Description of Historic Place

Dimock House is a three-storey, wood framed home, situated on an elevated plot of land at the top of Locust Avenue, adjacent to the quiet, side-street intersection of Locust Avenue and Starr Street, Wolfville, Nova Scotia. Only the building is included in the designation.

Heritage Value

Dimock House is valued for its Vernacular style architecture that blends Queen Anne Revival and Stick styles. The property is also valued for its association to its builder, Frederick W. Woodworth.

An architecturally distinct structure in the Wolfville community, Dimock House displays a mix of Queen Anne and Stick styles. The Queen Anne influence is evident in the large size of the building, the side veranda, the bay windows, the curved wall design of the gable window, and the cornice of the gable end that forms a triangular pediment. Stick style architecture is reflected in the ornate turned woodwork of the cross gable on the building’s front façade.

Woodworth, one of Wolfville’s most active builders of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, is credited with constructing at least 23 homes and buildings in the community over the course of his 30-year career. The growth in the construction sector at this time was due to an economic surge in the export industry. Dimock House was constructed between 1898 and 1918.

Source: Town of Wolfville Heritage Property Program files, Dimock House file.

Character-Defining Elements

Character-defining elements of Dimock House include:

- asymmetrical appearance;
- two-bay façade;
- returning eaves with cornice;
- clapboard siding with wide corner boards;
- steep-pitched gable roof;
- full length side veranda on gable with Classical Revival style Doric columns and wood balustrade;
- central projecting cross gable on front façade with wood balustrade and decorative turned wood ornamentation above the bay window;
- small window with curved wall design above veranda;
- two-storey bay windows;
- matching dormer windows.