Description of Historic Place

Bread and Roses Country Inn was built in the 1880s and is located on Victoria Street in Annapolis Royal. Following the removal of the garrison from Annapolis Royal in 1854, the unused military-owned land of the White House Field was sold and subdivided, creating Victoria Street and Albert Road. Bread and Roses Country Inn is an impressive, two-and-a-half storey single detached brick residence built in the Queen Anne Revival style. The building and property are located in the provincial designation.

Heritage Value

The Bread and Roses Country Inn is valued for its brick masonry Queen Anne Revival architecural style. It is a rare, and possibly unique, example in Nova Scotia, demonstrating architectural details uncommon in North American examples of this style.

The Bread and Roses Country Inn was built in the 1880s. Dr. Arthur Cunningham purchased this property from James Gray in 1888 for $2400 and sold it for $3000 in 1908. Dr. Cunningham was a prominent local pharmacist and dentist.

Bread and Roses is a large two-and-a-half storey, brick masonry structure with a hipped roof with several gables, all covered in slates. Of the four standard categories of the Queen Anne Revival style, this building demonstrates the "patterned masonry" and to a lesser degree, the "half timbered" groups. These two categories are the rarest of the Queen Anne Revival making the Bread and Roses a rare, if not unique, example in Nova Scotia. The building also incorporates many elements in its interior that speak to the grandeur of this style, including detailed woodwork on mantels and door surrounds and a large entrance hall and main stairway.

The Bread and Roses Country Inn takes its name from the poem by James Oppenheim written in 1912 in response to the women textile workers strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts, seeking a reduction from a 56 to a 54 hour work week, without loss in pay. During one of the parades by the marching women, some carried a banner saying, "We want bread and roses, too." Bread and Roses currently operates as a Bed and Breakfast.

Source: Provincial Heritage Program property files, no. 177, 1747 Summer Street, Halifax, NS.

Character-Defining Elements

Exterior character-defining elements of the Bread and Roses Country Inn relating to its Queen Anne Revival style include:

- two-and-a-half storey, brick masonry structure;
- hipped roof with several gables, all covered in slates;
- asymmetrical elevations, irregular floor plans and complex massing;
- projecting bays, oriel windows, heavy pediments and inset porches;
- steeply pitched hip roof, broken with several large, pedimented gables, and roof cresting;
- large chimney rising at the gable end;
- finely cut freestone for string courses, quoining, lintels and sills.

Interior character-defining elements of the Bread and Roses Country Inn relating to its Queen Anne Revival style include:

- large entrance hall with sweeping stairway;
- irregular floor plan;
- window seats;
- large window at the stair landing with coloured glass;
- intricate woodwork of the mantels and door surrounds influenced by the Eastlake style;
- tiles surrounding the living room fireplace illustrate characters from several Shakespearean plays.