Batteries

In 1762 the French constructed Quidi Vidi Battery. When the French left, it became part of the system of batteries defending St John's. A reconstruction of this site opened in 1967 and it was designated the Province's first Historic Site in 1974. However, since 2011 it has been closed to the public, because of "a lack of available parking and accessibility issues" and, according to a local radio station,is in a "state of disrepair, empty and overgrown".^[2]

There was another battery, the Quidi Pass Battery, which was constructed by the British during the early years of the Napoleonic Wars, on a hill above both the village and the Lake.^[3] There is a sign marking this site.

Mallard Cottage

Mallard Cottage "built sometime between 1820 and 1840, ... was the home of the Mallard family who settled in Quidi Vidi at the beginning of the 19th century. With its low hipped-roof and two-room, central chimney plan, it is typical of houses built by the immigrants who came from southeast Ireland to Newfoundland in the first half of the 19th century". The cottage is recognized as a National Historic Site of Canada.^[4] The cottage was the home of the Mallards, a fishing family, until the 1980s. In 1985, the cottage became an antique shop.^[5]

In 2011, the cottage was purchased and restored along guidelines set out by the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador. In 2013, the work was recognized with a Southcott Award.^[6] The same year, the newly restored cottage was established as a restaurant.^[7]

Christ Church

It was in 1834 that "Anglicans, Methodists, and Congregationalists combined to build a church," though services had been conducted in the village for some years. However, co-operation between the churches failed and a new building was constructed by the Anglicans, to a "simple cruciform plan of Henry Purcell of Cork," which was consecrated by Bishop Spencer in 1842, "as a chapel of ease for St. Thomas’s Anglican Church in St. John’s". A bell tower was added in 1890. In 1966 the building was taken over by the Newfoundland Historic Trust.^[8] Subsequently the church building was a town hall, an antique store, the shop of a furniture restorer, and in "the early ’70s it also served as a rehearsal space for a group of St. John’s theatre enthusiasts headed by Chris Brookes—a group that eventually became The Mummers Troupe. Finally, it became a private residence, though still retaining some original features.^[1]

World War II

Quidi Vidi was also involved in the construction of the Pepperrell Air Force Base. Work began on October 15, 1940, near Quidi Vidi Lake. During April and May, 1941 the Newfoundland Base Contractors' personnel began arriving, and construction was taken over by them.