Description of Historic Place

91 Victoria Street East is a two-storey commercial Victorian building standing on the south side of Amherst, Nova Scotia's main street in the downtown commercial district. The store, built in 1897, shares the street with many other buildings erected at the turn of the twentieth century, and is physically attached to the buildings on its east and west sides. The building and property are included in the municipal designation.

Heritage Value

91 Victoria Street East is valued for its association with local industry and business, and for the distinctive architectural features on its upper level where the natural local red sandstone is still visible.

Architectural Value: The most striking feature of this simple Victorian sandstone building is the rounded stone arch above each of the two second-storey windows. Each arch has a keystone placed centrally amid voussoirs, and is topped with a simple stone border. The arch follows the top edge of a distinctive fan-shaped design beautifully carved in the rich red sandstone.

Historical Value: The structure was built by the Rhodes, Curry Co., a prominent business in the industrial, commercial and architectural history of Amherst and Nova Scotia. The company had a reputation for quality of workmanship and craftsmanship, and was instrumental in the commercial development of late nineteenth-century Amherst. It also was the contractor and builder of a number of grand homes and businesses in Amherst and throughout Nova Scotia.

The building is made of local red sandstone from the Amherst Red Stone Quarry that operated between 1889 and 1914. Stone from this quarry was popular for buildings through out the Maritimes and Ontario because of its rich red colour and because it was easily carved. James Donalds, the owner of the farm where this red sandstone was found, had this store built as a butcher shop. George Moss, who started his jewellery trade in Amherst in 1881, moved his reputable business into 91 Victoria East in 1903, and it remained Moss Jewellers until 2009 when it was sold to Inglis Jewellers, a Truro-based company.

Source: “Heritage Properties Amherst, 91 Victoria East” File, Cumberland County Museum

Character-Defining Elements

Character-defining elements of 91 Victoria Street East include:

- locally quarried red sandstone building materials;
- original two storey form and massing;
- two wood framed windows in upper storey;
- location in Amherst's commerical district;
- date of construction, '1897' carved into stone between two fan designs;
- all original front facade decorative elements including two distinctive fan-shaped designs carved in sandstone above the two windows in the upper storey.