Description of Historic Place

27 Victoria Street West, also known as the Pugsley House, is an elegant two-and-a-half-storey residence located on the north side of Amherst, Nova Scotia’s main street. Built circa 1873, the large house stands quite far back on a spacious corner lot of an older residential area of town, and shares the area with other homes built in the same era. The building and property are included in the municipal designation.

Heritage Value

27 Victoria Street West is valued as a fine example of a well-maintained Victorian house. Amherst area farmer Amos Pugsley built it as a private family home in approximately 1873. Even though it has since been converted into four apartments, the general appearance and fabric of the house has not been changed from the original.

The house exemplifies the core elements of the Queen Anne Revival style with its asymmetric front and side bays, large verandah, turreted tower, and contrasting surfaces of straight and scalloped shingles. The front of the house is wrapped with a large verandah that draws your eye to the left side of the house where a two-storey bay rises to a turret on the third storey topped with a distinctive bell-shaped roof. The house is painted in contrasting colours that accentuate the decorative woodwork and enhance the building’s finely constructed architectural details.

Source: “Heritage Properties Amherst, 27 Victoria West” File, Cumberland County Museum

Character-Defining Elements

Character-defining elements of 27 Victoria Street West include all original architectural elements, such as:
- original form and massing;
- stone foundation;
- half-timbering on front gable and turret;
- decorative woodwork on verandah’s eave and balustrade;
- transom and sidelights;
- bracketed pediments;
- fan-shaped detailing in gable peaks.

Character-defining Queen Anne Revival elements of 27 Victoria West include:
- asymmetric shape;
- large wrap-around verandah;
- tower and turret with distinctive bell-shaped roof;
- bay windows;
- cladding of contrasting surfaces;
- hipped roof;
- spindle work on frieze of turret.