This fall the Fredericton Public Library will host a great line-up of speakers who will either be launching new books with us, or talking about things historic and interesting to the Fredericton community.  We hope you’ll come out to hear what they have to say.

Wednesday evening, October 5, at 7 pm, Ted and Anita Jones will give a free public talk on Fredericton’s historic York Street, as part of the formal launch of the York Street Train Exhibit now hanging in the library’s Staircase Gallery.

York Street is one of the original streets of Fredericton’s town plat, running from the St. John River southward to what was then considered the back of town.  A ferry crossed from St. Mary’s Village on the north side to Phoenix Square at the foot of York Street on the south side.  As a result, a farmers’ market at City Hall became the centre of the commercial area, and numerous shops, hotels, livery stables, factories and other businesses were built along lower York Street.  As York Street expanded, churches schools, private homes, and more industry developed.  In 1869 a wooden railway station was added and, in 1923, a brick station replaced it.  Following years of deterioration, that same brick station has been restored recently to become once again a significant landmark of historical  York Street.

Together Ted and Anita are the authors of Fredericton and its People, 1825 to 1945, and Historic Fredericton North:  Nashwaaksis, Devon, Barker’s Point, Marysville, 1825 to 1950.

Wednesday, October 26, Pulitzer Prize-winning Maine author Barbara Walsh will read from her book August Gale, a tale of a deadly Newfoundland hurricane.  She’ll be back on November 3 to read at 10:30 am from her children’s book Sammy in the Sky.  And on Wednesday evening November 2 we welcome Trudy Kelly Forsythe for the Fredericton launch of Prose to Go: Tales from a Private List, a peek into the private lives of 18 professional writers from the NWT to PEI.

See you at the library!

12 Carleton Street
Fredericton, N.B., E3B 5P4

Located in Fredericton’s historic Military Compound, the library is at the foot of Carleton Street across from the Carleton Street Armouries. The library boasts a wonderful view of the Saint John River.