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Authority record
Corporate body · 1827-

The Women's World Day of Prayer was an interdenominational service organized in the United States in 1827 as "a day of prayer for home missions". By 1922, Canadian women's groups began participation. The event was renamed "The World Day of Prayer" in 1927, and the first Friday in March was selected for the event. The St. John's committee included women from several denominations: Presbyterian, Lutheran, United, Anglican, Baptist, Salvation Army, Church of Nazarene, and Roman Catholic.

Corporate body · 1987

The St. John's Regatta Committee Hall of Fame was established in 1987. The constitution of the organization states that the objects of the Committee are:
(1) To recognize, honour and pay tribute to individuals or crews on the basis of ability, sportsmanship, talent and achievement of extraordinary distinction in rowing, whether amateur or professional;
(2) To recognize, honour and pay tribute to those individuals, groups or associations who have given distinguished service and who have made a major contribution to the development and advancement of rowing in Newfoundland;
(3) To encourage the development of all aspects of rowing by permanently recording the achievements and history of such individuals, groups, associations or crews.
(Constitution, 1987)

The Hall of Fame is held in trust by a Board of Governors appointed by the St. John's Regatta Committee.
The Board of Governors, in its turn, appoints a six-member Selection Committee. There are three categories of membership: rowers/crews, coxswains/coaches and builders. Any Newfoundlander enrolled in the Newfoundland and Labrador Sports Hall of Fame or the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame whose major achievement was in rowing is also included in the St. John's Regatta Committee Hall of Fame. No one is eligible for inclusion in the Hall of Fame until three years have elapsed since they have actively participated in rowing.

Corporate body · 1925-1992

Responsibility for the area covered by the St. John's District of the Methodist Church of Canada was transferred to the St. John's Presbytery of the United Church of Canada in 1925. The Presbytery included the area covered by Burin Presbytery from 1928 - 1929. It also included Labrador.

In 1962 the Presbyteries of St. John's and Carbonear were amalgamated to form Avalon Presbytery, and responsibility for Labrador was transferred to Grand Falls Presbytery. In 1985 St. John's Presbytery was re-established. It was included in the East District at the time of re-organization in 1992.

Corporate body · 1965-

The St. John's Ladies' Basketball Association was formed in 1965 to accommodate women outside the secondary and post-secondary school systems who wished to play basketball on an organized basis. Beginning with 3 teams, the organization had grown to 10 teams by 1973 and included 16 teams in two divisions by 2000. Individual teams usually sought corporate sponsors; in the early years these included radio stations VOCM, CJON, and Newfoundland Power. Some teams, however, were sponsored by church and community organizations such as the General Hospital and by Memorial University. Games were played at the Torbay gym.

St. John's Football League
Corporate body · 1896-

Organized football, also called soccer, began in Newfoundland in the mid-nineteenth century, but it was not until 1896 that a permanent League was formed for the promotion of what one enthusiast repeatedly referred to as "our national game". The Newfoundland Football League was established on 15 March 1896 with a roster of seven St. John's teams including the Star of the Sea, the CLB, the CEI, the Methodist Institute, the Saints, the Rovers and the KAC. Games were originally played on the Llewellyn Grounds: after 1899 the League shifted its operations to St. George's Field. The League operated continuously until 1940, when activities were suspended for the duration of the war. In 1945 the League was reactivated, playing on the Ayre Athletic Grounds. A junior league of the Newfoundland Football League was formed in 1923. It was active from 1923-1928, again from 1932-1940 and, like its parent League, was reactivated in 1945.

In 1949, recognizing that their activities were confined to St. John's and that active football clubs were developing elsewhere in the province, the League adopted a new constitution, changing its name at that time to the St. John's Football League. At that time the League affiliated itself with the newly-formed Newfoundland Amateur Football Association (later the Newfoundland Minor Soccer Association). Further revision of the constitution in 1960 gave authority over League activities to the League executive, eliminating the need for extensive consultations on policy, scheduling and planning with representatives of every member team.

