atlantic Provinces after Halifax, Nova Scotia.^[55] Its downtown area lies to the west and north of St. John's Harbour, and the rest of the city expands from the downtown to the north, south, east and west. The city covers a total of 446.04 km² (172.22 sq mi) (larger than Montreal), but the majority of its area remains covered by undeveloped woods.

Coniferous trees such as black spruce, white spruce, and balsam fir dominate the native vegetation. The largest deciduous tree is white birch; species of lesser stature include alder, cherry and mountain ash. Of introduced tree species, sycamore maple is most abundant and Norway maple is common. Blue spruce, common horsechestnut, European beech and littleleaf linden are among the other non-native species grown.^[56]

Downtown St. John's from Signal Hill. The city's location on the Avalon Peninsula's northeast coast makes it North America's most easterly city (excluding Greenland).

Climate

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St. John's has a humid continental climate (Köppen Dfb) ^[57] with smaller seasonal variation than normal for the latitude, which is due to Gulf Stream moderation.

Mean temperatures range from −4.9 °C (23.2 °F) in February to 16.1 °C (61.0 °F) in August, showing somewhat of a seasonal lag in the climate. The city is also one of the areas of the country most prone to tropical cyclone activity, as it is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east, where tropical storms (and sometimes hurricanes) travel from the United States. The city is one of the rainiest in Canada outside of coastal British Columbia. This is partly due to its propensity for tropical storm activity as well as moist, Atlantic air frequently blowing ashore and creating precipitation.^[58]

Of major Canadian cities, St. John's is the foggiest (124 days)^[59] and windiest (24.3 km/h (15.1 mph) average speed).^[60] Precipitation is frequent and often heavy, falling year-round. On average, summer is the driest season, with only occasional thunderstorm activity, and the wettest months are from October to January, with December the wettest single month, with nearly 165 mm (6.50 in) of precipitation on average. This winter precipitation maximum is unusual for humid continental climates, which typically have a late spring or early summer precipitation maximum (for example, most of the Midwestern United States). Most heavy precipitation events in St. John's are the product of intense mid-latitude storms from the Northeastern United States and New England states, and these are most common and intense from October to March, bringing heavy precipitation (commonly 40 to 80 mm (1.6 to 3.1 in) of rainfall equivalent in a single storm), and strong winds.^{[citation needed]}

In winter, two or more types of precipitation (rain, freezing rain, sleet and snow) can fall from passage of a single storm. Snowfall is heavy, averaging approximately 335 cm (132 in) per winter season. However, winter storms can bring changing precipitation types. Heavy snow can turn into heavy rain, melting the snow cover, and possibly back to snow or ice (perhaps briefly) all in the same storm, resulting in little or no net snow accumulation. Snow cover in St. John's is variable, and especially early in the winter season, may be slow to develop, but can extend well into the spring months (March, April). The St. John's area is subject to freezing rain events (called "silver thaws"), the worst of which paralysed the city in April 1984 and April 2017.^{[citation needed]}

On 17 January 2020, St. John's declared a state of emergency due to a snowstorm that brought an estimated 76 cm (30 in)—a one-day snowfall record for St. John's—and hurricane force winds up to 130 km/h (81 mph).^{[61][62][63][64]} The following day, the Canadian Army was called in to aid snow removal.^[65] The state of emergency ended eight days later.^[66]

The highest temperature ever recorded in St. John's was 33.9 °C (93.0 °F) on 14 August 1876.^[67] The coldest temperature ever recorded was −29.4 °C (−20.9 °F) on 16 February 1875.^[68]