Description of Historic Place

The Job Hatfield house is a large one-and-one-half storey Gothic Revival style house with unique trim that distinguishes it from other houses of similar style, located in Yarmouth, NS. The building and its residential lot are included in the municipal heritage designation.

Heritage Value

The Job Hatfield house is valued for its historic association with Robert Sargent Eakins, for its modern association with the Le family and for its Gothic Revival architecture.

Robert Sargent Eakins was a prominent businessman and shipowner in Yarmouth in the mid 1800s who is best remembered for the twin houses he had built for his son and daughter on William Street. Unfortunately, the twin to this house, which was located on the lot adjacent on the south, was destroyed by fire in 1992. This house was deeded to Eakins’ daughter Helen and her husband, Job Hatfield, who had married in 1868 and lived here from 1878 until Hatfield’s death in 1901.

Hung Q. and Loi Le and their young daughter, Phong, were refugees from Vietnam who came to Yarmouth in 1979. Within months of their arrival, they had established a very successful and presently extant tailoring business in the town and in 1988 bought the property. Eight years later they made the decision to join other family members and friends who had escaped from Vietnam and settled in San Jose, California. Before leaving Yarmouth, however, the Les made a significant gift to the people of the Yarmouth of a four part decorative panel depicting different parts of Vietnam, made of lacquered wood and inlaid with mother-of-pearl. This panel is now on display at the Yarmouth County Museum.

This house is also valued as an excellent example of Victorian influenced Gothic Revival architecture. It is a large wood frame, one-and-a-half storey house on a brick faced foundation in cruciform massing. It has a steeply pitched gable roof with steep cross gables on north and south sides. All the gables have unique verge-boards which distinguish this house from others of a similar style in the town and in Nova Scotia. The asymmetrical two bay façade has an off-center entrance with paired doors and a large hood supported by heavy brick columns. Most of the windows have double hung sashes. The first storey has paired and triple windows and there is a one storey cutaway bay window on the south side with a triple window above.

Source: Registered Heritage Property files, Town of Yarmouth

Character-Defining Elements

Character defining elements of the Job Hatfield house include:

- location near the business center and waterfront;
- spacious lot;
- unique ornamental trim;
- wood construction;
- cruciform massing;
- narrow clapboard cladding;
- two prominent chimneys.

Character defining elements of the Gothic Revival style of the Job Hatfield house include:

- corner, frieze, and base-board trim;
- steeply pitched gable roof with steep cross gables;
- unique ornamental truss-work verge-boards;
- asymmetrical two bay façade;
- off-center entrance portico with paired doors and a large lancet arch hood;
- double hung sash windows with pointed arch upper sashes;
- single- and double-gabled window crowns;
- one storey cutaway bay window;
- small triangular windows in the attic level of main gables;
- small back veranda with trim elements matching verge-boards.