Description of Historic Place
The Fultz House is prominently situated at the junction of the historic Cobequid and Old Sackville Roads in Lower Sackville, NS. The house is a wooden structure that has been enlarged and modified many times since its construction. The municipal designation includes the building and the lot it occupies.
Heritage Value
The Fultz House is valued for its association with the Fultz family and the early history of Lower Sackville. The German Fultz family was one of Lower Sackville's founding families. Their patriarch, John Fultz, received a land grant in the area in 1773, and in 1858, Bennett Daniel Fultz, John Fultz's great-grandson, purchased the land at the corner of the Cobequid and Old Sackville Roads. He married Mary Susannah Robinson in 1862 and constructed a small wood-frame house shortly after, which he later enlarged to accommodate his growing family. After his death in 1910, his widow ran a post office from what is now the kitchen to support herself until her death in 1928. The house remained in the Fultz family until the 1940s.
The Fultz House is also valued for its prominent location at the junction of two of Nova Scotia's historic "great roads." At Lower Sackville, the main road from Halifax split and became the two great roads leading into the interior of the colony. The Cobequid Road was originally a native pathway leading to Upper Canada, passing through what is now Truro. The Old Sackville Road was originally a native and Acadian road leading to the Windsor area.
The Fultz family settled at this major intersection around 1812. Stage coach service on the great roads began in 1816, and in 1822 William Fultz, Bennett Fultz's uncle, opened an inn called the Twelve Mile House to serve customers travelling both roads. Bennett purchased the land for his house from William's son in 1858. Bennett built this house not far from his father's house, which still stands on the nearby Old Sackville Road. The high concentration of Fultz family members located in this area has led to it becoming known as Fultz Corner.
The house's architecture is valued as it speaks to the house's continual occupancy and modification to meet changing needs. The original one-storey house was essentially Neo-classical in design with a side-hall plan. As the family grew, a summer kitchen was added to the rear (giving the house a saltbox roofline), followed by a one-and-a-half storey wing on the south side. The dates of these additions are unknown. In the 1950s, further changes were made by the new owners, including replacing the original front door with its transom window by a round-headed door, and the addition of a bay window on the front elevation and an exterior chimney (later removed). The result is an accretion of forms from different architectural styles and periods.
This landmark in Lower Sackville is now a museum dedicated to the preservation of the Sackville area's history and culture.
Source: HRM Heritage Property File: 33 Sackville Drive, Fultz House
Character-Defining Elements
The character-defining elements of Fultz House relate to its original Neo-classical design and later additions and include:
- all elements related to original one-storey wood-frame, Neo-classical, side-hall floorplan structure;
- summer kitchen, giving house a saltbox style;
- one-and-a-half storey addition to south side of original house;
- combination of gable and saltbox rooflines of cedar shingled construction;
- central brick chimney;
- two dormers with gable roof and six-over-six wooden windows on the front elevation;
- bay window with four-over-four wooden windows and an eight-over-eight wooden window on the front elevation;
- six-over-six single hung wooden windows on the north and east elevations, and fixed nine paned wooden windows on the second storeys;
- shed roof dormer with fixed nine paned wooden windows on the rear roof of original house;
- low fieldstone wall surrounding three sides of the property;
- location at the entrance to Lower Sackville, at the intersection of Sackville Drive, the Cobequid Road and the Old Sackville Road.
