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Chapman House National Historic Site of Canada

Chapman Road, Cumberland, Subdistrict C, Nova Scotia, B4H, Canada

Formally Recognized: 1968/11/28

Corner view of Chapman House, 1980.; Parks Canada Agency / Agence Parcs Canada, 1980.
General view
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Other Name(s)

Chapman House National Historic Site of Canada
Chapman House
Maison Chapman

Links and documents

Construction Date(s)

1775/01/01 to 1780/01/01

Listed on the Canadian Register: 2007/06/12

Statement of Significance

Description of Historic Place

Chapman House National Historic Site of Canada is a two-storey red-brick house which preserves the ''Georgian'' form, typical of a prosperous eighteenth-century east coast farmhouse.
Located in Fort Lawrence, Nova Scotia, the house sits on a knoll, overlooking the Amherst Marsh and LaPlanche River. The official recognition refers to the house on its legal lot.

Heritage Value

Chapman House was designated a national historic site of Canada because it preserves the basic form and many of the details of a prosperous late 18th-century farmhouse.

The house was built by Charles Dixon and William Chapman Junior for Major Thomas Chapman, in the tradition of the British classical vernacular of the time. Chapman, one of several English immigrants settling this area in the 1770s, pursued farming on the fertile marsh and dyke lands already developed by the Acadians.

Source: Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, Minutes, Nov. 1968.

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements contributing to the heritage value of this site include:

- its location near the Nova Scotia - New Brunswick border;
- its rural setting at the end of a long driveway, amongst agricultural lands and outbuildings;
- the two-storey, rectangular massing of the main block;
- its steep front-sloping pitched roof with tight eaves and end chimneys;
- its brick and timber construction on a cut stone foundation;
- the pattern created from the locally made red brick with black headers set in Flemish bond;
- its five-bay façade with side-lit central entry and side-lit window above;
- its classically inspired detailing with simple cornice, frieze and fretted dentils;
- its multi-pane sash windows framed under a flat brick arch with projecting keystones;
- its surviving centre-hall interior plan, finishes and details, including original fireplaces, doors, woodwork, and hardware.

Recognition

Jurisdiction

Federal

Recognition Authority

Government of Canada

Recognition Statute

Historic Sites and Monuments Act

Recognition Type

National Historic Site of Canada

Recognition Date

1968/11/28

Historical Information

Significant Date(s)

n/a

Theme - Category and Type

Expressing Intellectual and Cultural Life
Architecture and Design

Function - Category and Type

Current

Historic

Residence
Single Dwelling

Architect / Designer

William Chapman Jr.

Builder

Charles Dixon

Additional Information

Location of Supporting Documentation

National Historic Sites Directorate, Documentation Centre, 5th Floor, Room 89, 25 Eddy Street, Gatineau, Quebec

Cross-Reference to Collection

Fed/Prov/Terr Identifier

264

Status

Published

Related Places

n/a

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