By mid-century the Loyalists, even the poorer ones among them, had established themselves in the community. Not all were rich, of course, but even the more humble had a decided advantage over many of the newer arrivals. One of the more fortunate families was the Merritt family which built Loyalist House between 1810 and 1817. When originally constructed, this home was in an open field, but today Saint John looms around it, all but obscuring the spacious charm of its original setting.
The building is now a museum, and the kitchen and parlour have been authentically furnished in the mode of the first quarter of the nineteenth century. The rooms shown here contain an array of manufactured items. Such was the development of the city by that time that many of the items were produced in Saint John.
