Description of Historic Place

Avery House is a two storey wood shingle modified Italianate style dwelling. It is located on Moran Street in Halifax, Nova Scotia. This style of house is quite common on the street and surrounding neighbourhood. Avery House is part of a larger streetscape of other simple working class houses. The heritage designation applies to the building and the land it occupies.

Heritage Value

Avery House, built in 1868, is valued for its association with its occupants, in particular the Avery family. Reverend Francis Joseph Avery, a respected Baptist minister, and his wife Elizabeth Crowdy emigrated to Canada in 1873 and took up residence in Halifax. They resided in Avery House from 1873 to 1879. The Reverend was noted for his good works in the community and church and was the minister of the North Street Baptist Church until 1874. Avery left the North Street Baptist Church to help found the Tabernacle Baptist Church. Reverend Avery and his family removed to New York City in 1887 where he accepted a position with the Mariner's Temple Church in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

In addition, Avery House is also valued for its association with Dr. Oswald Theodore Avery, the son of Rev. Avery who was born in the house in 1877. He was ten years old when his family relocated to New York City where he went on to graduate from Columbia University and the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1904. Avery preferred laboratory medicine and focused most of his research towards immunology. In 1943 Avery discovered that deoxyribonucleic acid, better known as DNA, is the functionally active substance in determining specific hereditary characteristics. That same year he became a member of the Rockefeller Institute where he worked until 1948. He left New York City for Nashville to work with his younger brother Dr. Roy Avery, a bacteriologist at the Vanderbilt School of Medicine. Oswald Avery died in Nashville in 1955. Throughout his distinguished career he was involved in laboratory research and received many awards for his work and played an early and critical role in the molecular revolution in biology.

Avery House is valued as an example of the simple residential buildings common in the North End of Halifax. The façade has been altered over time and shows little of its original Italianate features with the exception of its shape. Avery House contributes to its street, which is lined with houses of similar style houses.

Source: Heritage Property File: 2370 Moran Street, Avery House, found at HRM Planning and Development Services, Heritage Property Program, 6960 Mumford Road, Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of Avery House include:

- form and massing;
- simple exterior features;
- location among other similar houses.