Description of Historic Place

89 Hillsborough Street is a wood framed, Late Victorian Plain style former home with classical detailing located on a street that contains many historic homes. Throughout much of its history, the building served as a private residence, but it has more recently been converted into a dentist's office. The building has been sympathetically renovated and has retained its interesting details. The designation encompasses the building’s exterior and parcel; it does not include the building’s interior.

Heritage Value

The heritage value of 89 Hillsborough Street lies in its Late Victorian Plain style architecture and its role in supporting the Hillsborough Street streetscape.

89 Hillsborough Street is an attractive building that plays a vital role in supporting the Hillsborough Street streetscape. It is unknown who built it, but early telephone and City directories reveal that Jessie N. McLeod, a widow of J.D. McLeod lived in the home. In 1928, Ena McLeod is listed as residing at the address. It is unclear whether they were related.

Fraser T. Morrow eventually purchased the home. Morrow was a dairy inspector and a farmer. He and his wife, Blanche, lived in the home in the 1930s, but would eventually sell 89 Hillsborough Street and move outside of Charlottetown. According to the 10 May 1947 edition of the Guardian newspaper, Fraser Morrow’s house was sold at auction to a John A. MacDonald.

89 Hillsborough Street was likely constructed in the period of 1880 to 1915 in the Late Victorian Plain style. It has simple lines, a steeply pitched gable roof with plain bargeboards. The exterior cladding is also plain wooden shingles. The only ornamentation has been reserved for the cornice above the windows and doors, where denticulation has been used to draw attention to these features. Dentils are purely classical in origin and first appeared in Greek architecture around 400 BC. They appear as small rectangular tooth-like cubes alligned in a series.

This home, with its modest use of muted dentils is a well preserved example of the Late Victorian Plain style of architecture in the City.

Sources: Heritage Office, City of Charlottetown Planning Department, PO Box 98, Charlottetown, PE C1A 7K2
#1614

Character-Defining Elements

The following Late Victorian Plain style character-defining elements illustrate the heritage value of 89 Hillsborough Street:
- The overall massing of the two storey building
- The wooden shingle siding
- The front gable plan
- The placement and style of the windows, including the tall, grouped, multi-paned windows and the bay windows of the first floor as well as the paired windows of the second floor
- The placement and style of the doors
- The simple mouldings and bargeboards
- The denticulation detailing over the windows and doors, as well as the interesting arches over the verandah
- The porch and verandah with hipped roof and interesting mouldings
- The bay projections with Mansard style rooflines
- The pitch of the gable roof with its simple cornice and entablature
- The style and placement of the chimney

Other character-defining elements of 89 Hillsborough Street are:
- The large addition on to the back of the building
- The location of the building on Hillsborough Street