Description of Historic Place

The Dr. Henry N. Payne Community Museum is a two storey wooden house located at 143 Main Street in the town of Cow Head, Newfoundland and Labrador. Cow Head is the most northerly settlement within Gros Morne National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The designation encompasses the entire property bound by the fence.

Heritage Value

The Dr. Henry N. Payne Community Museum has been designated a Municipal Heritage Structure because it has aesthetic and historic values.

The Dr. Henry N. Payne Community Museum is aesthetically valuable because it is one of the few early 20th century buildings remaining in the community of Cow Head in its original form. This house is a good example of early vernacular house construction. The simplicity of design reveals the functional nature of the house. A mid pitch roof has replaced an earlier gambrel roof; a common practice in much of rural Newfoundland. The house has a small lean-to side porch which was added to facilitate extra guests, and it has a shed roof. The simplicity of the home is carried over in the lack of adornment, the narrow wooden clapboard, the wide corner boards and the 1/1 windows.

The Dr. Henry N. Payne Community Museum is historically valuable because of its associations with Dr. Henry N. Payne. Dr. Payne was a prominent citizen of the community of Cow Head. He was an educator in the community for 45 years, and he was very involved in his church, along with his wife, Minnie. He was the lay reader for the Anglican Church for 60 years and she was the organist. Dr. Payne was a Justice of the Peace, a field worker for the co-operative movement, member of the library board, parish council, local improvement board and the St. Barbe South Integrated School Board. In 1975, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws from Memorial University of Newfoundland. Dr. Payne often took visiting guests into his home, such as the Bishop, the Rangers, the Magestrate and School Inspectors.

Source: Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador unumbered property file - Cow Head Dr. Henry Payne House.

Character-Defining Elements

All those elements of the 20th century vernacular design, including:
-narrow wood clapboard;
-mid-pitch gable roof;
-wide cornerboards;
-1/1 windows;
-window fenestrations; and
-side lean-to with shed roof.