Description of Historic Place

Mallard Cottage is a picturesque one-and-a-half storey wood-frame house set on a small lot near the road in the hamlet of Quidi Vidi, a suburb of St. John's Newfoundland. The designation refers to the house on its legal lot at the time of designation (1983).

Heritage Value

Mallard Cottage was designated a national historic site of Canada because, with its hipped roof and central chimney, it is typical of the vernacular housing built by immigrants from southeastern Ireland in the first half of the nineteenth century.

The heritage value of this site resides in the materials as well as the elements of vernacular design and craftsmanship deriving from Irish-Newfoundland vernacular building traditions. The Mallards, a family of Irish origin, lived in the house for over a hundred years.

Source: Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, Minute, Fall 1983.

Character-Defining Elements

Elements key to the heritage value of this site include:
- its rectangular massing under a low-hipped roof with rear linhay (lean-to),
- its small scale,
- its wood construction and clapboard finish,
- it's classically inspired five-bay facade with multi-pane, double-hung windows on ground level and smaller multi-pane windows above,
- its interior plan of two rooms on the ground floor on either side of a massive central hearth and sleeping rooms above,
- surviving original materials and craftsmanship including beaded clapboard.