Description of Historic Place

The Wallace Twins Houses are a pair of similar one-and-a-half storey Queen Anne Revival residences located on Main Street in Sussex.

Heritage Value

The Wallace Twins Houses are designated a Local Historic Place for their association with the Wallace Funeral Home of Sussex, for their association with Harold Russell Bryant, MD and for their architecture.

The Wallace Twins Houses are recognized for their association with the Wallace family. These residences at 376 and 380 Main Street, Sussex were built in 1875 by George H. Wallace for his twin sons, George and Fenwick. The Wallace Twins were carpenters who, as a result of providing coffins to customers, became undertakers. Fenwick Wallace founded the Wallace Funeral Home in 1893. In 1907, Fenwick Wallace helped establish the New Brunswick Funeral Directors Association and he also founded what is now the Canadian Funeral Directors Magazine. Wallace Funeral Home was operated by three generations of the Wallace family until it was sold to Steve Baldwin in 1994. Fenwick Wallace was a mayor of Sussex from 1915-1916.

The Wallace Twins Houses are also recognized for their association with Harold Russell Bryant, MD. Dr. Bryant used the residence at 376 Main Street as his dwelling, while running his medical practice from the adjacent property on the west. Bryant was a medical doctor in Sussex for fifty years. He was mayor of Sussex from 1965 to 1966. He was also instrumental in organizing such projects in Sussex as the Anglican Church Homes and the Kiwanis Nursing Home.

The Wallace Twins Houses are also recognized for their architecture. They are good examples of early Queen Anne Revival residential architecture. This style is evident primarily in the variety of exterior wall textures. The houses retain their shingle siding in the gable and their clapboard siding on the body of the structure. The windows are original to the buildings and have an unusual etched design on the upper sash glass, being a postcard design. The roof over the entrance at 376 Main Street is a more recent structure, with its curved line reflecting a fan window over the front door. The porch surrounding the front door at 380 Main Street is part of the original veranda.

Source: Town of Sussex, Historic Places file #S-10-08

Character-Defining Elements

The character defining elements that relate to the Queen Anne Revival architecture of the Wallace Twins Houses include:
- one-and-a-half storey rectangular plans;
- front-facing gable roofs;
- shingle siding in the apex of the gables;
- clapboard siding on the lower storeys;
- regular placement of windows and doors;
- decorative skirts forming pediments over the top of the second storey windows;
- etched panes of glass in the front windows;
- central chimneys;
- pediment, decorative balusters, and spindles of the porch at 380 Main Street;
- curved porch roof over the entrance of 376 Main Street;
- fanlight over the front door of 376 Main Street.