Description of Historic Place

The Campbell-Rose House is a two-and-one-half-storey, Gothic Revival style wood-frame house. It features a single third-floor gable with a very steep roof. Built in the late 1860’s or early 1870’s, the house is located on a slight rise above the crossroads by St. John’s United Church in Strathlorne, Nova Scotia. Both the building and its surrounding property are included in the designation.

Heritage Value

The Campbell-Rose House is valued for its age, architecture and association with Alexander Campbell.

The Campbell-Rose House was constructed by Alexander Campbell (1826 – 1909), a teacher, merchant and prominent politician in the government of Joseph Howe. Campbell was born in Scotland and emigrated with his family in 1830, settling in North Ainslie where he taught school for some years at Broad Cove Intervale (then the name for Strathlorne). After his marriage he acquired the property where the house now stands and built a store and eventually the house. In the mid to latter years of the nineteenth century the community was quite prosperous and Campbell did well with his business.

Campbell was elected to the House of Assembly of Nova Scotia in 1867. He was a strong opponent of Confederation and a great supporter of Joseph Howe and was elected several times until his defeat in 1897. At that point he retired to his business in Strathlorne. While a member of the House of Assembly, Campbell was visited, at his home, by the Marquis of Lorne, then the Governor-General of Canada. In honour of the visit of the oldest son of the chief of Clan Campbell, Alexander Campbell had the community’s name changed from "Broad Cove Intervale" to "Strathlorne." "Strath" is Gaelic for "broad valley" and "Lorne" was the title of the Marquis. The house is representative not only of the success Alexander Campbell achieved in his lifetime but also is indicative of the prosperity that could be found in Cape Breton in the second half of the nineteenth century.

When Campbell purchased the land, a small home was already there. This house was incorporated into his new house as the kitchen, dining room and living room. A central chimney connected to one large fireplace heated this section of the house. This portion of the house has a shallow dug-out cellar, is clapboarded on all sides and still has several of the six-over-six windows.

The main section of the house is sided in wooden clapboard and has a full basement made of cut stone from a quarry at Lake Ainslie. Perhaps the most noted feature of the house is the peaked window on the third floor. It is of gothic style and is on the verge of the roof. It has two small peaked windows in it. There is much decorative trim around all the windows and doors of the house. The entry porch is also carefully detailed with side lights and side pillars, much like a small Greek temple. Thus, the house though Gothic, shows some signs of the Greek revival style.

The larger section of the house contains the formal parlour, Campbell’s former offices and the bedrooms. The windows in the peak are original with three small panes in the triangular section and two-over-two in the lower portion. The front part of the house has two chimneys rising out of the centre of the ridge pole. Its striking architecture and location on a small hill with mature trees makes the house a local landmark.

Source: Municipality of the County of Inverness, Municipal Heritage Files, Campbell-Rose House

Character-Defining Elements

Character-defining elements of the Campbell-Rose House relate its Gothic Revival architecture include:

- two-and-one-half-storeys;
- wood frame construction;
- clapboard siding;
- local cut stone foundation;
- steep pitched roof with single, third floor gable;
- three bay façade;
- prominent double Gothic windows with pointed arches in central gable;
- entry porch with triangular pediment gable above door, two sidelights and transom above door and side pilasters on either side;
- double sash, four-over-four windows with modified projecting entabulatures;
- location on large property surrounded by mature trees.