Description of Historic Place

Located on Main Street in Liverpool, Queens County, Perkins House is a one and one half storey Cape Cod style home with a rear ell, gabled roof, two dormer windows and two red brick chimneys. The heritage designation for Perkins House includes the building and its lot.

Heritage Value

Perkins House is valued for its association with the famous Nova Scotia diarist Colonel Simeon Perkins and his diary recovered in 1897. The Colonel's diary is considered to be one of Canada's most valuable historic documents and it was from descriptions in this diary that the Perkins House was restored to its pre-1812 state.

Native to Connecticut, Perkins immigrated to Nova Scotia in 1762 where he established himself as a successful businessman active in West Indian trade and the fisheries. As a leading member of the community, Perkins was involved in many areas of local and colonial government, conducting business and entertaining royal governors, naval officers, private captains and wandering preachers in his home.

From 1767 until the year of his death in 1812, Colonel Simeon Perkins recorded in his diary, the experiences and events of everyday colonial life in Liverpool, Nova Scotia.

Source: Provincial Registry File No. 009, Heritage Property Program, 1747 Summer Street, Halifax, NS B3H 3A6

Character-Defining Elements

Character-defining elements associated with the house of the prominent diarist Colonel Simeon Perkins include:
-the form and massing of the house
-its rear ell
-its gable roof with two dormers and two chimneys
-the unique planked wall construction of the house
-the ochre-tinted wood shingle roof and interior finishes as recorded in Perkins' diary
-the traces of a separate and private exterior entrance to the study
-the plan of the house reinforcing the historic public and private dual function of the house