Description of Historic Place

Prebble House is a two and one half storey wooden Queen Anne style house located at 027 Water Street in the community of Woody Point, within the UNESCO World Heritage Site Gros Morne, Newfoundland and Labrador. The designation includes the building and surrounding property as described by the boundaries.

Heritage Value

Prebble House has been municipally designated for its aesthetic and historical values.

Prebble House is aesthetically valuable because it is a beautiful outport example of a home influenced by the Queen Anne style of architecture. Located on the waterfront in Woody Point this house stands as one of only two such styled buildings in the community. Prebble House has a hipped roof with a front façade pediment, a second storey bow window, a small Palladian shaped window and a large sun porch. Prebble House is decorated with details such as dentils, and a belt course which divides the first story from the second. The multi-paned windows and the window mouldings add interest, as do the eaves mouldings and the somewhat irregular window fenestration. This house is constructed in wood and is faced in narrow wooden clapboard and there are two chimneys which extend above the ridge of the house.

Prebble House is historically valuable for several reasons. This house was built after the 1922 waterfront fire by Michael Dwyer, who also built the Victorian Manor and a house for the Taylor family in Curzon Village, though both no longer stand. Dwyer worked with local carpenter, Gordon Crocker, who created much of the ornate woodwork inside Prebble House. This is the only house that Dwyer finished in Woody Point.

Prebble House is also historically valuable because of its association with William Prebble, the merchant for whom the house was built. A philanthropist, Prebble donated the land on which the Bonne Bay Cottage Hospital in Norris Point was built in 1939. Mr. Prebble was the Treasurer of the Hospital Board and people from the Bonne Bay area came to this house to pay their hospital fees.

Source: Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador file number 1802 - Woody Point.

Character-Defining Elements

All those elements reflective of the Queen Anne style of architecture, including:
-hipped roof;
-front façade pediment;
-chimneys which extend above the ridge;
-Palladian window;
-sun porch;
-narrow wooden clapboard;
-size, shape and fenestration of the windows;
-size, shape and placement of all original doors;
-multi-paned triangular window in the pediment;
-decorative elements such as the dentils, belt course, drops and mouldings; and
-orientation, location and dimensions.