Dundas Terrace National Historic Site of Canada
Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island
Façade
© Parks Canada Agency/ Agence Parcs Canada, 2006.
Address :
2-6 Water Street (at Haviland St.), Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island
Recognition Statute:
Historic Sites and Monuments Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. H-4)
Designation Date:
1990-11-16
Dates:
-
1889 to 1889
(Construction)
Event, Person, Organization:
Other Name(s):
-
Dundas Terrace
(Designation Name)
Research Report Number:
Queen Anne Revival
Plaque(s)
Approved Inscription: 2-6 Water Street (at Haviland St.), Prince Edward Island
This apartment building, completed in 1890, is a handsome example of the Queen Anne Revival in Canada. Admired for its picturesque qualities, this style was popular in Canadian domestic architecture from the 1880s to the 1910s. As this charming residence illustrates, the use of varied volumes and rooflines, projecting and receding masses, and textured surfaces creates a lively architectural composition. Named for a nearby waterfront esplanade, Dundas Terrace was designed by the renowned Island architect W. C. Harris, a master of this style.
Description of Historic Place
Dundas Terrace is a three-and-a-half-storey, Queen Anne Revival style apartment building built in the late 19th century. It is located on Water Street in downtown Charlottetown. The formal recognition consists of the building and the legal property on which it sat at the time of recognition.
Heritage Value
Dundas Terrace was designated a national historic site because it is a particularly good example of the Queen Anne Revival style as expressed in apartment architecture.
The heritage value of Dundas Terrace resides in its expression of the Queen Anne Revival style in a wooden apartment building in the Maritimes. Designed by W.C. Harris to serve as an apartment building, its exterior design evokes the unity of a single family dwelling. It is an early example of a purpose-built apartment building and a rare example of an apartment building constructed in wood.
Source: Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, Minutes, November 1990.
Character-Defining Elements
The key elements that relate to the heritage value of this site are:
its asymmetrical massing, composed of advancing and receding bays extending through the two main storeys; its steeply pitched roof and lively roofline, comprised of a half-hipped roof; encompassing the upper two storeys and punctuated by: a large, central, cross-gable; hipped, half-hipped and segmental dormers projecting from the roof line or extending over rectangular and segmental bays; and prominent chimney stacks; ornamental, shed- and half-hipped-roof verandahs and porches on the ground floor and attic storeys; a variety of textured surfaces, including: clapboard siding on the ground floor; a combination of shingled and board-and-batten cladding on the upper storeys; and a slight outward flare at the second floor level marking the shift in cladding; rectangular windows in a variety of sizes, occurring in single, paired or tripled groupings; its wood construction.