Description of Historic Place

The Eldridge House is a small Neo-classical style, one-and-a-half storey house of wood construction, probably built sometime between 1815 and 1850. It is located on Chester Street, about midway between the principal business district and the principal shopping district in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. Municipal heritage designation applies to the house and its residential lot.

Heritage Value

The Eldridge House is valued for its association with the Eldridge family who owned it from 1879 until 1993. It is also valued for its simple Neo-classical architecture.

This little house remained in the Eldridge family through three generations, the last one to occupy it being Harry B. Eldridge who had lived here from 1912 until his death in 1993. The Eldridge family tradition regarding the house was that the family had owned it since 1879, when Alfred Eldridge, grandfather of Harry, purchased it from the Yarmouth Building and Loan Society. It had been moved to this site from the nearby community of Milton in the north end of the town of Yarmouth after having been purchased from the estate of Hon. Stayley Brown who had died in 1877, but its exact original location was never specified in the family lore.

The simple Neo-classical architecture of the Eldridge house is exemplified by its one-and-a-half storeys, pegged hand hewn post and beam frame, low pitched gabled roof with no verge overhang and simple trim. The structure of the house indicates it could have been built in the very early 1800s, but no documentation could be discovered which further clarified its date of construction.

Source: Registered Heritage Property files, Town of Yarmouth, NS.

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of the Eldridge House include:

- location in a residential neighbourhood between the main business and shopping districts;
- narrow setback from street on a small residential lot.
- proximity to other houses of similar scale.

The character-defining elements of the Neo-classical architecture of the Eldridge House include:

- pegged, hand-hewn post and beam frame;
- shingle cladding;
- asymmetrical four bay facade with off centre entrance;
- low pitched gable roof with front gabled dormer and rear shed dormer;
- no verge overhang and very shallow eaves overhang;
- double hung sash windows tight to the eaves;
- plain window and door trim and corner-boards.