By 1977 the League was referred to as the St. John's Amateur Soccer League and appears to have had junior and senior divisions. In 2000 the Newfoundland Soccer Association lists the St. John's Minor Soccer Association as a member organization.

Corporate body · 1910-

The St. John's Curling Association, commonly known as the St. John's Curling Club, was established on 8 July 1910 when two men's clubs, the Terra Nova Curling Club (fl. 1863-) and the Micmac Curling Club (established 188-), voted to amalgamate at a joint meeting. The consitution and the by-laws of the Association were adopted at that same meeting. The Association was incorporated under The Companies Act.

The mandate of the St. John's Curling Association was to foster and promote curling in the city. Throughout its history, it has also raised monies for the war effort and various city charities. Although the St. John's Curling Association maintained close relationships with the Ladies' Curling Club (organized 1906) and cooperated in hosting many curling events, the latter was not totally integrated until 1959. The first woman president, Jane M. Martin, was elected in 1982.

From 1912-1941 the Association leased their facilities from the Newfoundland Curling Rink Ltd. The curling rink was located on Forest Road, next to the Prince's Skating Rink. The Association purchased the curling rink in the fall of 1941, but on 28 Nov., before the curling season commenced, the rink was destroyed by fire. On 25 Jan.1943, the Association officially opened their new rink on Factory Lane. To help finance the new facility, public skating and dancing were offered at the rink. This continued until 1955, a year after the St. John's Memorial Stadium was opened. In 1976 the old rink was sold and the Association constructed a new facility on Bonaventure Avenue, which was officially opened on 22 Oct. 1976.

Albert H. Salter (1877-1940), the first secretary-treasurer, commenced the systematic recording of the Association's activities. These records were stored at the club building until 1941, when Peter Ledingham, the honourary secretary, rescued them from the fire. At the request of the Association, a pictorial history, Through curling years, the 75th, was written by Clifford K. Andrews in 1986.

The Association currently is governed by a five-person executive elected at the annual general meeting. The Committee of Management, consisting of the executive, past-president, and six elected members, is responsible for club activities and curling arrangements and regulations. They also appoint appropriate sub-committees. The Committee is assisted by an elected advisory board.

Corporate body · 1913-

The St. John's Baseball League (SJBL) was established in 1913. Its founding members included Robert Gillespie Reid Jr., Reid Newfoundland Company, and J.O. Hawvermale, the American-born manager of the Imperial Tobacco Company, St. John's. The League began with four teams: the Benevolent Irish Society (BIS), the Cubs, the Wanderers, and the Red Lions. A fifth team, the Church of England Institute (CEI) joined the League in 1920.

Most of the League's games were played on St. George's Field, which was also used by the Newfoundland Football League. Relations between the two organizations appear to have been amicable, with the better-established Football League generously accommodating the SJBL's precarious financial position. Regular season play culminated in the awarding of the Allan Cup, donated by G.G. Allan, New York. Teams also competed in a number of other series, including the "Garden Party" series under the auspices of Mount Cashel (H.D. Reid Cup), Kilbride (the Father Rawlins Trophy), and the Church of England (the Sir Edgar Bowring Trophy). The League fielded a City Team drawn from all member teams which played exhibition games on Wednesday afternoons. Beginning in 1915 the City Team also participated in inter-city series with teams from Bell Island, Grand Falls, Corner Brook, and Sydney, Nova Scotia.

Evidence in the fonds indicates that the SJBL became inactive after the 1922 season, possibly because of financial problems. The League was revived in 1927 as the St. John's Amateur Baseball League with many of the same active members; documentation in the fonds alternates between the new name and the older one. The revived League included the Cubs and teams from the BIS, Holy Cross, the Methodist Guards, and the TAAA. The teams of this period played for a trophy donated by the Crown Life Assurance Company, St. John's.

By 1934 the SJBL was again encountering financial problems as well as difficulty in finding a permanent venue for games. Minutes from this period indicate that there was discussion of terminating the League.

