Description of Historic Place

Malcolm MacKinnon House is a two-storey Italianate house with a two-storey angled bay and a full-width front verandah, located in a residential neighborhood in the east end of Truro, NS. Both the building, which was constructed in 1912, and the surrounding property are included in the heritage designation.

Heritage Value

Architectural Value

Malcolm MacKinnon House is valued as an excellent and well-preserved example of the housing built by moderately well-to-do railway workers in Truro’s east end during the pre-World War I period. Many contemporary houses at this end of Brunswick Street area were built to this particular template, or to one of a limited number of other basic plans. As a result, the neighborhood exhibits a uniformity of architecture and design that is a defining characteristic of Truro’s east end.

Historic Value

Malcolm MacKinnon House is also valued for its association with the family of Malcolm MacKinnon, a machinist in the CNR Roundhouse, who built this house and in whose family it has remained to the present day. In the late 19th century, Truro experienced a rapid influx of people from other areas of the province seeking stable and relatively well-paid employment in the operation and maintenance of the expanding local and inter-provincial railway systems. Entire families, of which the MacKinnons are representative, settled in the town, particularly its east end, and flourished there.

Source: Planning Department, Town of Truro, file 10MNS0053

Character-Defining Elements

External elements that define the heritage character of Malcolm MacKinnon House include:
- all original or historic building elements, such as: the basic late Victorian form and massing, with hipped roof, two-storey pedimented front bay, single-storey side bay on the west, and a small rear extension; full-width shed-roofed verandah, supported by turned posts and brackets; spindle decoration in the verandah frieze and railing, with matching frieze and brackets in the eave overflights; wide moulded eaves, with wide frieze and sill boards; discreet chimney, centrally placed.

- all original or historic door and window elements, such as: moulded door and window trim; panelled front door; double-sashed narrow windows, a front picture window, and smaller stairway windows on the west side.

- all original or historic building materials, such as: clapboard cladding; shingle cladding and trim in the front pediment; wooden trim painted a contrasting colour.

- all historic site elements, such as: placement on a raised platform above the street;
consistency with its neighbours in terms of form, placement relative to the street, materials, scale and usage.