Description of Historic Place

This two-and-one-half storey Queen Anne style home has a symmetrical facade with central entrance flanked by a pair of stacked bay windows each topped by triangular pediments. A gable roofed dormer faces the street and a verandah is located on the north side of the house.

Heritage Value

The house is valued for its Queen Anne architectural style and for its historical association with Stephen S. Hessian and other owners.

The home was constructed around 1904 for Miss Margaret Young by her father. The builder was Jack MacKenzie. The Queen Anne influenced style of the house is shown in its stacked bay windows with triangular pediments above, as well as the decorative fish scale or scalloped shingle patterns and beltcourse. Percy Robertson later owned the property. He sold it in 1943 to local politician, Stephen S. Hessian.

Stephen Hessian (1890-1962) was a lawyer and graduate of St. Dunstan's University in Charlottetown. In 1928, he married Blanche Wickham of Montague. He was elected as a Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly for 5th Kings in 1919, 1935, 1955, and 1959. He also served as Speaker of the Assembly from 1935 to 1939. While representing the province in November 1962 at the annual meeting of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, he died suddenly in Lagos, Nigeria. His largely attended funeral was held in Georgetown's St. James Roman Catholic Church.

Later owners of the house included Harry and Rose Galloway and E. Lillian MacLean. MacLean operated a nursing home from the premises in the 1990s. It was also later the location of alternative education classes, teaching life skills and academic upgrading to youth. It is now once again a single family home.

Source: Culture and Heritage Division, PEI Department of Communities, Cultural Affairs and Labour, Charlottetown, PE C1A 7N8
File #: 4310-20/TR7

Character-Defining Elements

The heritage value of the house is shown in the following character-defining elements:

- the two-and-one-half storey wood frame construction
- the clapboard and scalloped shingle cladding
- the original fenestration
- the gable roof with paired brick chimneys
- the gable roofed dormer
- the hood moulding above many windows
- the stacked bay windows with triangular pediments above
- the beltcourse
- the verandah with turned posts and brackets