Description of Historic Place

Bleak House is a two-storey, gable roof, wooden house that was built atop a hill, evidently in the first half of the nineteenth century. The house is representative of nineteenth century merchant homes and has been occupied by three of the most prominent merchant families in the history of Fogo. It currently functions as Bleak House Museum. The municipal heritage designation is confined to the footprint of the building.

Heritage Value

Bleak House is significant for its historical associations and its architectural, cultural and environmental values.

Bleak House is likely the oldest house in Fogo and certainly one of the most historically important residences. It stands as a testament to the business success of the Slade, Owen and Earle merchants in Fogo during the 19th and 20th centuries. The Slade family ran a highly successful fish merchant business in both Twillingate and Fogo. Records suggest that Bleak House was built around 1826-1827. John Slade (1819-1847), manager of the Twillingate premises, also represented the Fogo-Twillingate district as the youngest Member of the House of Parliament in Newfoundland history at the age of 23. The Slade family lived in the Bleak House until the mid-19th century when it was sold to Slade’s former bookkeeper, John Owen. Owen married advantageously and built a successful business in Fogo. In 1897 Owen’s partner, Henry Earle, bought the property. Earle and Company was the most successful merchant business in Fogo and Twillingate from 1902 until 1967, when the fishery collapsed.

Bleak House is architecturally valuable as an example of a 19th century merchant house in rural Newfoundland, manifesting the distinction between the merchant class and the fishing class in rural Newfoundland. The original portion of the building is a stately two-storey, wooden house with a long, symmetrical façade emphasized by narrow clapboard siding, a gallery across the front, and a steep gable roof clad with wooden shingles and pierced by brick chimneys. The overall appearance and size of the house in the context of the community is a testament to the prominence of the families who once lived there.

Bleak House has cultural value as a remnant of a past way of life. Merchant houses are reminders of the influence that merchants had on the development of rural Newfoundland.

Bleak House has environmental value through its location atop a hill overlooking the harbour and community of Fogo, and near the former site the business premises that used to be the heart of its commercial enterprise. This prominent location reflects the status of the merchant families who lived there and their ties to the fishing industry that sustained them. The house is an important built feature of Fogo’s cultural landscape.

Source: Town of Fogo town council meeting minutes of 2008/02/29

Character-Defining Elements

Exterior elements of the original portion of the house which make it architecturally valuable and reflect its age:

-size, dimensions and two-storey height;
-steep gable roof with minimal overhang;
-symmetrical design of façade, with central entrance;
-symmetrical window placement and sizes;
-gallery with railing at the front of the house;
-narrow clapboard siding;
-wooden shingle roofing;
-wooden windows with plain trims;
-brick material of chimneys;

And the prominent location of the house within the community.