Law Building
Building Name: Law Building
Other Names: Law Building, Law School, formerly Ludlow Hall
Civic Address: 41 Dineen Drive
Sod Turning: 3 June 1967, officiated by Chief Justices Hon. G. F. G. Bridges and Hon. Adrien J. Cormier
Cornerstone Laying: [1967?]
Opened for Use: 8 October 1968
Official Opening: 8 October 1968 by Lady Violet Aitken
Architect: Larson and Larson
Named for: Hon. George Duncan Ludlow, New Brunswick’s first Chief Justice (1784-1808). The building was enabled by a gift from the Beaverbrook Foundation, completing an initiative of Dr. Colin B. Mackay to establish a modern law school in the provincial capital. Ludlow's name was removed from the building in 2020 due to his involvement in residential schools and his legal endorsement of slavery.
Renovations/changes/additions: Gerard V. La Forest Law Library addition (official opening: 12 October 1984); renovation of a lecture theatre, Room 2, into the Mary Louise Lynch Room in memory of Mary Louise Lynch, graduate of UNB Law and UNB's first governor emeritus (official opening: 17 October 2008).
Notes: The Faculty of Law was originally established in Saint John in 1892, and was associated with King's College in Windsor, Nova Scotia, thus being known as the King's College Law School. The School became a faculty of UNB in 1923 when King's College amalgamated with Dalhousie University and relocated to Halifax, leaving the Faculty of Law to occupy the top floor of the old Provincial Building on Canterbury St. in Saint John. In 1953 Lord Beaverbrook donated Beaverbrook House as a new home for the faculty, and included a new library as well. This building was used by the Faculty of Law until 1959, when it moved to Somerville House in Fredericton. Growing numbers required a larger space, and in 1967 Sir Max Aitken donated $1 million on behalf of the Beaverbrook Canadian Foundation for a new law school on the UNB Fredericton campus. Work began immediately on the new building, located between the St. Thomas campus and the O'Brien Gates. Construction was halted a few months later due to the bankruptcy of Anglin-Norcross Corp. Ltd., whose Maritime subsidiary held the contract for the law school at Fredericton, as well as the library and administration building at UNB Saint John. Work resumed in October,and Ludlow Hall was completed Fall 1968.
Named Spaces: Gerard V. LaForest Law Library, the Honourable Gerard Vincent La Forest was born in Grand Falls, New Brunswick became a distinguished jurist, legal academic, and public servant. He was on the UNB Faculty of Law from 1956-1963 and was appointed to the Court of Appeals of New Brunswick and the Supreme Court of Canada.
G.A. McAllister Room (128), This boardroom is named to honour George A. McAllister of New Brunswick and an outstanding member of the legal profession. He joined the UNB Faculty of Law in 1950 and served as dean 1972-1974. The room was furnished with funds from a bequest to the law faculty from Frank Cliff of Saint John and donations from the Barristers' Society of New Brunswick and the New Brunswick branch of the Canadian Bar Association.
Colin B. Mackay Reading Room (older wing of law library), Colin Bridges Mackay served as president of UNB from 1953-1969. He played a central role in the decision to locate the law school in the Law Building. He left a bequest to the Gerard V. LaForest Law Library which was used to purchase law books, journals, and other educational materials for the law library.
Mary Louise Lynch Room, Mary Louise Lynch was a lawyer and an advisor to Lord Beaverbrook, practising law in Saint John and serving as a secretary and registrar of the UNB Faculty of Law from 1947-1959. In 1963 Lynch was appointed as the first female member of the National Parole Board in Ottawa.
Source(s):
- UA Case 123; Section 3, Box 1; Ludlow Hall.
- "UNB strips Ludlow's name from law faculty building over links to slavery," Bobbi-Jean MacKinnon, CBC, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/unb-george-ludlow-hall-name-fredericton-law-1.5584764
© UNB Archives & Special Collections, 2014