Description of Historic Place

The Wesley Forbes House is a wooden, two-storey, Late Victorian Eclectic residence with strong Second Empire influences located on Pleasant Street in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. This neighbourhood has a high concentration of Second Empire-influenced homes, and the Wesley Forbes house is integral to the uniformity of this streetscape. The designation includes the building and the lot it occupies.

Heritage Value

The Wesley Forbes House is valued for its long association with the Forbes family. Wesley Noel Forbes was a salesman for Wm. Stairs, Son & Morrow, ship chandlers who were retail merchants, supplying ships with items such as rope and food when they came to port. Wm. Stairs, Son & Morrow were also hardware merchants and manufacturers of nails, tack, paint and putty, presumably for their shipping customers. Wesley Forbes worked as a draughtsman for the company before being promoted to "commercial traveller." The Forbes were long-term neighbours with Joseph Howe Austen and his family, who lived next door until 1936. The house continued in the Forbes family until 1941.

Constructed circa 1886-1888, the house is also valued as an example of Late Victorian Eclectic architecture. Its design was strongly influenced by the Second Empire style, incorporating the use of a mansard roofline on the front and rear elevations and large bay windows on the front elevation. The house originally had dormer windows on the second storey that were later replaced with bay windows extending from the main floor. The house has decorative cornice brackets, and uses a variety of siding materials, including wooden clapboards, and plain and decorative shingles. A complex shingle pattern at the top of the bellcast roof increases the interest of the roofline.

Source: HRM Heritage Property File: 41 Pleasant Street, Wesley Forbes House, found at HRM Planning and Development Services, 6960 Mumford Road, Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of the Wesley Forbes House include:

- square footprint of original dwelling with side hall floor plan
- large, rear addition;
- combination gambrel and mansard roof with a bellcast curve on the front and rear elevations;
- painted cedar shingle roof with unique patterned band of shingles at the top of the bellcast section;
- two brick chimneys;
- combination of wooden clapboard, plain and decorative shingle cladding;
- ironstone foundation with some brick at foundation window openings;
- three-sided, two storey, bay window on front elevation;
- rectangular, two storey, entrance bay accommodating a storm porch on the first floor;
- three-sided bay window on the east elevation first floor;
- vertically proportioned, two-over-two wooden sash windows;
- plain window hood mouldings on side elevations;
- decorative brackets under cornices on bay windows and front porch;
- quarter-round moulding at the corners of the bay window on the side elevation;
- setback from the street, and situated on a slight rise of land;
- similarity in style and scale to others in the streetscape.