Description of Historic Place

207 Montague Street is a tall, three-storey, hip-roofed house with Italianate features located on the north side slope of Montague Street, facing the Lunenburg Shipyards and the harbour in Lunenburg, NS. There is a slight setback from the street, however the house seems to sit close to the streetline, due to the steep slope leading up to the front entrance. The house, originally a single-unit dwelling, is currently divided into flats. The heritage designation applies to both the building and surrounding land.

Heritage Value

207 Montague Street is valued as an example of an architectural style that was common in late-Victorian Lunenburg. The house was built before 1890 for Rebecca Selig, the widow of a well known local sea captain. It has many features derived from the Lunenburg Vernacular tradition, such as the symmetry of the front façade with a central entrance, but the general appearance of the building is Italianate. The height of the house is accentuated with deliberate use of decreasing window widths on the front façade, giving visual weight to the lower section and a relative lightness to the upper storeys. The national turn-of-the-century trend to move away from local building traditions is reflected in this home and other Lunenburg homes of the period. This trend had become possible due to increased prosperity in Lunenburg and improved transportation of material goods throughout Nova Scotia.

Souce: Heritage Designation File 66400-40-24, Town of Lunenburg.

Character-Defining Elements

Elements that define the character of 207 Montague Street relate to its largely Italianate design, with some elements of the Lunenburg Vernacular tradition, including:
- Italianate architectural elements, such as the hipped roof and cubic form of the house, enclosed front porch entrance with transom and sidelights, a triple-mullioned window on the second floor and another pair of roundheaded windows on the third floor;
- Lunenburg Vernacular elements, such as the clapboard cladding with wide cornerboards and endboards, small brackets at the eaves on the cornerboards and the setback into the steep slope, with only a small front yard area;
- elements that add to a sense of wealth and prosperity, including the vertical composition of the house, the symmetrical proportions and location in the core of Old Town Lunenburg, facing Lunenburg Harbour.