Description of Historic Place

Buccleuch Place is a grand residence located on Shirreff Street in the former Town of Chatham. This 2 ½ story vernacular home, combining elements of Neo-classical and Greek revival style, is situated at the end of the short street which bears the original owner's namesake, Sheriff John Shirreff.

Heritage Value

Buccleuch Place is designated a Local Historic Place for its architecture and for its association with its residents.

Buccleuch Place or more commonly known as 'The Shirreff House' was built circa 1864 for its first owner John, son of A.D. Shirreff. It is an excellent example of a vernacular house that combines elements of Greek revival in Neo-classical traditions. Among its important landscape features are the commemorative hardwood trees planted in 1897 for Queen Victoria's Jubilee.

Like his father A. D. Shireff and brother A.D. Jr, John was a businessman in Miramichi, operating a general merchant business and processed fish to markets abroad. He was later appointed as High Sheriff to Northumberland County and held this position for twenty-six years, until his death in 1897. His daughter and benefactor, Jenny, wife of E. B. Eddy of the E. B. Eddy Match Co., gifted Shirreff Hall, the women’s residence, to Dalhousie University in 1920. It was reputed to have been the largest singular gift to a Canadian university up to that time.

Local druggist J. D. B. F. MacKenzie purchased the home several months after Shirreff's death. He earned many achievements during his life here including a founder and first President of the New Brunswick Pharmaceutical Society, a director of Dalhousie University, aide-de-camp to Lieut. Gov. J. B. Snowball and Lieut. Col. and commanding officer of Miramichi 73rd Militia Battalion. He was in charge of taking Newcastle's Wireless Field in defending Canada from the enemy during WWI.

Source: City of Miramichi, Heritage Office Site File# 05-38

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements that describe Buccleuch Place include:
- two and a half storey rectangular massing;
- symmetrical placement of chimneys;
- rectangular frontispiece extending to second level with pediment, wide eaves and returns;
- front entrance with rectangular transom and sidelights, pilasters, entablature and ornate pediment;
- symmetrical placement of 6/6 windows, clad in clapboards and wooden shingles.

The character-defining elements that describe the value of the site include:
- secluded landscaped grounds;
- placement of the home relative to the street;
- 25 hardwood saplings (now mature) planted on the short street in 1897 for Queen Victoria’s Jubilee Year.