Description of Historic Place

17 Park Street is a one-and-a-half-storey wooden home set back from the road on a short residential street running east-west 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 17 Park Street is valued for its Gothic Revival elements and overall Picturesque style, which together reflect a movement toward more romantic styles of architecture in Nova Scotia in the late nineteenth century.

Daniel Palfrey Jr., a cobbler, completed this house in 1876, a decade after a new school was built immediately to the west on the same street, Park Street, where his daughter, Elizabeth, later taught. Its graceful Picturesque style is in harmony with the genteel nature of other homes in the immediate neighbourhood.

In contrast with the architecture of the Classical Revival, with its strict formality, the Picturesque style embraces a range of more romantic architectural styles, most notably Gothic Revival. The particular element of the Gothic Revival style evident here is the front-facing gable with its "gingerbread" bargeboard. The hooded windows reflect a Gothic or a Greek Revival influence.

The Picturesque style of architecture was also concerned with the setting of homes in relation to the landscape and the creation of living areas, such as verandahs, where gardens could be enjoyed. The columned verandah of 17 Park Street is in keeping with the Picturesque style, while the exterior and interior character of the home are enhanced by the sunroom along the west side of the house, which is enclosed with a distinctive display of casement windows.

Heritage Property file no. 6, Town of Bridgetown, NS

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of 17 Park Street include:

- side-facing and front-facing gables;
- "gingerbread" bargeboard on the front-facing gable;
- window hoods showing Gothic or Greek Revival influence;
- columned verandah;
- casement windows on the west side, enclosing a sunroom.