Description of Historic Place

The Lulah-Oh! / Carroll Property is a collection of 1940s structures and wooden buildings situated on approximately three grassy, partly wooded acres located at 19 North Side Road, Holyrood. The buildings include a two-storey house and four red-painted outbuildings: two barns with gambrel roofs, a garage with dormer windows and a cookhouse. The structures include a decorative retaining wall of beach rocks and concrete, a large metal water tank, the remnants of a cottage, and concrete steps descending towards the shore on the opposite side of the road. The municipal heritage designation includes all the aforementioned buildings and structures, as well as a mature apple tree behind the larger barn.

Heritage Value

The Lulah-Oh! / Carroll Property has historic, cultural and aesthetic value.

The property has historic value though its connection to the local economy, the entrepreneurial Carroll family, and to well-known businessman Jack Carroll (1897-1977). By 1918 Carroll took over his father's general business, which included the cold storage of fishing bait and ice. He expanded the business in 1932, building a larger facility with modern refrigeration equipment next to the public wharf on the South Side of Holyrood. Around 1944 the Caroll Cold Storage Plant was taken over by Fisheries Products Limited; Caroll stayed on as manager till his retirement.

The Lulah-Oh! property was constructed in the mid-forties so Caroll could be closer to the business premises. Its name is Portuguese and translates as "Squid-Ho!" in connection to the family's link to the bait fishery.

The property has cultural significance because of its connection to the bait fishery and agriculture. While the seasonal Bank, Labrador and Western fisheries drew men from Holyrood, the inshore cod fishing industry was never the mainstay there that it was for many of Newfoundland's coastal communities. Instead, the local bait fishery offered a supply of species like caplin, herring and squid to fishing vessels stopping at Holyrood. Carroll Cold Storage Company Limited and Fisheries Products Limited were central to this local industry. The Lula-Oh! property is connected to those companies not only as Jack Carroll's home, but because some of its buildings and structures were used to directly support cold storage operations. The large water tank behind the Carroll house supplied fresh water for washing bait via gravity flow with a hose which stretched down the hill towards the cold storage facility. Two bunkhouses once on the Carroll property housed workers for the facility; the still standing cookhouse provided meals.

Holyrood historically had a heavier reliance on commercial and subsistence agriculture than most areas of the province, and Jack Carroll also engaged in agriculture. He had a farm on Salmonier Line which dealt in meat, eggs and dairy, and also kept animals at his home property, which retains two barns, the larger of which has troughs in its cement floor. Caroll was also known as a buyer of local berries for resale. A mature apple tree behind the larger barn ties into the agricultural use of the site.

Jack Carroll and his home were well-known to Holyrood residents for other roles. Carroll was a Justice of the Peace. His home is said to have functioned as the town's first post office. The property also hosted the local Catholic parish's annual garden party.

The property has aesthetic value as an unusual, intact collection of 1940s buildings and structures. The solid form of the body of the house has been retained, along with key original decorative elements like the green and white paint scheme and shutters with a schooner motif. The interior of the house retains decorative tentest ceilings and walls, staircase and rails, doors and hardware, light fixtures, and fireplaces, including one with a wooden, faux marble surround imported from Portugal.

The collection of four wooden outbuildings exhibits a combination of aesthetic appeal and utilitarianism. Both two-storey barns, the garage, and the cookhouse are sheathed in narrow clapboard, painted mainly traditional red, with divided wooden windows and trims, and mainly plank doors, which creates a sense of visual cohesion amongst the outbuildings. All of the outbuildings retain largely unfinished interiors, with visible beams, studs, etc.

The rock and concrete wall to the left of the house has a practical retaining wall function, but also considerable aesthetic appeal due to the use of beach rocks in its construction, which links to the coastal location of the property.

Source: Town of Holyrood Town Council Meeting of 2007/12/04

Character-Defining Elements

Exterior elements of the house related to its aesthetic and historic value, including:

-white with green accents paint colour scheme;
-shutters with painted schooner motif;
-narrow clapboard sheathing;
-brick chimney;
-rooflines, multiple gables;
-two-storey height, form, dimensions;

Interior elements of the house related to its aesthetic value, including:

-original decorative tentest ceilings and walls;
-original fireplaces;
-original wooden main staircase;
-original interior wooden doors and affixed hardware;
-original light fixtures;

Exterior and interior elements of the large barn related to its aesthetic and historic value, including:

-two-storey height, dimensions;
-gambrel roof;
-narrow clapboard sheathing;
-felt roofing;
-type, size, style and placement of multi-paned wooden windows;
-type, size, style and placement of original plank doors, including loft door;
-painted exterior;
-unfinished interior with visible beams and studs;

Exterior and interior elements of the small barn related to its aesthetic and historic value, including:

-gambrel roof;
-two-storey height, dimensions;
-narrow clapboard sheathing;
-felt roofing;
-type, size, style and placement of multi-paned wooden windows and trims;
-type, size, style and placement of original plank doors, including loft door;
-painted exterior;
-unfinished interior with visible beams and studs;

Exterior elements of the garage related to its aesthetic value, including:

-pitched roof;
-dimensions and storeys;
-narrow clapboard sheathing;
-painted exterior;
-type, size, style and placement of original doors;
-type, size, style and placement of multi-paned original wooden windows and trims;

Exterior elements of the cookhouse related to its aesthetic value, including:

-pitched roof;
-dimensions and storeys;
-narrow clapboard sheathing;
-painted exterior;
-type, size, style and placement of multi-paned wooden windows and trims;

Other elements of historic or aesthetic significance:

-location of property in relation to the shore and the former bait depot building/Carroll business premises;
-locations of the buildings and structures in relation to each other;
-location of water tank;
-remnants of cottage;
-mature apple tree;
-and concrete steps imprinted with "Carroll".