Description of Historic Place

Captain George Anderson House, built in 1855, is a 2-storey wood frame Romantic Octagon style dwelling located on King Street in the Town of Sackville.

Heritage Value

Captain George Anderson House is designated a Local Historic Place because of its rare Romantic Octagon architectural style and its association with local mariner and shipbuilder Captain George Anderson.

The style of the house was influenced by the house pattern book of Orson Fowler, “The Octagon House, A Home for All”. This is a very rare style of house. This may be the only house of this type remaining in New Brunswick. The house overlooked the marsh, the wharf, and two of the shipyards allowing Captain George Anderson to oversee activities associated with his business. He constructed four vessels at the Dixon shipyard between 1863 and 1872. This shipyard, one of the two shipyards in the area of Landing Road, was utilized by a number of shipbuilders.

The house remained in the Anderson family until 1901 when Thomas Rheese Anderson sold the property to Horatio Richardson. The Octagonal House was used by Enterprise Foundry Co. Ltd for many years to store patterns for the manufacture of stoves and the company kept the property in good condition.

The building was purchased by the Town of Sackville, moved and restored before being officially reopened in June 1989 as the Sackville Visitor Information Centre. The Town of Sackville placed a heritage marker on the building in 1999.

Source: Town of Sackville Historic Places Files-"Captain George Anderson House" file

Character-Defining Elements

Character defining elements of the Captain George Anderson House that relate to its architectural style and which can be associated with the time period in which Captain George Anderson used the structure include:
- octagonal 2 storey massing;
- low-pitched hip roof;
- Greek Revival influence for the centrally placed original door, a fan transom, panelled sidelights, detailed pediments and columns;
- two single-storey hipped-roof side bays;
- multi-paned sashed windows with slender muntins;
- second floor features attic storey windows, scaled down version of those seen on first floor;
- one original hip dormer on back of house.