Description of Historic Place

The Dr. Lorne D. MacIntosh Home, Office and Hospital is a magnificent two-storey, concrete block, Arts and Crafts home that also served as an office and hospital. The building dominates a corner lot on Main Street in Hartland. Its original owner was a local physician, Dr. Lorne Decorsia MacIntosh.

Heritage Value

The Dr. Lorne MacIntosh Home, Office and Hospital, built in 1922-23, is designated a Local Historic Place for its unique architectural qualities for its era of construction and for its contribution to the community’s well being as a hospital and doctor’s office. The building is a rare and excellent example of the English Arts and Crafts Movement in New Brunswick. This style is evident in such details as the multiple gables, the wide eaves with bracing and the full-width veranda with square pillars.

Dr. Lorne MacIntosh, a physician in the community of Hartland, built this house as a residence, an office and a community hospital to enhance his private vocation. People often lived where they worked because roads were treacherous and transportation was by horse and carriage or sleigh. The nearest hospital was 20 km away. At that time, science was impacted by Louis Pasteur and Florence Nightingale who made connections between cleanliness, hygiene and ventilation and germs and contagious disease, an influence that swayed the Edwardian era. Evidence of these considerations in this structure are the easy-to-clean surfaces such as hardwood maple floors, linoleum hall flooring, painted walls and ceilings, metal furniture, white-washed kitchen cabinetry, mosaic white bathroom tile and ceramic cast iron fixtures with separate linen and broom closets. Rooms included in the hospital were a physician's office, waiting room, scrub and operating room, a stairwell that led to three private rooms and a four-bed ward. A separate closed ward with operating pocket windows, was built attached to the house over the carport. Folklore states its use was a sanatorium. Ventilation was promoted by multiple operational windows and light window treatments.

The hospital was separate from the private living areas which exhibit an Edwardian influence. The features present from this era include carpeted floors, large wood beam ceilings, dark paneling and the large wooden circular dark stairwell with carpet. A separate library is decorated in dark wood paneling, book shelves, operating fireplaces and operating windows that are shaded by a low roof line.

The entire house is enriched by natural wood elements of the region. Beach rock was taken from the shores of the Saint John River to face the second floor den fireplace. Local wood was used extensively throughout the house, such as, spruce for the framing, birch for the interior paneling, and maple for the hardwood floors. Red brick faces the fireplace in the study while gold brick faces the fireplace in the living room. It is a homey atmosphere suited at one time for the doctor’s personality as a gentleman farmer, avid fisherman with a love of horse racing. A local contractor and co-owner of the Hartland Cement works provided the concrete blocks for the entire exterior structure.

Sources: "Hidden History of Hartland" by Doris E. Kennedy, located at the Hartland Town Hall ; Hartland Town Hall archives, "Dr. Lorne MacIntosh Home, Office and Hospital" file.

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of the Dr. Lorne D. MacIntosh Home, Office and Hospital include:
- rectangular two-storey massing;
- complete exterior constructed with rusticated concrete blocks accented with darker dyed quoins, pillar bases, lintels and sills;
- red-brick chimney with four flues in the centre of the complex gabled roofs;
- lateral gable roof;
- wide overhanging eaves with traditional Arts and Crafts decorative triangular knee brace brackets, narrow soffit boards and wide fascia boards;
- concrete block twin dormers on the front and back façades with gable roofs and wide eaves;
- gable ends of dormers faced with blue painted trim and narrow vertical boards;
- exposed rafter tails on the gable dormers and veranda roof;
- tripartite windows with black mullions separating 16 single block panes in the upper windows;
- slanted roof covering rusticated concrete block, full-width veranda on the front façade with dark stained wainscoting on the ceiling and dropped sides, wide wood floor and square pillars;
- tripartite entrance on the left side of the front façade with squares of bevelled glass in dark stained wood sash;
- large 6-paned windows joined on the front façade to enhance the view of the Saint John River;
- transom containing 40 bevelled window panes topping a larger, 6-paned window;
- double-hung windows on main floor, vary as tripartite windows or single double-hung windows with the upper panes containing 16 or 12 square panes;
- tripartite windows on main floor have either a plain narrow horizontal window between a double hung window or a plain full-length window.

The character-defining elements of the interior include the original:
- English Arts and Crafts Movement detailing throughout;
- dark stained wooden beams;
- dark stained spruce wall paneling;
- circular wooden staircase, banister, door jams and frames;
- gold brick floor-to-ceiling operating fireplace with red leather warming seats;
- red-brick floor-to-ceiling operating fireplace;
- floor-to-ceiling stone-faced fireplace;
- antique ceiling light and wall lights;
- wooden doors with bevelled glass;
- built-in dark wood china cabinet;
- swinging solid wood door between the dining room and kitchen;
- floor-to-ceiling white-painted wood cabinetry, white breakfast nook, white wood paneling with pass-through wall china cabinet in dining room and small white ceramic tile on the walls;
- double entry on the north side;
- double doors between rooms for privacy;
- recessed linen closet and built in drawers;
- electric floor plugs; one per room, with original push-button light switches;
- hardwood maple dark-stained floors with original linoleum carpet in halls ways;
- large walk-in bathroom completed in mosaic white decorative tiles, cast iron white soaker tub, large wide ceramic sink, white ceramic flush and recessed ceramic shelves;
- enclosed room completed in wainscoting above south side carport, separate entrance off the main structure, operating pocket windows.