Description of Historic Place

The M L. Urquhart House is a two storey wood frame dwelling located at 115 Willow Street in Truro, NS. Constructed in 1911, it is a large-massed Late Victorian style house with a front hip-on-gable, side entrances, and mullioned windows facing the street. The designation includes the building and surrounding property.

Heritage Value

Historic Value

The M.L. Urquhart House is valued for its association with Martin L. Urquhart, a native of Waugh’s River, Colchester County who founded Truro Wholesalers Ltd., a wholesale grocery and import business that operated until the 1970s.

Architectural Value

The M.L. Urquhart House is valued for its strong contribution to the heritage streetscape in which it sits. It is an example of a large, Late Victorian house, clearly influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement, and features elements that are commonly associated with the Prairie style that was developing at the time. Although the house is much larger than its neighbours, its placement well back from the street behind a hedgerow and next to a tree-lined brook restores it to harmony of scale with its neighbours.

Source: Planning Department, Town of Truro, file 10MNS0046

Character-Defining Elements

External elements that define the heritage character of the M.L. Urquhart House include:

- all original or historic building elements, including: basic Late Victorian gable-front form and massing, with a hip-on-gable roof and cross gable; two storey flat-roofed wing featuring a door on the first storey and a solarium on the second storey; single-storey hip-roofed front bay; partially-enclosed hip-roofed side entrance porch supported by a single heavy square pillar; heavy cornices at the roof-wall junctions; wide contrasting moulding at the base of the end gables; two chimneys prominently placed on the roof slope;
- all original or historic window and door elements, including: multi-paned casement windows on the façade and side; multi-paned sashed windows elsewhere; narrow strip windows in side wing; contrasting window and door surrounds and sills;
- all original or historic building materials, including: wooden shingle cladding and trim.
- all original or historic site elements, including: placement on a large lawn at a generous setback from the street; hedgerow at the street edge; tree-lined brook on the south boundary; mature trees bounding the property.