Description of Historic Place

20 Washington Street is a two-storey wooden home set close to the road on a street running north-south in the east end of the Town of Bridgetown, Nova Scotia. The property and the building are included in the designation.

Heritage Value

The property at 20 Washington Street is valued for its early twentieth-century combination of Greek Revival architecture with traces of the Queen Anne Revival style.

Wade Herbet, a jeweller, was the first owner of this house, built in 1903 on a block at the north end of Washington Street in the east end of town. This street is unusual in Bridgetown, for it has a sequence of three distinct housing styles, where each block contains matching homes that differ markedly from those on the next block.

This home bears some influence of the Queen Anne Revival style, also displayed in the house immediately to the north, as well as the Greek Revival style common to other homes on the street.

The orientation of the house, with its front-facing gable roof, is of the Greek Revival style and this is carried through in the classical pilasters and crowns. The Queen Anne influence can be seen in the decorative shingling in the gable, which also has a central window that is inset with small square-lights, or tiny panes. Although more significant to the interior of the home, this property also features a series of rectangular stained-glass windows, inset with small square-lights, on the front and side elevations.

The two other distinctive features of this property are the front two-storey bay window with a hip roof and the wrap gallery with a spindlework frieze, supports and balustrade. This wrap gallery moves the focus of the house away from its Greek temple dimensions and gives it a more graceful and less severe appearance. It also sets it apart from the row of simpler Greek Revival homes across the street.

Source: Heritage Property file no. 2, Town of Bridgetown, NS

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of 20 Washington Street include:

- steeply pitched gable roof with return eaves;
- classical pilasters and crowns;
- front two-storey bay window with a hip roof;
- decorative shingling of the Queen Anne Revival style in the gable, with a central window inset with small square-lights;
- rectangular stained-glass windows with small square-lights at the front and sides;
- wrap gallery with a spindlework frieze, supports and balustrade.