Description of Historic Place
Victoria is prominently located on the corner of Victoria Street and Regent Street in Amherst, Nova Scotia. This Queen Anne Revival style house, built in 1907, was designed by Willard Morse Mitchell for local businessman, Edgar Hewson. The house and property are included in the provincial designation.
Victoria is valued because it is one of the finest examples of the Queen Anne Revival style in the province of Nova Scotia, and because its erection reflected the industrial prosperity of Amherst at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Rapid growth in Amherst began with the completion of the Intercolonial Railway in 1876 and the development of the Cumberland County coal industry, transforming the community from a village to an industrial town. Such industries as the Amherst Boot and Shoe Company and especially the Canadian Car and Foundry Company created an industrial boom. By 1908, the manufacturing output of Amherst industries exceeded any other Maritime centre.
Among the new industries established was the Amherst Woolen Mills. It was the owner of Amherst Woolen Mills, Edgar Hewson, who commissioned architect Willard Morse Mitchell in 1907 to design a house that would reflect the industrial prosperity of busy Amherst. Edgar Hewson was a local businessman and barrister. He and his brother, Harvey also had two other grand homes built in Amherst.
Victoria is one of the finest examples of the Queen Anne Revival style of architecture in the province, demonstrating the three main characteristics associated with this style. The first is its asymmetrical massing, as seen in the corner tower and verandah. The second characteristic is an eclectic use of Classical elements, as seen in the verandah columns and the bracket supported pediment over the centre window. The third characteristic of this style is the variety in the exterior cladding, both in terms of texture and colour. In Victoria, the cladding material ranges from decorative stone to wooden clapboard to plain wooden shingle to decorative wooden shingle with scallop edge.
Several of these themes are continued on the interior of Victoria. Floor plans, especially those of the principal rooms, tend to be irregular with several nooks. Throughout the interior, there is a catholic use of decorative motifs, and of particular note are: the lighting fixtures, such as that on the newel post; the lions supporting one of the fireplace mantels; the neo-classical design of another fireplace; and the stained glass windows. Also of interest are the foundation walls, built of roughly cut blocks of red sandstone.
Victoria is the most imposing of the three homes that were built for the Hewson family within a two block area, and one of the most architecturally interesting houses in Amherst.
Source: Provincial Heritage Program property files, no. 127, 1747 Summer Street, Halifax, NS.
Character-defining elements relating to the Queen Anne Revival style of Victoria include:
- asymmetrical massing seen in the corner tower and verandah;
- centered entrance;
- Classical elements, as seen in the verandah columns and bracket supported pediment over the centre window;
- decorative stone and wooden clapboard cladding;
- plain wooden shingles and decorative wooden shingles with a scallop edge;
- irregular floor plans, with several nooks;
- foundation walls built of roughly cut blocks of red sandstone;
- prominent location and siting on a corner property in a central area of the Town of Amherst.