Description of Historic Place

The Jim Friel Cottage is located on Medley Lane in Bas-Cap-Pelé in the village of Cap-Pelé. This Craftsman-style, one-and-a-half-storey wood-frame cottage was built in 1922.

Heritage Value

The Jim Friel Cottage is designated a Local Historic Place for being the first cottage built in the Cap-Pelé region, for its association with the Friel family and for its architecture.

Jim Friel, a notable Moncton lawyer and the son of John Friel, a Cap-Pelé teacher and merchant from the 1870's, built this summer residence, the first true cottage in the Cap-Pelé region, on a cliff overlooking a sandy beach and surrounded by forest in 1922. The resort tradition began to develop in Cap-Pelé in the 1960’s and in the surrounding area with the construction of cottages, following the lead of the Friel family. Since the 1920s, the Friel family has gone there for the summer season. Since the 1990s, Frank McKenna, former Premier of New Brunswick and former Canadian ambassador to Washington, and his wife, the daughter of Donald Friel, have had a summer residence on the family lot.

The Jim Friel Cottage is recognized for its architecture. It is an excellent example of Craftsman cottage architecture from the 1920’s. It exhibits traditional Craftsman features such as a central front gable dormer with wide eaves, exposed rafters, shingle siding and a gable roof that extends towards the front to form the roof of the open veranda.

Source : Cap-Pelé Municipal Building, Historic Places File #17

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements that describe the Craftsman architecture of the Jim Friel Cottage include:
- one-and-a-half storey rectangular massing;
- wood frame construction;
- shingle siding;
- exposed rafters under wide eaves;
- gable roof extending down to create the roof of the original front open veranda;
- original doors and windows ;
- original interior finish ;
- central gable dormer with balcony, added later, providing a view of the sea.

The character-defining elements that describe the location of the Jim Friel Cottage include:
- cliff-side location overlooking the ocean, within a cottage region of Cap-Pelé.