BABCOCK, John C. (1836-1908), an architect of New York City, was active in Saint John, New Brunswick after the devastating fire there in June 1877. He designed several commercial blocks in the city, and collaborated with the New York architectural firm of Potter & Robertson in their unsuccessful attempt to obtain the commission for Trinity Church in Saint John (Daily Telegraph [Saint John] 25 April 1878, 2, t.c.). Babcock was born in Warwick, Rhode Island on 6 September 1836 and may have been trained in New York City. He served with the Union Army during the American Civil War, and later opened his own office as an architect in New York in 1868 (D.S. Francis, Architects in Practice - New York City 1840-1900,1979, 13). He continued to practise until after 1900, and later died in Mount Vernon, N.Y. on 19 November 1908 (obit. New York Times, 21 Nov. 1908, 9; obit. New York Tribune, 21 Nov. 1908, 7).
(works in Saint John, N.B.)
PRINCE WILLIAM STREET, commercial block for the Walker Estate, 1877 (Globe [Saint John] 25 Oct. 1877, 3; Daily News [Saint John] 7 Dec. 1877, 3)
PRINCE WILLIAM STREET, commercial block for H. & H.A. McCullough, 1877 (Morning Freeman [Saint John], 11 Sept. 1877, 3, descrip.; DaIly News [Saint John] 30 Nov. 1877, 3)
CENTRAL MADRAS SCHOOL, Duke Street, 1877 (Daily News [Saint John], 14 Dec. 1877, 3; American Architect & Building News, iii, 26 Jan. 1878, 33)
LOGAN & LINDSAY BLOCK, King Street, 1878 (Daily News [Saint John] 25 Feb. 1878, 3, descrip.)
QUEEN SQUARE, residence for George Cushing, 1892 (dwgs. at New Brunswick Museum, Saint John, Map Bin E, Item 34; G. Hughes, Music of the Eye, 1991, 104-05, illus.).