Description du lieu patrimonial

Stewart House sits prominently on a small rise overlooking the marshlands of Grand Pre. This two-storey New England Colonial style House was built about 1800. There is also a carriage house on the property as well. The buildings and property are included in the provincial designation.

Valeur patrimoniale

Stewart House is valued for its continuous ownership by the Stewart family for over two hundred years and for its New England Colonial style architecture which is demonstrated in the unaltered five bay facade with a central entrance.

The Stewart House was built about 1800 by Robert Laird (great grandfather of prime Minister Sir Robert Laird Borden), who had come from Ireland about 1770. In his will of 1821, Robert Laird left the house and farm to his daughters, having already provided for his sons. Among his daughters was Elizabeth who had married John McNeil Stewart. After Stewart's death in 1828, his widow lived with her spinster sisters Eleanor and Catherine in the house left to them by their father. They were twice forced to mortgage part of their property but Catherine was able to leave a substantial part of the farm to her sister Elizabeth's sons, Robert and William Stewart, hence the name Stewart House.

By the 1850s, the two brothers jointly were among the wealthiest farmers in Horton Township, with 100 acres of dyked land and 70 acres of improved upland. When the younger William married, Robert and his family decided to move out and around 1857 apparantly built the nearby house which is today known as Trenholm House. The eldest son of William, William Young, inherited Stewart House and at his death in 1944 it passed through his family to his grand niece, the present owner.

This New England Colonial style house has remained in the Laird-Stewart family since it was built over two centuries ago. It is currently operating as an Inn.

Source: Provincial Heritage Property files, no. 72, 1747 Summer Street, Halifax, NS

Éléments caractéristiques

Character-defining elements of Stewart House relating to its New England Colonial style include:

- two-storey wood construction;
- steeply pitched gable roof;
- central doorway with symmetrical five bay facade;
- one large central chimney;
- foundation of field rock and brick;
- small front porch entry which opens into a narrow hallway from which a small winding stairway, located in front of the large centre chimney wall, leads to the second storey;
- five open fireplaces;
- a carriage house that is a two-storey post and beam building.