Official homepage for the Town of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia

STREET ADDRESS: 26 Chester Street

CITY/TOWN/VILLAGE: Yarmouth

MUNICIPALITY: Yarmouth

COUNTY: Yarmouth

YEAR BUILT: circa 1850

ARCHITECTURAL COMMENT:

Vernacular in style, this is a one and a half storey home of wood construction. The symmetrical four bay facade has an off-center doorway. The steeply pitched gable roof has non-return eaves with plain brackets under the eaveline. There is one large, central chimney at the peak. A large shed roof dormer with three square windows is found at the rear. The small gable roof dormer at the front was added in the 1940's. The main windows have been replaced but the original narrow casings still remain. Narrow, flat labels are found on the back windows and back door. The house is clad in wooden shingles with narrow cornerboards. It sits on a concrete foundation with a dirt cellar underneath.

HISTORICAL COMMENT:

Family tradition of the Eldridge's, who have owned this house since 1879, claims this house was not built on this site but was moved here from elsewhere. This claim seems very probable as the architecture of the building (i.e. the wooden pegs and hand hewn beams in the attic) would date the house near the early 1800's. This house is not shown on this site on A.F. Church's map of 1870 but appears to be on an 1878 B.E.V. Map of Yarmouth. It is therefore, assumed to have been built elsewhere in the Yarmouth area and moved onto this site between 1870 and 1878.

The earliestrecord for this property is a deed in 1879 when Alfred Eldridge purchased this house from Trustees of the Yarmouth Building and Loan Society. Alfred Eldridge was a Tinsmith by profession and was employed for a time with Lincoln and Williams Co.

CONTEXTUAL COMMENT:

The original site of this house is unknown. It is now situated on the north side of Chester Street approximately two feet away from the house to the east. There is a yard at the rear and a shed with saltbox roof.

PRESENT OWNER: Viola I. White

ADDRESS: P.O. Box 791, Yarmouth, N.S., B5A 4K4

ORIGINAL OWNER: Unknown

OCCUPATION: Unknown

BUILDER: Unknown

ORIGINAL USE: Unknown

PRESENT USE: Residential (Single family)

COMMENTS ON HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS:

Alfred Eldridge and his wife Ellen had three children, Florence, Clara and Harry. Florence died in 1894 at the age of 15 years. In 1909 Alfred conveyed this house to Harry, a bachelor at the time. He later moved to the U.S. and died in Beverly, Mass. on Sept. 9, 1922 at the age of 63. Harry Eldridge had learned the trade of plumber from Mr. G. J. Morton of Yarmouth and had worked in different parts of the Maritime Provinces. He was in Charlottetown, P.E.I. when he enlisted in the army. In September of 1918 he was killed at the front.

In 1911, Harry Eldridge had sold this house to his sister Clara who leased it to her mother Ellen and continued to live here. In 1974 Clara sold the house to her brother's son, Harry B. Eldridge.

The present owner, Harry B. Eldridge, has lived in this house since 1912. An auto mechanic for many years he was later a cotton mill employee and is now retired. Mr. Eldridge had his family home registered as a municipal heritage property in 1992.

SOURCES: Interview with Mr. Harry Eldridge; Death Dates from Eldridge family bible in possession of Harry Eldridge; Registry of Deeds/Probate (Yarmouth); A. F. Church Map (1870); 1878 B.E.V. Map of Yarmouth; The Yarmouth Telegram (Sept. 1918)

STREET ADDRESS: 39 Cliff Street

CITY/TOWN/VILLAGE: Yarmouth

MUNICIPALITY: Yarmouth

COUNTY: Yarmouth

YEAR BUILT: circa 1872

ARCHITECTURAL COMMENT:

2 storey Second Empire style with 2 storey back ell which has an addition. The steep concavely sloped mansard roof has 3 partially inset, segmental arched dormers in the fornt and 2 on each side, 2 non-symmetrically placed inset chimneys, and inside an open porch with a large, decoratively bracketed hood. Windows have double hung sashes with 2/2 glazing and decorative molded crowns. The windows on the west side of the back ell are paired with larger lower sashes and 3/1 glazing. The house is of wood construction and clad with slate shingles.

