Lady Beaverbrook Residence

Building Name: Lady Beaverbrook Residence

Other Names: LBR, Lady Beaverbrook's Building

Civic Address: 9 Dineen Dr.

Sod Turning: [1928?]

Cornerstone Laying: 1928

Opened for Use: Fall 1930

Official Opening: 1930; September 1972 (rededication)

Architect: Alward & Gillies; Mott, Miles & Chatwin and Associated Designers and Inspectors (renovations).

Named for: Gladys Henderson Drury Aitken, Lady Beaverbrook, first wife of William Maxwell Aitken, Lord Beaverbrook, who died days after authorizing the construction of the LBR. This was the first facility that Lord Beaverbrook constructed at UNB. Planning was done by Lady Beaverbrook with completion of the project by Lord Beaverbrook.

Renovations/changes/additions: Renovations took place in the summer of 1939, including the hanging of a portrait of Lady Beaverbrook. In 1970 the Beaverbrook Canadian Foundation and UNB's Chancellor, Sir Max Aitken, agreed to finance extensive renovations to the electrical, heating, and plumbing systems. Other alterations included a new TV lounge, carpeting, acoustic tile ceilings and cutoff doors to combat noise, and structural alterations to bedrooms. Rooms were also renovated to accommodate two paraplegic students (wheelchair accessible facilities). In addition, furniture throughout the building was replaced.

Plaque Inscription: Lady Beaverbrook's Building This Residence was planned by Lady Beaverbrook and completed by Lord Beaverbrook, Honourary Chancellor of the University of New Brunswick, in her memory. The corner-stone was laid in 1928 and students were entered in 1930.

Notes: In 1935 a society of residence men called Sigma Lambda Beta Rho was founded to "perpetuate the spirit of good fellowship that is so much a part of residence life."

A luncheon for King George VI and Queen Elizabeth was held here in 1939, which was the first visit of a reigning monarch to Canada. During the Second World War, servicemen were housed in the LBR from 1941-1943 while they underwent training. An all-male residence until 1984, female guests were only allowed in residence bedrooms for 30 minutes during formal dances, and both feet of the occupants remained on the floor with the door open at all times. The chimes of the clock tower play the tune to ‘The Jones Boys’, a Miramichi folk song favoured by Lord Beaverbrook. One of the bells has an inscription to Lady Beaverbrook:

GLADYS BEAVERBROOK "I give thy gay voice to speak Now hers is still." February 15, 1930

Source(s):

• Leroux, John. Building A University: The Architecture of UNB. Fredericton: Goose Lane Editions, 2010, pp. 46-47.
• Plaque Inscription: University of New Brunswick Public Relations Department Photograph Collection; Series 2; Sub-series 3; File 721; Item 15
• Up the Hill, 1938, Organizations.
• UA Case 122; Section 3; Lady Beaverbrook Residence.