Description of Historic Place

The Lindsay Gardner House is a two-storey house of wood construction, built in 1904 in the Queen Anne Revival style for Lindsay Gardner, a prominent pharmacist. It is located on the northeast corner of Carleton and Alma Streets in the Collins Heritage Conservation District in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. Municipal heritage designation applies to the house and its modest size residential lot.

Heritage Value

The Lindsay Gardner House is valued for its historical associations with Lindsay Gardner, its original owner, and with Jack Trask, a later owner who was the twenty-second mayor of Yarmouth. It is also valued for its Queen Anne Revival style architecture and the elements which distinguish it from other houses of the style.

This house was built in 1904 by Norman Crosby for Lindsay Gardner and his wife, Dora. Gardner was a prominent pharmacist in the town who first worked for C. C. Richards & Company, later becoming manager and eventually owner of the pharmacy. In 1918 he also became a director of the Minard’s Liniment Company, and by 1929 was its president and managing director. In 1928 Gardner was elected to the Provincial Legislature and in 1933 became Speaker, a position he held until his death in 1938. The property remained in the Gardner family until 1974 when it was purchased by Jack and Kay Trask.

Jack Trask was Yarmouth’s twenty-second mayor. He devoted sixteen years of service to the town, first as a councillor from 1960 to 1966, then as deputy mayor until 1973, and finally as mayor until 1976. He was also an active member of the Yarmouth Fire Department for twenty years, serving as Captain of the Naiad Company for nine years and as fire commissioner for seven years.

The Queen Anne Revival architecture of the Lindsay Gardner House is exemplified by its hipped roof, its asymmetrical massing, two full storeys and two-storey cutaway bay window with patterned shingling. The combination of a two-storey cutaway bay window with a pedimented gable is an unusual element on the Queen Ann Revival style house in the Yarmouth area.

Source: Registered Heritage Property files, Town of Yarmouth, NS.

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of the Lindsay Gardner House include:

- location in the Collins Heritage Conservation District near the central business district;
- proximity to other houses of similar scale;
- shallow setback on a modest size corner lot.

The character-defining elements of the Queen Anne Revival architecture of the Lindsay Gardner House include:

- two full storeys;
- wood construction and cladding;
- asymmetrical massing;
- off-centre entrance;
- double-hung sash windows;
- two-storey cutaway bay window clad with patterned shingles and crowned with a pedimented gable.