Description of Historic Place

The dwelling at 23 Russell Street is a wood shingled Maritime Vernacular centre gable style house with a decorative verandah and unique second storey sun porch. It is located on treed grounds near the street. The registration includes the building's exterior and parcel; it does not include the building's interior.

Heritage Value

23 Russell Street is valued for its well preserved Maritime Vernacular centre gable style; for its association with early residents of Victoria; and for its contribution to the streetscape.

Meacham's 1880 Atlas of PEI shows a building on the property owned by James McGuigan, but it is not clear if it is the current house. It is estimated that it was built between 1870 and 1880. The style is centre gable with a central chimney. Several elements remain intact including the decorative verandah with dentil decoration and doric support columns. The decorative window caps remain on several of the windows. Modifications to the house have included the addition of the second storey sun room in the 1930s or 1940s and the addition of side porches in the 1940s.

The house is most associated with the family of Louis Davis MacLeod (1888-1972) who came to the Village in 1917. He and his sons operated a successful meat market and wholesale business which supplied the car ferries at Borden, PEI. They also sold Massey Harris farm machinery, fertilizer and seed.

The house remains in the MacLeod family. An interesting feature of the property is the small healing cottage in the backyard used in the 1930s for a family member who was convalescing from tuberculosis (TB). The prominent sun room on the second storey of the house was likely also added for this purpose.

With its well preserved architecture and historic associations in the Village, 23 Russell Street continues to contribute to its streetscape.

Source: Culture and Heritage Division, PEI Department of Community and Cultural Affairs, Charlottetown, PE C1A 7N8 File #: 4310-20/V27

Character-Defining Elements

The following character-defining elements illustrate the Maritime Vernacular centre gable heritage value of 23 Russell Street:

- The overall massing of the building with its two storeys
- The wood shingle cladding
- Decorative lintels and hood mouldings over the windows and doors
- The addition of a 10-window sun room on the second floor to aid in the healing of a tuberculosis patient
- The doric columned verandah, original to the structure, partially enclosed with a bay window on either end
- The decorative dentil moulding of the verandah
- The steeply pitched centre gable roof design
- The original Island sandstone foundation
- The original chimney

Other character-defining elements include:

- The building's prominent location on Russell Street and its physical and visual relationship to its streetscape
- The small gable roofed, wood frame, shingle clad backyard "healing cottage" used in the 1930s to aid the recuperation of a TB patient