Description of Historic Place

5 Main Street in the Village of Victoria is a Gable and Ell style house with wooden clapboard. It is situated on the southern part of Main Street on a treed lot among other heritage buildings. The registration includes the building's exterior and parcel; it does not include the building's interior.

Heritage Value

5 Main Street is valued for its well preserved Gable and Ell architectural style and for its Gothic Revival features. According to Meacham's 1880 Atlas of PEI, the property was owned by "Jno" or John Lea. However, no building appears on the map at this time. It is believed the house was built sometime in the late 1880s.

The first legal record of the house shows a D.W. Palmer deeding the property to a Charlotte (Clark) MacQuarrie, widow of William, in 1896. She continued to own the house until 1956, when her daughter, Wilhelmina Lord, inherited it.

By 1970, Wilhelmina sold it to the Butterfield family. From 1974-1987, it was the location of a business known as the "Craft Cottage." In 1975, it became home to possibly the first glass studio in PEI when Don Pell established a hot glass studio on the site. Today, the blue glass plates in the bay window are a surviving reminder of this time in its history.

Since the early 1990s, the house has been used as a summer residence.

The style of the building is Gable and Ell, a typical architectural style on PEI which is more often seen in rural areas. The house also features some well preserved Gothic Revival details including the bay window on the east elevation, the round arch window in the wall dormer of the Ell, and the clapboard cladding which is original.

Some modifications have occurred including replacement windows and doors and a new foundation. However, these have not altered the fenestration of the front facade.

As a well maintained example of a typical Gable and Ell style house, 5 Main Street adds to the heritage character of its streetscape.

Source: Culture and Heritage Division, PEI Department of Community and Cultural Affairs, Charlottetown, PE C1A 7N8
File #: 4310-20/V13

Character-Defining Elements

The following character-defining elements illustrate the Gable and Ell heritage value of 5 Main Street:

- The overall massing of the building with two storeys
- The Gable and Ell configuration of the house
- The wood clapboard cladding
- The gable roofs of the house, including the gable roof on the wall dormer
- The fenestration of the windows and doors
- The simple trim mouldings painted in a contrasting colour

The Gothic Revival elements of the house include:

- The prominent bay window of the east elevation
- The round headed window of the wall dormer