Day Eighty Seven
For our last day in St. John’s we returned to Water Street down at St. John’s harbour to explore a little further. I seen it stated that Water Street is the oldest Street in North America. I had to look into this; Digging a little deeper I found there is a fair amount of controversy over this statement. The street was certainly called Water Street back in the late 1500’s but it was no larger than a walking path when St. John’s was used as a seasonal fishing ground by the British. The reason for the delay in settling St. John’s was due to the English fish merchants, who feared a permanent settlement would encourage a local fishery and cut into the big profits they were making from their annual expeditions to the area.
The fish merchants ruled the little colony like a ship. No women were allowed; houses with chimneys were forbidden. In 1674 some houses were actually burned to discourage settlers. It wasn’t until just before the seven year war that St. John’s really became a settlement. During the time St. John’s was being delayed as a settlement, St. Augustine in Florida was fully settled in 1565 by the Spanish.
As for our day, we mostly walked the streets, enjoyed the fantastic weather and had our last lunch on Water Street.
