Editing Mount Allison University (section)

== Architecture ==

Mount Allison’s campus is distinguished by its architecture, characterized by the distinctive red and olive sandstone that clads most of the buildings. The more prominent red sandstone was largely quarried in Sackville at the Pickard quarry, which was owned by the university from 1930 until it was sold to the Town of Sackville in 2022.

In most cases, the present campus is much newer than the age of the institution, which was founded in the mid-19th century. At that time, the original Mount Allison buildings were wooden clapboarded structures all painted white. Succumbing to fires or demolition, these earlier buildings have been replaced with brick or stone structures, although a unique and significant instance of early Mount Allison wooden architecture survives at the centre of campus: the President's Cottage of 1857.
[[File:Crawford-Cntr-for-the-Arts-inside.jpg|thumb|Purdy Crawford Centre for the Arts atrium]]
Noted architectural historian, John Leroux, who is working with visual artist Thaddeus Holownia on a book about the university's architecture, calls the campus "one of the finest in Canada" <ref name="mta.ca">The Record. {{cite web |url=http://www.mta.ca/therecord/fall15/index.html |title=The Record Online &#124; Fall 2015 |access-date=2015-12-14 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222161707/http://www.mta.ca/therecord/fall15/index.html |archive-date=2015-12-22 }}</ref> and says some of the most beautiful buildings built in New Brunswick in the last 100 years are located at Mount Allison.

In particular, Leroux names the Mount Allison chapel as one of the most significant buildings in the province, saying, "It is exquisite. It is nearly a perfect building."<ref name="mta.ca"/> The chapel is a masterwork of the Ontario-based architecture firm of Brown, Brisley and Brown, who designed numerous new buildings and transformed the site configuration of Mount Allison in the mid- to late-1960s and early 1970s into the landscape it is today. Paramount of their scheme was the creation of the central courtyard with the chapel as a focus at one end, and the Library's gateway colonnade overlooking the town and Convocation Hall at the other. Among the other Brown, Brisley and Brown buildings completed at Mount Allison between 1964 and 1980 are: the Gairdner Fine Arts Building, the Marjorie Young Bell Conservatory of Music, the Barclay Chemistry Building, Edwards House, Thornton House, the Ralph Pickard Bell Library, and the Harold Crabtree Building.

[[File:Owens Art Gallery, Mount A.jpg|thumb|right|Owens Art Gallery]] Other significant buildings are the Owens Art Gallery, the oldest university art gallery in Canada, which opened in 1895, and Hammond House, the only registered National Historic Site in the Town of Sackville. Both were designed by noted Toronto architect Edmund Burke. The Queen Anne Revival-style Hammond House was originally built for Canadian artist and head of the Fine Arts department John Hammond in 1896. It now serves as the President's residence.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mta.ca/Community/News/2013/August/National_Historic_Site_reopens_at_Mount_Allison/|title=Mount Allison University - National Historic Site reopens at Mount Allison|website=www.mta.ca}}</ref>

Several campus buildings were designed by architect Andrew R. Cobb,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dictionaryofarchitectsincanada.org/node/1618|title=Cobb, Andrew Randall - Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada|website=www.dictionaryofarchitectsincanada.org}}</ref> including the Memorial Library (1926–27; demol. 2011), Flemington Building (1930–31), and Centennial Hall (1883–84, but redesigned by Cobb in 1933 after the original was gutted by fire).

The Memorial Library (renamed University Centre in 1970) was constructed in the Tudor-inspired Gothic Revival style. The library also included a set of plaques, now located on the ground floor atrium of the Wallace McCain Student Centre, which are listed in the Canadian Forces' National Inventory of Canadian Military Memorials – No. 13002-004.<ref>{{National Inventory of Canadian Military Memorials|id=8237|title=Mount Allison University: Memorial 13002-004 Sackville, NB|access-date=30 December 2016}}</ref> The plaques list the names of Allisonians who died at war. Every year since 1927, the names of each of the fallen are read aloud during the university's annual Remembrance Day service.

The Wallace McCain Student Centre, originally constructed as a men's residence (Trueman House) in 1945 and designed by Halifax architect C.A. Fowler, was gutted and repurposed in 2008, keeping the exterior form and stone walls intact.

The newest building on campus is the Purdy Crawford Centre for the Arts, which opened in 2014. Housing the Pierre Lassonde School of Fine Arts and the department of drama, the building features art studios, a large atrium, and the 100-seat Motyer-Fancy Theatre. Designed by the internationally honoured Canadian architecture firm Zeidler Partnership, it was featured in Canadian Architect magazine in March 2015.<ref>{{cite web |work=Canadian Architect |url=https://www.canadianarchitect.com/features/making-a-scene/ |title=Making a Scene|date=March 1, 2005|access-date=April 6, 2019}}</ref>