Orange Hall Museum

The Orange Hall Museum is a small, plain structure with a fairly steeply-pitched gable roof. It was the first Gagetown Grammar School and is quite typical in design of many school buildings from the 19th century. It is located on Court House Road in Gagetown.

The Orange Hall Museum is designated a Local Historic Place for its association with the educational history of the area, for its association with the Orange Lodge and for its architecture.

The first Gagetown Grammar School began here in 1827 when one of its pupils was nine year old Samuel Leonard Tilley, Gagetown’s famous Father of Confederation. Prior to this, Tilley had attended the local Madras School, a system sponsored by the Anglican Church. It began in India and was based on the sound pedagogical principle of the more advanced students helping the younger ones.

The Orange Hall Museum apparently was apparently used as the County Grammar School from 1827 until 1870, when it was replaced by the new, more commodious Gagetown Grammar School #2, which ultimately became the Soldiers' Memorial Hall. Subsequently, this building was the Orange Hall for several decades, used and maintained by the Loyal Orange Order, a fraternal organization that was quite prominent in rural New Brunswick in the 19th and early 20th century. When the Lodge became less active in the 1980’s, their hall became a museum and storage facility for local Orange Lodge regalia which is open to the public in the summer months. The building was initially located on church property, across the road and slightly further from the river than where it is now. It was moved to its present site by the Orange Lodge in the 1930’s.

The Orange Hall Museum is a good example of small vernacular educational architecture from rural communities from the mid-to-late 19th century in New Brunswick. The exterior of the building is covered with white siding and the windows have been covered to retain heat and for privacy, although their placement is original. It sits gable end to the road within a rural setting. There is a door to the right side of the front façade and a chimney from when it was heated by a wood stove. It has an attic with a window. The interior is a single, large high-ceilinged room full of colourful displays of memorabilia from the Orange Order of New Brunswick, which traces the history of the Loyal Orange Lodge and the Ladies' Orange Benevolent Association.

Source: Queens County Heritage Archives – Gagetown Historic Places files

The character-defining elements of the Orange Hall Museum include:

Exterior:

- modest rectangular one-and-a-half storey massing;

- white siding

- window placement and proportions consistent with its original use as a school;

- front-facing gable roof with a fairly steep pitch;

- door with transom on right side of the front façade.

Interior:

- small entry vestibule.

Grounds:

- rural setting on a knoll surrounded by fields.