Description of Historic Place

The Martin Greene House is a two storey house built on a gable-ell plan. Built in the early 1900s, it is located close to the harbour in Titling, NL. The designation includes the house and four associated outbuildings, which include a cellar and three buildings used for storage.

Heritage Value

The Martin Greene House and associated outbuildings are designated because of their aesthetic and historical value.

The Martin Greene House is aesthetically valuable as it is an excellent example of the adaptation of new styles to meet traditional preferences. It combines a hall and parlour plan with a centre hall plan to result in a gable-ell layout. This design was introduced to Tilting by men from the community who had worked in New England and seen similar homes there.

The associated outbuildings add to the aesthetic value of the property. There are very few examples of outport homes with the majority of their outbuildings still remaining. Such buildings were designed for practical use, employing rough materials, simple design elements and utilitarian construction techniques.

The Martin Greene House is historically valuable as a physical example of way of life that saw people make great use of the resources available to them. Built by Lambert Greene upon his return from Boston, the house was constructed using large sections which were dismantled from another house belonging to Lambert on Greene’s Point.

The outbuildings are historically important as they are physical reminders of a way of life intrinsically linked to the land and sea. The cellar and stable each served a vital purpose in a subsistence economy which demanded that food be stored for both animal and human consumption. Other outbuildings aided in the prosecution of the fishery and subsistence agriculture by providing storage and working spaces.
Source: Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador property designation file M-051-009, Tilting - Martin Greene’s House

Character-Defining Elements

Those pertaining to the residence include
-gable-ell plan;
-number of storeys;
-mid pitch roof;
-wooden roofing shingles;
-return on eaves;
-decorative brackets on below eaves;
-narrow clapboard;
-corner boards;
-entrance on left end of front facade;
-location of porch on rear facade;
-size, style, trim and placement of exterior doors;
-window size, style, trim and placement;
-eared decoration and raincaps on windows and doors;
-chimney style and placement;
-stone and wood post foundation;
-white paint on front and side facades, red ochre on rear;
-dimension, location and orientation of building.

Those pertaining to the outbuildings include
-original form, scale and massing of outbuildings;
-wooden post building supports;
-narrow clapboard;
-corner boards;
-window size, style, trim and placement;
-size, style, trim and placement of exterior doors;
-red ochre exterior colour with white trim; -location and orientation of outbuildings in relation to the house and to one another.