HISTORICAL COMMENT:

Probably built between 1870 and 1872 for James Wentworth Bingay, a barrister and partner in the firm of  T.V.B. Bingay & Sons. The Bingays were a very prominent and influential family in Yarmouth and included bankers, brokers, barristers and ship owners. Around the same time as this house was being built, Yarmouth was also enjoying some of the latest improvements to the town, in the form of its first Free Public Library and gas street lighting.

CONTEXTUAL COMMENT:

South side of Cliff Street, opposite a brick apartment block. Extensions at back are later additions.

PRESENT OWNER: Donald P. / Leona Comeau

ADDRESS: 39 Cliff Street, Yarmouth, Nova Scotia B5A 3H6  

ORIGINAL OWNER: James Wentworth Bingay

OCCUPATION: Barrister

BUILDER: Unknown

ORIGINAL USE: Single family dwelling

PRESENT USE: Single family dwelling 

COMMENTS ON HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS:

This property seems to be well remembered as the home of  Dr. Lewis Morton, who had come to Yarmouth from Tusket in early 1924, and went into practice with Dr. Charles Fuller and Dr. W. C. O'Brien in offices on Main Street. In 1955 Dr. Morton sold the home to George and Irene Allen, who were well known for the grocery store Mr. Allen had for many years at 102 Main Street.

SOURCES: Registry of Deeds / Probate (Yarmouth);    1878, 1879 B.E.V. maps of Yarmouth;   N.S. Directories, 1871, 1907-08;   Map of Yarmouth County, by A.F. Church, (1870);   Yarmouth Directories, 1890, 1895, 1949;   Yarmouth Genealogies, C. Doane.

STREET ADDRESS: 22 Forest Street

CITY/TOWN/VILLAGE:Yarmouth

MUNICIPALITY:Yarmouth

COUNTY:Yarmouth

YEAR BUILT: 1903

ARCHITECTURAL COMMENT:

2 storey Shingle style with Queen Anne Revival influences. The medium pitched roof has a flat center section, four interlocked gambrels which are cantilevered out over the first storey, a front facing, hip roofed dormer with wide eaves overhang supported by molded brackets, and an off-center double chimney. The steeply pitched second storey walls have pedimented gabled dormers on east and west sides. Facade is asymmetrical with a two storey, five sided bay window topped by the hip roofed dormer; the off-center entrance is in the 1 storey wraparound fieldstone veranda which has a corner turret and roof supported by paired Tuscan columns. Windows have double hung sashes with 1/1 glazing in first storey and diamond pattern glazing in top sashes of second and attic storey windows; a half round window with patterned glazing adorns the front facing gambrel. Constructed of wood with molded window casings, deep crowns over gambrel end windows, molded trim on gambrel verges and clapboard cladding.

HISTORICAL COMMENT:

Built for the first manager of the Bank of Montreal, Thomas Van Buskirk Bingay, on land he owned. He had been an accountant, and then head cashier for the Exchange Bank of Yarmouth, which was sold to the Bank of Montreal in 1903. Ten days after moving into his fine, new home, Mr. Bingay sold it to his employer. The Bank of Montreal retained ownership of the property as a residence for its managers until 1975 when it was sold to the wife of the then current manager, Bruce Wentzell. Its connections to the Bank were severed when the Wentzells sold the property in 1984.

CONTEXTUAL COMMENT:

North side of Forest Street, second house east of Main Street.No obvious changes have been made to the house, well maintained property. Unique to area.

PRESENT OWNER:Joan Thibault

ADDRESS:22 Forest Street, Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, B5A 3K9

ORIGINAL OWNER:Thomas Van Buskirk Bingay

OCCUPATION: Bank Manager

BUILDER: Unknown

ORIGINAL USE: Single family dwelling

PRESENT USE: Single family dwelling

COMMENTS ON HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS:

Yarmouth Light, Thursday, June 25, 1903: "A charge of dynamite set off Friday afternoon by workmen in Mr. T.V. B. Bingay's new cellar on Forest street landed a stone through the roof of Mr. John S. Baker's house on Willow street." (Note - this was a distance of about three blocks!) Yarmouth Telegram, Friday, January 15, 1904: "Mr. T.V. B. Bingay is moving into his handsome new house on Forest street today."

SOURCES:Registry of Deeds; McAlpine's N.S. Directory, 1907-08; Town Assessment Roll, 1915; Yarmouth Directory, 1949; Yarmouth Souvenir books, 1911, 1918; Yarmouth Light, June 25, 1903; Yarmouth Telegram, January 15, 1904.