Description of Historic Place

This two-and-a-half storey, cross-gabled Queen Anne Revival dwelling overlooking the Nashwaak River is located on “Nob Hill” in the Marysville neighbourhood of Fredericton. The house, known as “Hatt House” after the original owners, features decorative wooden elements including scalloped shingling and “dot and dash” patterning around the windows, doors and eaves.

Heritage Value

The Hartt House was designated a Local Historic Place for its association with the Gibson family. The home was constructed in 1885 by Alexander “Boss” Gibson, the successful entrepreneur who was largely responsible for the industrial development of the former town of Marysville, for his daughter Annie and her husband Charles Hatt, a Fredericton merchant who became an accountant at Gibson’s cotton mill.

The heritage value of this residence is also associated with its Nob Hill location. The home was constructed alongside other Gibson family dwellings and homes built by Gibson for his business managers and overseers. Nob Hill extended from Boss Gibson’s mansion to the Methodist Church on the hill west of the Nashwaak River. These homes were placed strategically; the location not only provided a striking view of the river and the town below, but also provided a barrier between management and worker – “nobs” being industry management in Victorian lexicon.

Gibson’s design for Marysville was typical of Victorian industrial towns. Social and economic divisions were reinforced not only by location but also in the design of housing provided; the homes of family members, management, and workers were clearly demarked by size and amount of ornamentation. Hatt House is unique in that it was built for both a Gibson family member and a Gibson manager, which is reflected in its being the most elaborate of the “manager” homes and larger than the typical one-and-a-half storey cottage employed in the other homes. The design and detail of this residence is typical of the Queen Anne Revival style, one of the more elaborate residential styles from this era.

Source: City of Fredericton, Local Historic Places file, “Hatt House”

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements associated with the Hatt House include:
- its hillside location atop Nob Hill;
- its placement upon an open lot with landscaping;
- two-and-a-half storey wooden frame massing;
- steeply-pitched cross-gabled roof with returned eaves;
- clapboard siding with corner boards;
- two chimneys along the ridgeline;
- Queen Anne Revival decorative features including scalloped shingling on attic portion of gable ends, finials at the end of each gable, dot and dash pattern around the windows and doors, fan and circular decoration on upper stories and single-storey bays;
- enclosed veranda spanning the front façade;
- main double-door entrance with two-paned windows framing the stained glass;
- stained glass motifs on second storey windows;
- symmetrical massing with the exception of a second bay window on the north elevation.