Gone But Not Forgotten: Palmer Hall

Palmer Hall, 151 Main Street, Sackville, N.B.

PALMER HALL
1934

Following the fire of 1933 which destroyed the third Mount Allison Academy building on this site, a new Academy was quickly built on the same site later in 1933 and officially opened on 19 January 1934. Featuring Sackville red sandstone with olive sandstone trim the Tudor Gothic design was the work of C.A. Fowler & Co. In 1959 it was converted into a women's residence and re-named "Palmer Hall" in honour of long-time Professor and Academy principal Dr. James M. Palmer.

The building was demolished in 2003 to make way for Campbell Hall which was located nearer to Main Street than Palmer Hall.

Prior to 2003, a sign outside Palmer Hall read:

PALMER HALL
Named in Honour of
James Marshall Palmer M.A., LL.D.,
Principal of Mount Allison Academy 1894-1930,
and Professor of Classics, 1904-1929

A memorial to the former Palmer Hall is situated off the Windsor Quad (151 Main Street)
on the lower level, between Windsor Hall and Jennings Hall.

The memorial consists of three arched doorways from Palmer Hall, an inscribed stone from above the main doorway, the foundation stone of Palmer Hall, and six carved figures.

MT. ALLISON ACADEMY
AND COMMERCIAL COLLEGE

SANITAS - RELIGIO - SCIENTIA

PLAY UP

MOUNT ALLISON ACADEMY
FOUNDED 1839
THIS STONE WAS LAID BY
MRS JOSIAH WOOD
NIECE OF THE FOUNDER
7 - 15 -33

Leroux, John & Thaddeus Holownia, A Vision in Wood and Stone: The Architecture of Mount Allison University (Kentville, N.S.: Gaspereau Press, 2016), pp.95-103.

On the phrase "Play Up" in the inscribed stone originally above the main doorway see Scobie, Charles H.H., "Play Up!", Mount Allison Record, Summer 2004, pp.14-15.

On Dr.J.M. Palmer see

Reid, John G., Mount Allison University: A History to 1963, Vol.I: 1843-1914 (Toronto: University of Toronto, 1984), p. 216.

Hamilton, Bill, "Remembering Dr. Palmer of Palmer Hall," Sackville Tribune-Post, 4 June 2003, p.A-8.

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