Description of Historic Place

The Zoeth Freeman House is a two-storey Georgian style residence built in 1820. It is located in the rural village of Milton, Queens County, Nova Scotia. Municipal heritage designation applies to the building and the land which it occupies.

Heritage Value

Zoeth Freeman was a great-grandson of Elisha Freeman, one of the original grantees and earliest settlers in the Township of Liverpool. Elisha Freeman built and ran one of the first sawmills in the Milton area shortly after the family removed to Liverpool from Eastham, Massachusetts in 1760. Through the years the family expanded their timberland holdings and lumbering industry and became one of the most prominent families in Liverpool Township.

Zoeth Freeman was named for his great uncle Zoeth, a son of Elisha Freeman. Zoeth the elder and his wife had no children, but on the marriage of Zoeth the younger in 1820, gave his namesake a building lot for the newlyweds' home and at his death in 1824 willed him his extensive holdings. According to local tradition, this house was designed and built by Zoeth Freeman the younger with Freeman lumber and by Freeman carpenters. Eleven children were born and raised here, including three sons who became physicians and another who became a civil engineer and provincial surveyor.

As well as being an astute businessman in the Freeman enterprises, Zoeth Freeman was an influential man in the community of Milton and was credited with organizing the local men, twenty-eight shareholders, to found the first public school in Milton in 1828, which was the forerunner of Milton Academy where many local youth were educated in the professions.

The original one-and-a-half storey house was enlarged around 1905, creating a two-storey structure of Georgian design. The Georgian style architecture of the Zoeth Freeman House is evident in its rectangular, two-storey timber frame construction, the symmetrical façade with centred entrance, the medium pitched gable roof with return eaves and the double hung sash windows. A more recently added one-and-a-half storey back ell is compatible with the main structure.

Source: Municipal heritage property files, "Zoeth Freeman House", Region of Queens, NS.

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of the Zoeth Freeman House include:
- location in a rural community;
- large, well-treed riverfront lot;
- narrow setback from road;
- residential building.

The character-defining elements of the Georgian architecture of the Zoeth Freeman House include:
- two-storey timber frame construction;
- medium pitched gable roof with return eaves;
- symmetrical façade with centred entrance;
- five bays in first storey and three bays in upper storey;
- clapboard-clad facade and shingle-clad sides and back;
- corner pilasters;
- double hung sash windows;
- stone foundation.