Description of Historic Place

The two-and-a-half storey Queen Anne influenced residence known as the Noonan House was built in 1897 and is situated on a corner lot on the west side of the busy Granville Street and the north side of Fitzroy Street. Its style features include a gable roof with pedimented gable over two stacked bays, alternating shingle patterns, and beltcourses dividing the various storeys. The registration includes the building and its lot.

Heritage Value

The impressive residence at 203 Fitzroy was built in 1897 for Jeremiah M. Noonan and remained in the prominent family until 1968. It is valued for that reason and for the fact that it was one of the buildings which narrowly escaped the Great Fire of 1906. Its stately Queen Anne architecture and prominent presence on the corner of Fitzroy and Granville Streets also give it heritage value, contributing to the respective streetscapes.

J.M. Noonan was a prominent merchant with a general goods store on Water Street near the Railway Station. When he and his wife, the former Margaret Murphy, moved into the house they had four daughters under the age of seven. Their son, Ralph, was born in 1898 and another daughter, Pauline, was born in 1905.

The house came very close to being destroyed in the Great Fire of 1906. A barn on the property burned, but the efforts of firemen and citizens kept the residence and that of Richard Hunt at 193 Fitzroy from going up in flames. The local press noted: "Had these houses gone it is believed that nearly all the northern part of the town would have been swept out of existence."

Ralph Noonan inherited the house in 1942. He had graduated from the University of Toronto in 1923 with a degree in dentistry and established a practice on Water Street in Summerside, retiring shortly before his death in December 1967. He and his wife, the former Ruth Gallant, had no children. The executors of the estate, Pauline and Ruth Noonan, sold the house at 203 Fitzroy in 1968 to Waite's Pharmacy Ltd.

Howard and Wendell Waite were the owners of Waite's Pharmacy, which in 1983 was renamed Waite's Drug Mart Inc. It had been established in 1957, operating from a storefront first on Central Street and later on Water Street. Howard Waite and his wife took up residency in the house, remaining there until 1991. Two other owners have lived in it since that time.

Source: City of Summerside, Heritage Property Profile

Character-Defining Elements

The Queen Anne style heritage value of the house is shown in the following character-defining elements:

- the two-and-a-half storey massing of the building
- the steeply pitched gable roof running east-west
- the brick chimney centrally located on the east/west roofline
- the two sets of stacked bays, one on the south and one on the east elevation
- the wrap-around roofed sunporch with pedimented entryways which runs from one stacked bay to the other on the main level
- the one-over-one windows many with their original glazing
- the entrance porch featuring sidelights
- the alternating shingle and board cladding
- the beltcourses separating the various storeys
- the continuing contribution of the home to the Fitzroy Street streetscape