Description of Historic Place

Marshlands Inn is a striking colonial house built in 1850 on well maintained landscaped grounds. The property is located on Bridge Street, one block from the downtown core of Sackville.

Heritage Value

Marshlands Inn’s heritage value and reason for designation as a local historic place is associated with its significant architecture, and the role that two of its earliest long time owners, Edward Cogswell and Henry C. Read, played in the development of commercial enterprises in the area. This property was designated a historic site by the Town of Sackville in 1999.

This impressive house was built in 1850 by William Crane, an early merchant, landowner, politician and partner of Charles Frederick Allison. Built as a wedding present for his daughter Ruth, it was completed shortly after her marriage to Edward Cogswell. Extensive interior and exterior renovations and additions were completed between 1905 and 1908

Edward Cogswell came to the Sackville in 1842 from Cornwallis, Nova Scotia and by 1868 was appointed agent of the extensive and valuable Hon. Wm. Crane estate until his own death in 1895. Cogswell formed a company, with partners Sir Albert Smith and Senator Amos Botsford to carry on stove making at the old Dominion Foundry, afterwards Enterprise Foundry that is still in operation today.

Another owner of note was Henry C. Read. Read purchased the property after the death of Edward Cogswell. The Read family had been in the stone business since the early 1800s. Henry ‘s son, Herbert W. Read, supervised the family grindstone business where some of their quarries produced the finest natural abrasives in the world while other quarries produced superior building stone. Herbert read and his wife, Anne Smith, opened the property as an inn in 1935 which subsequently became famous for quality service. The property remained in the Read family until the 1980s, and is still running as an inn.

Source: Town of Sackville Historic Places Files: "Marshlands Inn"

Character-Defining Elements

Key architectural character defining elements of the Marshlands Inn include:
- the stone block basement;
- the large veranda along side of house with portico effect over front door;
- wooden columns that decorate the exterior porch, topped with Ionic-style capitals, resembling the horns of a ram;
- the mansard roof with Palladian windows set in dormers ;
- three chimneys, two centre of house, one on back extension;
- house siding of white decorative clapboard;
- unusual arrangement of windows on side of house facing Bridge Street, with decorative arch over bottom small windows;
- large front door, set in decorative frame with transoms and sidelights, dating to 1908;
- the carriage house, at the rear of the property, converted to extra rooms for the guests.

Character defining elements that reflect the status of Edward Cogswell and Henry C. Read in the area include:
- the setting near the core of the community, and effect of house and well landscaped grounds on the streetscape.