Description of Historic Place

Mallard Cottage is a picturesque one-and-a-half storey wood-frame house set on a small lot near the road in the hamlet of Quidi Vidi, a suburb of St. John’s Newfoundland. The designation is confined to the footprint of the building.

Heritage Value

Mallard Cottage was designated because, with its hipped roof and central chimney, it is typical of the vernacular housing built by immigrants from southeastern Ireland in the first half of the nineteenth century.

The heritage value of this site resides in the materials as well as the elements of vernacular design and craftsmanship deriving from Irish-Newfoundland vernacular building traditions. The Mallards, a family of Irish origin, lived in the house for over a hundred years.

Source: Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador unnumbered property designation file, 1 Springdale Street, St. John's, NL, A1C 5V5

Character-Defining Elements

All those features reflective of its age and traditional vernacular design, including:
-rectangular massing under a low-hipped roof with rear linhay (lean-to);
-small scale;
-wood construction and beaded clapboard finish;
-five-bay facade with multi-pane, double-hung windows on ground level and smaller multi-pane windows above; and,
-interior plan of two rooms on the ground floor on either side of a massive central hearth and sleeping rooms above.