Spray & Rhinelander, History of St. Thomas University: The Formative Years 1860-1990 -- page 515
CHAPTER 10 THE EARLY YEARS IN FREDERICTON: ST. THOMAS 1964-1974
Moving In Preparations for the removal of St. Thomas’s staff and their belongings began in the summer months of 1964. On September 2 the new St. Thomas officially opened for registration. Fears that enrolment would fall because of the move were laid to rest. Registrar Martin reported that enrolment actually rose to 294, compared to 275 the previous year in Chatham. Classes began on September 12. It was chaos, given the unfinished buildings, the considerable mess, and the general state of confusion. Indeed, not all classes began on schedule, and they often had to be cancelled on account of the din of construction. The Administration Building, with its offices and classrooms, was open, if not entirely finished. Its kitchen and dining hall opened for business only in October. The chapel above the dining hall was still under construction. The new building to the west of the main building, the men’s residence, was not entirely finished on the inside but most of the 198 student rooms and six suites for priests were available for occupancy. Construction had begun on the Holy Cross House of Studies, and even a few residence rooms were open for the Holy Cross contingent, although conditions were primitive. Owing to a delay in funding, construction had still not begun on the fourth Larson-designed building, the women’s residence, to be situated on the east side of the Administration Building, opposite the men’s residence. Until it was completed, St. Thomas’s female students were housed in quarters rented from UNB at Maggie Jean Chestnut House, a fine old Queen Anne Revival house, ca. 1895, situated down the hill on Charlotte Street in the east town plat. (The building had been purchased in 1949 and donated