Provincial+Secretary's+Office

=Building to East of Legislature - the former Provincial Secretary's Office (year built 1816)=

The walls are made of local carboniferous gritstones, sandstones and conglomerate with monor black coal fragments. The windows are framed by a red sand-gritstone.

The building was originally one storey and housed the offices of the provincial secretary and the Clerk of Pleas in the Supremem Court. The second storey and attic were added in 1869. This is the oldest remaining building that was built entirely with stone in Fredericton.

EXERCISE: Look for black bits in the rock. These are pieces of organic material (plants) that were deposited in river sand about 300 million years ago. Time and pressure has turned them to carbon. The mineral fools gold (pyrite) often grows near carbonised fossils, The fools gold looks pretty when fresh as gold coloured crystals, but over time when exposed to the rain and atmosphere, weathers to a nasty brown stain. Can you see any nasty brown stains on the building that might have once been pyrite?