Description of Historic Place

The Dorey House is a one-and-a-half storey, mid-nineteenth century, Gothic Revival house situated beside the coastal highway near Queensland Beach on a rise of land overlooking St. Margaret's Bay. The designation includes the building and the lot it occupies.

Heritage Value

The Dorey House is valued for its association with the early settlement of this part of St. Margaret's Bay by descendants of the Foreign Protestants of Lunenburg, who were engaged in farming and fishing. It is one of the oldest houses in Queensland and was constructed about 1848 by David Winaught, a yeoman farmer, on a twenty-three acre property purchased from one of the original land grant holders. After his death in 1876, the property was passed on to his son John, a fisherman and later, in turn, to John's wife Frances in 1892, and Frances' daughter, Sadie Dorey, in 1937. This chain of founding family ownership remained unbroken for almost 140 years until 1984 when the house was sold.

Although now located on a much smaller lot, the siting of the house on a knoll overlooking the shore still evokes its origins in the traditional rural coastal economy, with the sea in front and the upland woods behind.

The house is also valued for its architecture. The simple, graceful, and slightly austere quality of the Gothic Revival style and the lack of any extraneous ornamentation reflect the hard working lives of the people who built the house and lived in it through several generations. The front of the house, facing the sea and the public road, includes a formal entrance, a wide veranda, and an imposing pointed dormer, while the back of the house includes a less formal, functional entrance located in a small rear ell.

The adjacent road, Dorey Lane, which abuts the property and gives access to the rear entrance, is named after the property.

Source: HRM Heritage Property File: Queensland, 15 Dorey Lane, Dorey House, found at HRM Planning and Development Services, 6960 Mumford Raod, Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Character-Defining Elements

Character-defining elements that contribute to the Gothic Revival style and heritage value of the building include:

- simple massing and rectangular floor plan;
- stone foundation;
- steeply pitched gable roof;
- large, triangular, Gothic dormer on front elevation;
- small, single storey rear ell, with steeply pitched gable roof;
- central front door;
- symmetrical arrangement of windows on front and side elevations;
- vertically proportioned, six-over-six windows, some with original glass;
- front veranda with shallow pitch, hipped roof, and plain wooden posts and railing;
- plain wooden trim around windows and doors;
- corbelled chimney;
- location beside the highway, overlooking the shoreline.