440 Needham St – Kilmorey House

ADDRESS:  440 Needham St Fredericton, N.B., E3B 1P1  LOCATION: Downtown and only six short blocks from the Saint John River and its network of walking and biking trails. Supermarkets, shopping, churches and restaurants, plus business and government services are nearby within walking distance, as well as municipal bus service. Three buildings make up Kilmorey Courtyard with lots of shared parking.  BUILDING TYPE: Contemporary Walk-Up. 29 units. FEATURES:  This building has moderately priced one and two bedroom units. There is a coin operated laundry, security lock entrance system, storage lockers and lots of exterior parking.  NAME ORIGIN: Kilmorey Courtyard is named for the ancestral estate of Mark Needham who resided in the area as a noncommissioned officer in the Kings New Brunswick Regiment about 1810. Needham was the grandson of the Irish peer, the Earl of Kilmorey of Mourne Park, Newry, Co. Ulster Ireland. In 1829 , there was a movement to close King’s College ,burn it, or turn it into an agricultural school. The problem issues were religion, curriculum and the cost of higher education. William Needham championed the cause to save the college and in 1859 it became the secular, provincial University of New Brunswick. HISTORY: This four level walk-up building was developed by Don Wilson to supply a demand for moderately price downtown accommodation in the early 1970’s, and acquired by Fredericton Rentals in 1979 . This property appears as undeveloped land on the south side of Needham St. on the A.M. Hubly  aerial map of 1882 .