Description of Historic Place

The Peter Lent Hatfield House is located on a generous elevated lot, set back from the edge of Highway 3 in Tusket, NS. This one-and-a-half storey Gothic Revival wood-frame house and adjacent wood-frame barn were built circa 1862. The designation applies to the building and surrounding property.

Heritage Value

The Peter Lent Hatfield House is valued for its historical associations with the prominent New York Loyalist families of Lent and Hatfield and it is also valued as it is an interesting, little-altered example of a nineteenth-century Nova Scotian domestic building.

Peter Lent Hatfield, who built this house around 1862, was one of the most prominent citizens of Tusket in his day. As the son of James Hatfield and Elizabeth Lent, Peter Lent Hatfield was a descendant of two of the most prominent Loyalist families to settle in Argyle Township. He was a highly skilled surveyor, whose plans are found in great numbers in the Yarmouth Registries for deeds and probate, local cemetery companies and in private collections. Peter Lent Hatfield was one of the founding members of the Tusket Methodist congregation and he financed the construction of its church, which is still standing in the village. Peter Lent Hatfield also operated the "company store" for his brother, James Adolphus Hatfield, who was one of Tusket's most important and prominent ship builders during the 1880s and 1890s.

From the 1860s through to the 1940s, the Hatfield family was the most influential in Tusket. Peter Lent Hatfield married Caroline Matilda Harding, a daughter of Tracy Harding, one of Tusket's merchants in the 1840s. They had three sons. His family continued to have important mercantile interests in Tusket well into the 1940s. His eldest son Tracy owned two general stores.

Of the houses belonging to the Hatfield families of Tusket, this one-and-a-half storey wood-frame structure in the Gothic Revival style, with Greek Revival style elements, and adjacent wood-frame barn, is the only one that has remained largely unaltered and is an excellent example of a nineteenth century Nova Scotian domestic building. The house remained in Peter Lent Hatfield's family until 1968.

Source: Argyle Municipal Heritage Files, file #012

Character-Defining Elements

Character-defining elements of Peter Lent Hatfield House relating to its Gothic Revival style with Greek Revival style elements include:

- one-and-a-half storey, wood-frame structure;
- steeply pitched gable roof;
- large centre gable dormer;
- kitchen addition in the rear;
- entrance location centred beneath the dormer and its detailing in a relatively elaborate manner, including sidelights;
- the location of a second floor bay window above the entrance;
- the location of the oculus (round window) above the bay window within the peak of the dormer;
- double windows on either side of the entrance ;
- two inset chimneys;
- one-and-a-half storey, wood-frame barn.