Description of Historic Place

The Samuel Crowell House is a Queen Anne Revival style residence that was built in 1896 for merchant Samuel Crowell. The house sits on a hill overlooking the town and waterfront in Yarmouth, NS. Provincial designation applies to the house, carriage house and property.

Heritage Value

The Samuel Crowell House is valued for its association with Samuel Crowell and his wife Mary; George Killam and his family; and for its Queen Anne Revival style architecture.

The Samuel Crowell House was built circa 1896 for Samuel Atwood Crowell, a successful Yarmouth merchant. Crowell began his career with Killam Hardware, which he purchased in 1876 and renamed S. A. Crowell and Co. It was an extensive business that supplied mills and shipbuilders. Crowell also took over his brother’s shoe business, the Crowell Shoe Store. He also was extensively involved in other Yarmouth business and was the Vice President of the Bank of Yarmouth, and a director of the Yarmouth Steamship Company, Yarmouth Duck and Yarn Company, Yarmouth Gas Company, the Grand Hotel, and the Old Ladies Home, making him one of Yarmouth’s wealthiest and most influential men in the 1890s. In 1869 Crowell married Mary Edna, daughter of Captain Bowman Corning and the original owner of the Crowell House.

Crowell died in 1908 and Mary continued to live in the house until her death in 1920. The house passed to George Killam, who inherited his grandfathers’ famous Yarmouth shipyard and shipbuilding business, Killam Brothers. Members of the Killam family lived in house until 1976.

Crowell built this house on land property formerly owned by his wife’s father. The house that once stood on the property was moved; however the mansard-roofed carriage house remained and was used by Crowell and subsequent owners. The Crowell House is also valued for its Queen Anne Revival architecture, chiefly its irregular form and massing and corner tower. The house sits on high ground overlooking the town and waterfront.

Source: Provincial Heritage Property Program file no. 157.

Character-Defining Elements

Character-defining elements of the Samuel Crowell House relate to its Queen Anne Revival style and include:

- irregular form and massing;
- projecting bays;
- corner tower;
- wood frame and wood cladding that ranges from clapboard to scalloped shingles;
- heavy pedimented dormer;
- hip roof;
- irregular shaped windows including triangular shaped window on third floor, octagonal window on second floor;
- stained glass in several windows;
- original interior entrance, foyer with original floor tiles, and medieval styled reception hall with large stairwell and fireplace;
- original interior elements including mantles and cabinets.

Character-defining elements of the Samuel Crowell carriage house include:

- mansard roof;
- two storeys;
- wood shingle cladding;
- dormer windows in second storey;
- sliding barn-style door.