WELCH, John W. (1824-1894) of Brooklyn, N.Y. came to Saint John, N.B. in the wake of the Great Fire of June 1877 and obtained three major commissions for Methodist churches in that city. He won the competition for the Germain Street Methodist Chapel in early 1878 (American Architect & Building News [New York], iii, 16 March 1878, 94), and presented two similar 'pure Gothic' designs for the Portland and the Centenary Methodist churches in 1878 and 1879.
Born in Scotland, he was trained in his profession there and in England. His first major commission in the United States was for a church in Newark, N.J. completed in 1859. He specialised in ecclesiastical design, and was best known for planning Dr. Talmadge's Tabernacle in Brooklyn (1872). He was an accomplished delineator capable of mature and refined Gothic revival works. Drawings for two of his works in Saint John have survived and can be found at the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick at Fredericton (PANB, Mott Coll. Acc. 164). Welch died in Brooklyn in November 1894 (obit. American Architect & Building News [New York], xlvi, 1 Dec. 1894, 86; biog. H. Withey, Biographical Dictionary of American Architects, 1956, 642).
PORTLAND METHODIST CHURCH, Portland Street at Chapel Street, 1878-80 (Daily Telegraph [Saint John], 20 June 1878, 4, descrip.; Daily Sun [Saint John], 11 Dec. 1878, 3, descrip.; and 8 Oct. 1881, 5, descrip.; dwgs. at PANB, Mott Coll., item 403)
QUEEN SQUARE METHODIST CHURCH, Queen Square at Charlotte Street, 1878-79 (Daily Sun [Saint John], 9 Aug. 1878, 2, descrip.; and 4 Oct. 1879, 3, descrip.)
CENTENARY METHODIST CHURCH, Princess Street at Wentworth Street, school building, 1878; church begun 1878 and completed by J.C. Dumaresq in 1882; church demolished in December 2019 (Daily Sun [Saint John], 13 Nov. 1878, 3, descrip.; and 5 June 1882, 3, descrip.; and 25 Aug. 1882, 3, illus. & descrip.; dwgs. at PANB, Mott Coll., item 352)