Description of Historic Place

The Guest House is a two storey, three bay, Italianate style house with an ell attached to the rear of the building. Built in 1876, the house is a perfect example of the Italianate style with the round-headed windows and decorative brackets around the eaves, window and door hoods. The Guest House is located on a residential lot in downtown Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. Both the building and its surrounding property are included in the designation.

Heritage Value

The Guest House is valued for its excellent demonstration of the Italianate style, as applied to residential design. Built in 1876 by ship owner John Walker Lovitt, the Guest House was a wedding gift for his daughter Mary Ellen and her new husband George Hutchinson Guest, also a ship owner. The house is a two storey, Italianate style house with a centered back ell and a one storey addition to the ell. The main façade of the house is symmetrical with three bays and incorporates two one-storey, three sided bay windows. The upper sashes of the bay windows are round-headed while the three windows on the second floor are paired one-over-one windows. There is a pair of third inset chimneys on the low-pitched hip roof of the main building and a central chimney on the ell. The heavy brackets under the eaves, cornices, windows and door hoods, as well as the corner and frieze boards, are all decorative elements the Italianate style. The belvedere on the top of the main part of the house was reproduced in 2002 since the original was mostly removed in the 1950’s.

Source: Notice of Registration of Property as a Provincial Heritage Property, Provincial Property Heritage File no. 246.

Character-Defining Elements

Character-defining elements of the Guest House include:

- narrow clapboard cladding;
- location close to the Yarmouth waterfront.

Character-defining elements of the Italianate style of the Guest House include:

- two storey, three bay, symmetrical façade with central doorway;
- slightly pitched hip roof with square belvedere at peak;
- pair of third inset chimneys;
- bracketed window and door hoods, sills, wide eaves, and cornices;
- corner and frieze boards with portholes;
- one-storey three sided bay windows on either side of the main entrance with round headed upper sashes;
- windows on east and west sides of first storey are tripartite, and second storey windows are paired.