Description of Historic Place

The Zaccheus Churchill House is a one-and-a-half storey Maritime Vernacular style house built circa 1815 in the rural community of Darling’s Lake, Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia. It was built for, and possibly by, Zaccheus Churchill, a farmer, one of three brothers who were the first permanent residents of this community. Municipal heritage designation applies to the house and the large lot on which it is situated.

Heritage Value

The Zaccheus Churchill House is valued for its historical associations with Zaccheus Churchill, its original owner, and with later Churchill family members whose ownership continued until 1971. It is also valued for its simple Maritime Vernacular architecture and its location on a large hilltop lot.

Zaccheus Churchill was one of the three Churchill brothers who were the first permanent residents of Darling’s Lake. They were all well known farmers in Yarmouth Township in the early 1800s and did much to improve their lands and encourage settlement in the area. Among their more noted accomplishments was the digging, by hand, of a still extant canal that joining two lakes close to this property - Darling’s Lake and Allen’s Lake. This house, built circa 1815, is the only original Churchill home built by one of the three brothers that is still standing. Zaccheus and his wife Susanna are buried in the nearby Churchill Cemetery, along with other members of the Churchill family. Today, a number of their descendants reside in the area.

For a number of years this house was occupied by John Churchill, who did not own the property but lived here year-round in the capacity of caretaker for the Churchill Mansion, across the road, which was owned by Capt. Aaron Flint Churchill. In 1905 Capt. Churchill’s wife, Lois, (also a Churchill by birth), bought this property and retained ownership until 1927 when she deeded it to a niece. After the niece’s death in 1971 the property was sold out of the family.

The Vernacular architecture of the Zaccheus Churchill House is exemplified by the simple, clean lines of its wood frame construction and cladding, its rectangular massing and its medium pitched gable roof with central chimney. The house is situated on a very large hilltop lot, which extends from the Old Post Road east of the house to the shore of Allen’s Lake, on the west. This site overlooks the entire surrounding community and has views for several kilometres in all directions.

Source: Registered Heritage Property files: Zaccheus Churchill House; located at the Heritage Office, 400 Main Street, Yarmouth, NS, B5A 1G2

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of the Zaccheus Churchill House include:

- location on a hilltop in rural community of Darling’s Lake;
- proximity to another registered heritage property;
- proximity to other buildings of similar scale;
- frontage on Allen’s Lake;
- mature trees and open fields on the large residential lot.

The character-defining elements of the Maritime Vernacular architecture of the Zaccheus Churchill House include:

- wood frame construction and cladding;
- one-and-a-half storeys with one-storey back ell;
- medium pitched gable roof with central chimney;
- double hung sash windows;
- full-width sun porch across symmetrical façade;
- simple decorative trim elements;
- rubble stone foundation.