Description of Historic Place

Admiralty House, located on Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Halifax, is an imposing example of British Classicism designed to house the Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Navy’s North American Station. Its carefully balanced façade is five bays wide with a central focus provided by the main entrance. The emphasis on symmetry is echoed in the regularly placed windows and carefully positioned end chimneys that flank its hipped roof. Set back from Gottingen Street, its front gates, oval driveway, and grounds are remnants of a more formal garden site. The designation is confined to the footprint of the building.

Heritage Value

Admiralty House is a Classified Federal Heritage Building because of its historical associations, and its architectural and environmental values.

Historical Value:
The heritage value of this residence is reflected in its architectural excellence, its significant and continuing association with Canada's military history, and its considerable role in defining the character of the western end of the dockyard area. As the residence for the British naval commander-in-chief of the North American station throughout the 19th century, Admiralty House was the locale of many gala events and royal visits.

Architectural Value:
Admiralty House is an imposing, dignified two-storey stone mansion designed in the British Classical style. Its regular proportions, with the central focus provided by its main entrance, and the symmetrical arrangement of its windows and end chimneys are elements found on many houses constructed during the 18th century in the English provinces and colonies. The building exhibits a very good functional design, which is evidenced in its many uses as a military structure and residence over the past two centuries. Admiralty House served its primary residential function from ca. 1819 to 1904. Its many uses thereafter, including its use as a naval hospital, and the damage it suffered in the 1917 explosion have altered both plan and finishes in parts of the interior. Its materials and craftsmanship exemplify the high design standards of the British Royal Navy.

Environmental Value:
One of the oldest buildings at CFB Halifax, Admiralty House is an appropriate symbol of the strategic role played for more than two centuries by the port of Halifax in the history of North American naval defence. Its siting on green open space was reflective of a move in the 18th century from urban to semi-urban living. The presence of green open space and trees around the house and its setting away from the main road preserve its 19th century character.

Sources:
Nathalie Clerk, Admiralty House, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Federal Heritage Building Review Office Building Report 83-074; Admiralty House, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Heritage Character Statement, 83-074.

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of Admiralty House should be respected.

Its good aesthetic, very good functional design, and very good quality materials and craftsmanship, for example: its solid, rectangular two-and-a-half-storey stone massing; its medium hipped roof with three gabled dormers at the front and the back; its main portico entrance topped with a gable roof, ornamented with denticulate pediment; the symmetrical arrangement of its windows and ends chimneys; any remaining elements of the original interior layout from 1815-1917.

The manner in which Admiralty House reinforces the historic character of its setting at CBF Halifax, as evidenced by: its location at CFB Halifax as a symbolic landmark signifying the British naval prominence in North America; its setting on landscaped grounds surrounded by fields and trees, set back from the main road.

Heritage Character Statement

Disclaimer - The heritage character statement was developed by FHBRO to explain the reasons for the designation of a federal heritage building and what it is about the building that makes it significant (the heritage character). It is a key reference document for anyone involved in planning interventions to federal heritage buildings and is used by FHBRO in their review of interventions.

Admiralty House, Halifax, was constructed between ca. 1815 and 1819 to house the Commander in Chief of the Royal Navy's North American Station. Now in the hands of the Department of National Defence, the building has been designated a National Historic Site by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada and plaqued as such in 1982. See FHBRO Building Report 83-74.

Reason for Designation

On July 17, 1984, the building was designated by FHBRO a Classified building. This designation reflects is architectural excellence, its significant and continuing association with Canada's military history, and its considerable role in defining the character of the western end of the dockyard area.

Character Defining Elements

On the exterior, Admiralty House remains an imposing example of British Classicism, despite numerous superficial changes. Exterior details, like the balustrade of the widow's walk, shutters, open portico at the main entrance, and open rear verandah, have come and gone. Nevertheless, what is truly characteristic of the building remains: its regular proportions, the central focus provided by its main entrance, and the symmetrical arrangement of its windows and corner chimneys. No change should be contemplated which in any way compromises the essential symmetry of this building.

Admiralty House served its primary residential function from ca. 1819 to 1904. Its many uses thereafter and the damages it suffered in the 1917 explosion have altered both plan and finishes in parts - though not in all - of the interior. Any interior work on the building should be preceded by a careful assessment of the fabric in question to determine whether or not it is original.

While encroachment has taken place around Admiralty House, aspects of its original formal siting do survive: the setback from Gottingen Street, the oval drive, and the landscaped front grounds. These aspects of the building's original siting should be retained, without encroachments, as they do much to enhance the still-clear reading of the building's Classical façade and to characterize the authentic early XIX century setting.

Admiralty House is no longer linked to the waterfront by a continuous greensward. It does, however, still offer a view of the harbour from its height of land, and a particularly fine view of the whole harbour area from the roof.

Reconstruction of the balustrade of the widow's walk would once again afford that vista to visitors to Admiralty House.

Now the home of the Marine Command Museum, Admiralty House has continuously served military and para-military functions for over a century and a half. Continued military use, respecting the basic form and fabric of the original house, would be most appropriate.

For further guidance, please refer to the FHBRO Code of Practice.

1987.02.04
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