Description of Historic Place

Young House is a small two-storey wooden residence situated on Montague Street in the Old Town Heritage Conservation District in Lunenburg, NS. It sits on a slope, southfacing, and immediately at the streetline. Designation extends to the building and surrounding property.

Heritage Value

The Young House is valued for its architectural features and its age. The house has remained in its original state, with no major structural alterations. The house sits on a small piece of property in the commercial area of town, and has an overall sturdy, modest appearance which is typical of middle and working class Lunenburg homes of the nineteenth century. However, this sense of balance has been elaborated on with somewhat asymmetrical features on the front facade, following Lunenburg's vernacular fashion of the era. The central door and Scottish dormer are offset by a large oriel bay window on the east side of the entrance. The interior layout of the house also has unique features, including a quarter-turn staircase with a 'coffin wall'- a panel that could be removed to allow larger pieces of furniture and coffins to be moved up and down the stairs.

The house was built in 1876 for Alexander Silver, a local fisherman. It passed from the Silver family to the Young family in 1916, and has remained within the Young family since that time.

Source: Heritage Designation File 66400-40-55 , Town of Lunenburg.

Character-Defining Elements

Character-defining elements of Young House relate to its architectural features, representative of middle and working class Lunenburg homes of the late nineteenth century, and include:

- a simple, small, symmetrical frame, with clapboard cladding, located close to the streetline and neighbouring buildings;
-typcial Lunenburg vernacular features, such as a steep gable roof with a central Scottish dormer, cornerboards with brackets, and return eaves;
- pantry and summer kitchen located at the rear of the house, and remnants of the original full kitchen located in the basement;
- central front entrance, with steps straight up from the street, a transom window and sidelights, and a bracketted hood;
-two-over-two windows, each with simple window hoods on all façades, as well as a three-sided oriel window with large brackets on the front façade, and horizontal basement windows on the front façade;
- unusual internal features, including three small steps leading to the central dormer window (as opposed to the more common practice of the dormer extending to the floor);
- the 'coffin wall'- a detachable wood panel- located at the base of the small, enclosed stairwell, allowing a straight line of access to the stairs for maneuvering large furniture and coffins;
- intact landscape features, such as the granite post positioned at the southwest corner of the property to protect the house from damage caused by carriage wheels on tightly turning carriages.