Description of Historic Place

The Quintin Court Fish House is a 1 ½ storey, wood frame, gable end-facing fishery building on pier foundations, built circa 1880 in North Rustico.

Heritage Value

The Quintin Court Fish House is valued for its age, its importance to the landscape of North Rustico Harbour and its historical importance to the province's fishing industry, as well as for its long association with the Court family.

Originally built as a cookhouse for Simon Pineau's lobster factory, the Quintin Court Fish House was built circa 1880 and located at the end of the wharf in North Rustico. Pineau would end up losing his factory to storm damage, but the cookhouse's sheltered location among larger buildings prevented its loss. Around 1894, it was purchased by William Court, Jr., for use as a bait shed and fish house for the Court family's lobster factory, and was moved about 20 yards to the west.

The Court family, from Stratford-on-Avon in England, had settled nearby on the Cavendish Road in 1820, and sometime around 1865 the grandson of the family's patriarch, William Jr., set up a fishery at Rustico Harbour with the assistance of his father, George. This building, once acquired by the Courts, would come to anchor the family's fishing operation, a business handed down through succeeding generations to the present day.

While the Court family still owns the fish house, it has been leased to Outside Expeditions, a seasonal commercial business, with modifications carried out to accommodate it. In 2003, an asphalt roof was installed, in addition to a shed dormer on the east roof. In that same year, a chimney was removed and replaced with a ventilator, a deck was built onto the south elevation, and a number of new windows were installed on the south elevation (eight-over-eight paned), 2nd floor north elevation (two-over-one paned, sash windows), and the 2nd floor west elevation. Other, earlier modifications include two small additions on the north elevation circa 1980, and plywood to replace the wood shingles on the north elevation.

The Quintin Court Fish House is notable for being the oldest building of its kind in Prince Edward Island, and for forming part of a rare cluster of historic fishery structures on one of the oldest wharves in the province.

Heritage Places files, Department of Education, Early Learning and Culture, Charlottetown, PEI
File #: 4310-20/C11

Character-Defining Elements

The heritage value of the Quintin Court Fish House is shown in the following character-defining elements:

- the simple, gabled roof
- the construction of the fish house using birch beams on a base of fir
- the wood shingle cladding on the south, east, and west elevations
- the cornerboards
- the door openings on the first and second floors of the south elevation
- the windows openings on either side of the door on the second level of the south elevation
- the five small, rectangular window openings (three on the first storey, two on the second storey) on the east elevation
- the six-paned center window on the first storey level of the east elevation
- the two small, rectangular window openings on the first storey level of the west elevation
- the two window openings on the second storey level of the north elevation
- the location of the fish house on a timber pier foundation
- the overall good condition of the fish house

Additional interior elements:

- the exposed, axe-hewn beams