Home / Accueil

283 Green Street

283 Green Street, Summerside, Prince Edward Island, C1N, Canada

Formally Recognized: 2008/03/31

Showing southwest elevation; Wyatt Heritage Properties, 2008
Showing southwest elevation
Showing south elevation; Wyatt Heritage Properties, 2008
Showing south elevation
Aerial view of house in 1958; Wyatt Heritage Properties, Acc. 013.21
Aerial view of house in 1958

Other Name(s)

283 Green Street
George MacQuarrie House

Links and documents

Construction Date(s)

1928/01/01

Listed on the Canadian Register: 2008/09/05

Statement of Significance

Description of Historic Place

The square proportioned Colonial Revival style two-storey house at 283 Green Street is located on a large lot on the north side of the street. It has a white exterior with a red asphalt shingle hipped roof with dormers and wide eaves. It was built for prominent silver fox industry entrepreneur George MacQuarrie in 1928. The registration includes the building and its lot.

Heritage Value

The attractive house at 283 Green Street is historically significant as the home of silver fox entrepreneur George MacQuarrie and later of prominent citizen Senator Creelman MacArthur. It also has value as one of the residences known to have been constructed by engineer and contractor H.M. Downing. It also draws heritage value as a very fine example of Colonial Revival architecture.

George R. MacQuarrie had the two-storey residence constructed in 1928. This son of David MacQuarrie of Crapaud, had come to Summerside around 1909 to work as a bookkeeper. Before 1914, he became involved with the fox industry and gradually built up a business buying, cleaning and selling valuable fox pelts from his office premises on Summer Street. By the late 1920s, he had amassed enough profit to build this sizable dwelling on Green Street.

In December 1933, Senator Creelman MacArthur purchased the property and subsequently sold the house that had been built for him in 1907 at 154 Spring Street. Mr. MacArthur had grown up in Summerside, starting his business career with R.T. Holman Limited. He later joined the mercantile firm of Brace, McKay and Company and rose to the level of president. He entered politics in 1919, serving two terms as the Liberal representative for 5th Prince. He resigned his seat in September 1925 when he accepted an appointment to the Senate. In addition to his provincial and federal positions, he served on the Summerside Town Council from 1912 to 1913 and was president of the Board of Trade for several years.

When Senator MacArthur died in 1943, he left the house to his widow, and second wife, Muriel, the daughter of Harry Lee of Summerside. Mrs. MacArthur purchased the Barbara Ann Ladies Wear shop on Water Street in the early 1950s and in 1962 married William D. Young, a local insurance agent. Following her death in 1986, her only child, Creelman MacArthur, sold the property.

The house remains a well preserved example of a four square Colonial Revival style house in Summerside and continues to contribute to its streetscape. This architectural style is often referred to locally on PEI as "Fox House" architecture because so much of new house construction in the first third of the 20th century was of this type. The popularity of the style coincided with the heyday of the silver fox industry on PEI, thus the Fox House descriptive name.

Source: City of Summerside, Heritage Property Profile

Character-Defining Elements

The heritage value of this fine example of Colonial Revival architecture is shown in the following character-defining elements:

- the square two-storey massing and form of the building
- the hipped roof with dormers on the east and west elevations
- the wide eaves with modillion brackets
- the two large brick chimneys
- the location, size and shape of original window and door openings
- the single storey hipped roof sunporch off the west elevation set back with modillion brackets under the soffit
- the grand vestibule entrance with hipped roof, round centre arch, and ionic columns supporting wide entablature with fine dentilation
- the small Italianate round arch windows on east and west sides of vestibule
- the hipped roof oriel window on the east elevation with decorative moulding
- the vestibule with bracketted soffit on the north and east corner of the house
- the continuing contribution it makes to the Green Street streetscape

Recognition

Jurisdiction

Prince Edward Island

Recognition Authority

City of Summerside

Recognition Statute

Heritage Conservation Bylaw SS-20

Recognition Type

Registered Historic Place (Summerside)

Recognition Date

2008/03/31

Historical Information

Significant Date(s)

n/a

Theme - Category and Type

Expressing Intellectual and Cultural Life
Architecture and Design

Function - Category and Type

Current

Historic

Residence
Single Dwelling

Architect / Designer

n/a

Builder

n/a

Additional Information

Location of Supporting Documentation

City of Summerside, Heritage Property Profile

Cross-Reference to Collection

Fed/Prov/Terr Identifier

SS-20-SR33

Status

Published

Related Places

n/a

SEARCH THE CANADIAN REGISTER

Advanced SearchAdvanced Search
Find Nearby PlacesFIND NEARBY PLACES PrintPRINT
Nearby Places