Description of Historic Place

265 Richmond Street is a wood framed, Colonial Revival influenced home. It features stacked bay windows, a hipped roof, and several roof dormers. It is located in an area with a high concentration of heritage properties and overlooks the Hillsborough Square. The designation encompasses the building's exterior and parcel; it does not include the building's interior.

Heritage Value

The heritage value of 265 Richmond Street lies in its association with United Church elder, Mrs. Andrew McNair; the home's Colonial Revival influenced architecture; and its role in supporting the Hillsborough Street streetscape.

The 21 May 1907 edition of the Examiner newspaper carried news of a house being constructed for Andrew McNair by the firm of Messrs. Gaudin and Taylor or as the company was also referred to, Geo. L. Gaudin and Company. Andrew McNair had come to Prince Edward Island to work with Bruce Stuart and Company. His wife was a driving force behind the Victorian Division of the Sons of Temperance. She was also a member of Trinity United Church where she had the honour of being the first woman in the Maritimes elected as a church elder.

265 Richmond Street was Colonial Revival inspired. The Colonial Revival style came to Prince Edward Island as a result of the Island's familial and economic connections with New England, where it emerged in the 1880s. The style was based on North American models and was an effort to simplify and adapt the forms of earlier architectural styles to contemporary needs. A popular style in Charlottetown from approximately 1890 until 1940, 265 Richmond Street's Colonial Revival influenced features include a hipped roof, bay windows and prominent cornices.

The home was built in a fashionable area of Charlottetown near Hillsborough Square. The Hillsborough Square is one of five squares located within the City of Charlottetown laid out in 1771. Residents of the area took pride in the appearance of their square and in the 1860s, asked City Council for permission to enclose it with a fence and plant ornamental trees. The square was often used for band concerts and contained a flagpole. Interestingly, residents sometimes allowed their cows or horses to graze within its borders. Although the days when it was used as a pasture are long over, Hillsborough Square is still a green space and contains playground equipment and paths.

An attractive, well kept, home among a number of heritage homes built overlooking the Hillsborough Square, 265 Richmond Street helps support an attractive streetscape.

Sources: Heritage Office, City of Charlottetown Planning Department, PO Box 98, Charlottetown, PE C1A 7K2
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Character-Defining Elements

The following Colonial Revival influenced character-defining elements contribute to the heritage value of 265 Richmond Street:

- The overall massing of the building with its two storeys
- The hipped roof with its shed dormers
- The wood shingle cladding with mouldings painted in contrasting colours, particularly the beltcourses, the cornices and the window and door surrounds
- The style and symmetrical placement of the windows, including the bay windows, the grouped sash windows and the multipaned windows of the porch
- The style and placement of the doors, including the front door which provides access to the building through the porch
- The size and placement of the porch with its hipped roof and large windows
- The size and placement of the chimney
- The stone foundation

Other character-defining elements include:

- The location of the building on Richmond Street and its physical and visual relationship to its streetscape