Description of Historic Place

The interesting house at 216 Church Street was built after the Great Fire of 1906 for local newspaperman Louis Taylor. Located on the south side of Church Street between cross streets Granville and Spring, it is not known who constructed this residence. Its unique features include its gambrel roof with a broken pediment in the gable, large bay window facing the street, and hipped roof dormers on each side elevation. The registration includes the building and its lot.

Heritage Value

The house at 216 Church Street is historically significant as a residence constructed on a section of a street devastated by the Great Fire of 1906. It is valued for its association with Louis Taylor, long-time manager of the Pioneer Publishing Company. It also contributes to the historical post-Great Fire Church Street streetscape.

Louis Taylor purchased this well situated lot after he and his wife, the former Minnie Larkin, were made homeless when a house they had been renting was lost to the fire. When their new home was constructed in 1907, Mr. Taylor was 43 years of age and had been working as a printer with the Pioneer Publishing Company since 1880. His wife, who was ten years younger, had worked in the same printing office before their marriage. By 1909, Louis Taylor was a foreman printer and by 1914, the manager of the company which issued both The Pioneer and The Island Farmer newspapers. He continued in this position until his retirement in 1941. Mrs. Taylor passed away in 1942 and Mr. Taylor in 1944.

Since they had no children, the property was willed to Mrs. Taylor's sister, Nellie Larkin, who sold it to her nephew David, son of Alonzo Larkin. David Larkin was an employee of the Summerside Post Office for many years, working his way up to the position of postmaster. Mr. Larkin continued to live in the house until his death in 2003.

Source: City of Summerside, Heritage Property Profiles

Character-Defining Elements

The following character-defining elements illustrate the heritage value of 216 Church Street:

- the one-and-one-half storeys with a small shed roofed extension at the rear (south) elevation
- the asymmetrical roofline consisting of gambrel on the north-south line and a hipped roof on the intersecting dormers running east-west
- the broken pediment in the gable of the gambrel roof on the north elevation
- the wide eave overhang of the gambrel roof
- the brick chimney
- the hipped roof dormer over the ground level bay windows on the east elevation
- the three columns supporting the porch overhang
- the one-over-one windows in their original locations
- the ongoing contribution of the house to the post 1906 Great Fire streetscape of Church Street