Description of Historic Place

19 Water Street is a one-and-a-half-storey wooden home set close to the road on Water Street, a short dead-end street running east-west and adjacent to the north bank of the Annapolis River in the Town of Bridgetown, Nova Scotia. This street is home to some of the oldest houses in the town. The property and the building are included in the designation.

Heritage Value

The property at 19 Water Street, built between 1825 and 1835, is valued as one of the oldest houses in Bridgetown and as one of its earliest examples of the vernacular tradition. It is also valued as one of the first public houses serving the river trade around which the early town was centred.

The first owner of this house, James Peters, operated it as a public house and rooming house for sailors - many of whom would have disembarked from merchant vessels docking on the riverbank adjacent to Water Street, and for whom he bought many gallons of rum, brandy and peppermint (presumably for freshening their mouths).

This simple home in the vernacular style draws its character as much from its age and location next to the former working waterfront, on the Annapolis River, as from its architecture.

Its simplicity is in keeping with homes on neighbouring streets, which are less ornate in design and decoration than homes built in the town later in the nineteenth century and in the early years of the twentieth century. It is also typical of the older houses on this short riverfront street, most of which have end-gable roofs rather than front-facing gables.

The most prominent architectural feature of this house is the large dormer window above an enclosed front entry that projects outward from the centre of the three-bay façade.

Heritage Property file no. 4, Town of Bridgetown, NS.

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of 19 Water Street include:

- end-gable roof with return eaves and raised roofline at the rear;
- three-bay façade;
- large dormer window supported by an enclosed front entry;
- return eaves that accentuate the pedimented dormer;
- location of the property, adjacent to the site of the former shipyards on the north bank of the Annapolis River.