Organized baseball reappeared in Newfoundland in 1947. At that time the St. John's Amateur Baseball League appears to have been reactivated. The League was responsible for the establishment of St. Pat's Field as a baseball park, which later became the first lighted field in the province (1955). By 1978 the organization was also referred to as the St. John's Amateur Baseball Association and a Hall of Fame was established under that name to commemorate significant contributions to the history of baseball in Newfoundland.

St. John's Athenaeum
Corporate body · 1861-1898

The St. John's Athenaeum (1861-1898), a non-denominational library and cultural centre, was established in 1861, three of St. John's literary organizations amalgamated to form the Athenaeum Library: the St. John's Library Society (established 1820), the Young Men's Literary and Scientific Institute (established before 1848) and the Mechanic's Institute (established before 1849). The new library opened on Water Street in March 1861, with a collection of 2500 volumes, 60 newspapers and a reading room open to both men and women. The library was also a cultural center, holding weekly lectures.

In 1875, the library relocated to a new building on Duckworth Street. The building held the library collection, a reading room, and an auditorium that seated one thousand. The ceiling was painted by Alexander Pindikowsky, the Polish artist who also painted the ceiling of the Colonial Building. The Athenaeum was lost in the great fire of 1892. An effort was quickly made to re-establish the collection and a new library was opened that winter with 1000 books. However, the smaller library lacked public support, and closed permanently in 1898. St. John's was without a public library until the Gosling Memorial Library opened in 1936.

St. John's Art Club
Corporate body · 1940-1976

St. John's Art Club was founded in 1940, under the name Art Students Club, by Mrs. A.C. (Muriel) Hunter. Its mandate was to promote local artists and their art. Activities included exhibitions of local and imported art, sketching and art discussion groups, sponsorship of local art students, the maintenance of a member-borrowing library of art books, and illustrated lectures. One exhibition featured 73 painting by U.S. servicemen stationed in Newfoundland.

The Club's name was changed in 1945 to St. John's Art Club. In 1950, the group presented recommendations to a Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters and Sciences (Massey Commission). The last general meeting was held in 1973; in 1976, the Executive voted to close the Club bank account and donate the balance to the A.C. Hunter scholarship.

Corporate body · 1934-

St. John Bosco initially was established as a mission of St. Patrick's Parish (St. John's) in 1934, when a school-chapel was constructed to attend to the needs of the Catholic population of Blackhead Road, an area situated on a plateau to the southwest of St. John's Harbour (more popularly known as "The Brow"). Mass was first celebrated in the new school-chapel 25 June 1934. This structure served the mission until 1960, when a new building containing more classroom space and a larger chapel was constructed. Patrick J. Skinner, Archbishop of St. John's, blessed the new school-chapel complex and held the first mass there 24 September 1961. Members of the Presentation of the Most Blessed Virgin Congregation (Presentation Sisters) residing in St. Patrick's Convent administered the new school.

Archbishop Skinner raised St. John Bosco to the status of a parish 4 April 1964. Shortly thereafter, responsibility for St. Joseph's Mission in Blackhead (as distinct from Blackhead Road) was transferred to St. John Bosco Parish from St. Joseph's Parish (Petty Harbour).

In 1972, Blackhead Road was renamed Shea Heights in honour of Rev. Leo G. Shea, first parish priest of St. John Bosco, for his efforts in initiating improvements in the area. In 1986, Shea Heights officially became part of the city of St. John's.

Pastors who have served the St. John Bosco Parish since its establishment in 1964 include: Leo G. Shea (1964-1970); Francis Slattery (1970-1974); John Maddigan (1974-1976); John O'Deady (1976-1979); Joseph D. Barton (1979-1982); David Butler (1982-1986?); and John Corrigan (1986-1988?). The parish has been served by clergy from St. Patrick's Parish (St. John's) since 1988.

St. John Bosco's parochial affairs are administered by a Parish Pastoral Council and several committees, including Finance, Liturgy, Community Life and Social Action, and Youth committees. In addition, the Catholic Women's League is active within the parish.