Description of Historic Place

The Price-Affleck House in Lower Bedeque is a two-part composite dwelling consisting of a Maritime Vernacular section in the back that was built circa 1826, fronted by a late Victorian Italianate section added around 1890.

Heritage Value

The Price-Affleck House is valued for its age, its architectural importance, its historical associations, and for its importance to the community of Lower Bedeque, Prince Edward Island.

The first section of this dwelling was built circa 1826 by George Price (1792-1875), a noted ship builder and captain. He was the eldest of eleven children born to United Empire Loyalist Richard Price (circa 1760-1844) and Anastasia Cody. The elder Price had come to the Island in 1784 from Shelburne after having served in the 7th Regiment of Foot during the American Revolution, and was granted acreage in Bedeque by Governor Walter Patterson in 1786. He would later relocate to Lower Bedeque and acquire another 300 acres of farmland, the property where his son, George, would build him a 1 ½ storey Maritime Vernacular house knowns as "Beech Worth".

Although born in Bedeque, George had been living with his wife and two small children in Miramichi, New Brunswick, when they lost their home during the Great Fire of 1825. Homeless, they returned to the Island, where his wife was delivered of their third child before she passed away. George remained in Bedeque, and inherited "Beech Worth" after his father's death in 1844, before permanently relocating to the United States in 1856.

"Beech Worth" stayed in the Price family, and sometime around 1890, a larger, 2 ½ storey Italianate addition was built onto its east elevation. There is some debate as to whether it was a new structure, or another Price family home that had once stood on its own. Some believe that there had once been two houses on the Price property, and that they were simply combined into one.

Following the Price family's tenure, the property was owned at different times by the Peacock and Waugh families, before it was purchased by the Afflecks around 1940. They continue to farm the land, and have maintained the historical integrity of the house. In its composite state, little has been done to alter it, with the exception of new windows added around 1995, as well as vinyl cladding.

The Price-Affleck house is significant for its connection to the province's United Empire Loyalist history, and for being the only extant dwelling known to have been inhabited by a Loyalist aside from the Anderson property in Fernwood. It is also a rare example of a composite house, and important for the role it plays in interpreting the story of the early families who settled in the Bedeque area.

Heritage Places files, Department of Education, Early Learning and Culture, Charlottetown, PEI
File #: 4310-20/P47

Character-Defining Elements

The heritage value of the Price-Affleck House is shown in the following character-defining elements:

- the location of the house on its original footprint
- the overall good condition of the house

ca. 1826 house ("Beech Worth")
- the steeply pitched, simple gabled roofline
- the wide eaves
- the original window opening on the 1st storey north (front) elevation
- the small, original window opening on the 2nd storey north (front) elevation

ca. 1890 house
- the simple gabled roof
- the low foundation
- the wide eaves
- the centered door opening on the front (south) elevation
- the fanlight above the front door, and the sidelights on either side
- the matching double storey bay windows with pedimented caps and wide eaves on the front elevation
- the second floor balcony with turned balusters on the front elevation
- the centred exterior door opening on the second floor balcony
- the turned posts supporting the balcony
- the turned balusters on the entry railing (front elevation)
- the ornate Italinate wood bracketing on the second floor bay windows
- the drop ornamental trim of the brackets on the outside edge of the second floor bay windows
- the flared wall and large overhang of the bay window pediment caps
- the one-over-one paned sash attic window (east elevation)
- the window openings on the first and second stories of the east elevation
- the attic window opening on the west elevation
- the first and second storey windows on the west elevation