Description of Historic Place

The house at 26 Howard Street is a wood shingled Gothic Revival building with a cross gable roof. It is prominently located at the corner of Howard and Nelson streets in the Village of Victoria on a treed lot. The registration includes the building's exterior and parcel; it does not include the building's interior.

Heritage Value

26 Howard Street is valued for its Gothic Revival architectural style and for its contribution to the Howard and Nelson streetscapes. According to Meacham's 1880 Atlas of PEI, the property was owned by Arthur Howatt. It is believed the current house was built in the 1860s or 1870s.

The Gothic Revival style was popular from the 1830s to 1890s. The American architect, A.J. Downing popularized the style in his pattern books starting in the 1840s.

This house has a symmetrical front facade with a large sweeping verandah on its south elevation. In the gable is a paired window, capped with a plain hood moulding. Original six over six windows still remain on many parts of the exterior. The trim details, however, are not as elaborate as they can be on similar examples of this style. The bargeboard is plain and there is no eave bracketting, for example. The cross gable roof does have prominent eave returns. The exterior is clad in wood shingles and the foundation is Island sandstone.

A large extension to the north of the house was removed in the early 1980s and second floor windows were replaced in 1994. Asphalt shingles have also replaced the original wood shingles on the roof.

The house remains an important landmark in the Village of Victoria and a well preserved example of its style, thereby contributing to its streetscape.

Source: Culture and Heritage Division, PEI Department of Community and Cultural Affairs, Charlottetown, PE C1A 7N8
File #: 4310-20/V12

Character-Defining Elements

The following character-defining elements illustrate the Gothic Revival cross gable style heritage value of 26 Howard Street:

- The massing of the home with its symmetrical facade
- The presence of four full gables (cross gable)
- The style and symmetrical placement of the windows, especially the six-over-six windows on the first floor and the smaller side-by-side six-over-six grouped windows in the gable
- The style and central placement of the door, which is original to the building
- The large gables of the roof, with their decorative cornices that accent the roofline
- The wood-shingled exterior
- The original Island sandstone foundation still present with some cement patching
- The decorative hood moulding over the paired windows in the gable

Other character-defining elements of 26 Howard Street include:

- The location of this house on the corner of Howard Street and Nelson Street, making it an important aspect of the overall Victoria streetscape