Florenceville-Bristol Community Hall

The Florenceville-Bristol Community Hall is located on a large, flat lot on Main Street in Florenceville-Bristol. The smooth façades, rectangular shapes, and straight lines of the building are suggestive of Art Deco influence in its design.

The heritage value of the Florenceville-Bristol Community Hall resides in its architecture, which is an example of early Art Deco style. Built in 1921 as a school for grades 1-11, the pronounced Art Deco characteristics of the building are remarkable considering that the genre, which reflected the aspiration for stability and recovery during the inter-war period, did not gain momentum until the late 1920’s. The design employs several key elements of Art Deco style, including straight lines, rectangular shapes, and symmetry.

The heritage value of the building also resides in its long use as a civic building. It served as a school from 1921 until 1977, and as the Florenceville Town Hall until 2008. It is presently in use as a community hall.

Source: Florenceville-Bristol Town Office, Historic Places File, “Florenceville-Bristol Community Hall”

The character-defining elements reflecting the building’s Art Deco style include:

- simple form, scale and massing as expressed by its rectangular plan, cubic form and flat roof;

- smooth walls with recessed and expressed rectangles;

- geometric ornamentation;

- symmetry in placement of doors and windows;

- contrasting colour of banding below the roofline and under the windows.

The character-defining elements reflecting the building and lot’s continued use as a civic building include:

- location on Main Street, a central location ideal for a village school, town hall or community hall;

- large flat lot reflecting former use as a playground.