Description of Historic Place

The Moses Atkinson House, located at the corner of Highway 333 and Kenny Road in the community of Stoney Island on Cape Sable Island, Nova Scotia. Its mansard roof and dormer windows are its most striking features. The property, which includes the house, land and burial ground are included in the heritage property designation.

Heritage Value

The Moses Atkinson House is valued for its historical associations, Second Empire style architecture and for the small burial site on the property.

The lot on which the Atkinson House is located is associated with one of the earliest residents of the area. In the early nineteenth century merchant Thomas Ross, the son of a Loyalist living in Shelburne, dismantled his home and brought it with him to Stoney Island. Here he rebuilt the house and resided with his wife Abigail and the couple raised their twenty-one children. The Ross family established a family burial plot on a section of the property, near the shore. Both Abigail and Thomas are buried here along with an estimated thirty members of their family. In the 1930s their descendants erected a stone enclosure around the plot and erected a monument in memory of Thomas and Abigail.

James Brown purchased the property and built a new house circa 1888 and sold it to Andrew Trott in 1892. The house is now known as the Moses Atkinson House. Trott was lost at sea and the house passed to his widow, who went on to marry local merchant and carpenter Moses Atkinson. One of four telephones of a private telephone system on Cape Sable Island was installed in this house for Atkinson. The house remains in the Atkinson family.

The Moses Atkinson House is a typical home of the area, with a mansard roof and dormer windows. Much of the original ornamentation, consistent with the Second Empire style in rural Nova Scotia, has been covered by vinyl siding.

Source: Municipality of the District of Barrington, Registered Heritage Property files, Moses Atkinson House file.

Character-Defining Elements

Character-defining elements of the Moses Atkinson House include:

- all elements associated with the Second Empire style, including mansard roof with inset dormers and one storey bay window;
- location close to the road;
- black shingles on roof;
- original position and size of windows (with exception of kitchen window);
- two-storeys;
- form and massing;
- small pediment over front door supported by decorative brackets;
- original wooden front door;
- all original and historic interior elements including stairway and banister in the hallway and window seats in dormers.

Other character-defining elements of the Moses Atkinson House include:

- three stone cellars on the property (related to earlier inhabitants of the property);
- family burial ground surrounded by stone enclosure near shoreline.