12 Vancouver Street

STREET ADDRESS: 12 Vancouver Street

CITY/TOWN/VILLAGE: Yarmouth

MUNICIPALITY: Yarmouth

COUNTY: Yarmouth

YEAR BUILT: circa 1864

ARCHITECTURAL COMMENT:

2 storey Italianate style with off center 1 1/2 half storey back ell; open veranda and stairway to attic level at back. Medium pitched, truncated gable roof has a centered front cross gable, return eaves and brackets in cornice; south side of roof a hip roofed Scotch dormer and a shed roof over entry to attic level; 3 inset chimneys on main roof; inset corbelled chimney on ell. Symmetrical 3 bay facade has a center enclosed entry porch with side- and transom-lights surrounding door and side windows, a center Palladian window at second storey and a 3 part triangular-headed window in front gable. All first and second storey facade windows are tripartite with double hung sashes, 4/4 glazing in center sections and bracketed crowns; 5 sided bay windows on east end; tripartite windows on west end. Wood construction, shingle clad; gabled entry porch roof and window crowns have acanthus shaped cutouts at apex. Granite block foundation.

HISTORICAL COMMENT:

As far as can be determined, this house was built around 1864 for Hon. Stayley Brown and his second wife, Ellen Grantham Farish. Over the years it has been the home of several of Yarmouth's most prominent residents, some of whom have also been widely known in their professional capacities. Hon. Stayley Brown came to Yarmouth in 1813, at age 12, with his parents and a brother, and he eventually became a prominent businessman and shipowner in the town. In August of 1842 he was appointed to the Legislative Council, and served in the Legislature's Upper House for 34 years. From 1857 to 1860 he held the post of Receiver General in the Johnston government, and in 1874 he succeeded Hon. Alexander Keith as president of the Council, which office he held for one year before becoming Provincial Treasurer. He died suddenly in Halifax in 1877 at age 76. This property was inherited by his son, Charles E. Brown, who was also a prominent businessman in Yarmouth for many years.

CONTEXTUAL COMMENT:

South side of street, third house west of the bridge. Bay window on east end added pre-1914. A fire which occurred on March 23, 1990 extensively damaged a 1 storey ell and the west end of the house. The ell has been removed and the interior damage to the house is still in the process of repair/ restoration.

PRESENT OWNER: Gil & Esther Dares

ADDRESS: 12 Vancouver Street, Yarmouth, Nova Scotia B5A 2N8

ORIGINAL OWNER: Stayley Brown

BUILDER: Unknown

ORIGINAL USE: Single family dwelling

PRESENT USE: Single family dwelling

COMMENTS ON HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS:

In 1904 a family by the name of Jarvis rented this property from Miss Clara Caie, who was well known in Yarmouth for her acts of philanthropy. Mr. Jarvis was an accountant with the Bank of Montreal, and worked in the Yarmouth branch of the bank until 1909, when he was transferred to Andover, New Brunswick. His eight year old daughter, Lucy, was very much influenced by Miss Caie and her art group, and the impact of this early tutelage in the Arts was to affect her for the rest of her life. Lucy returned to Yarmouth many times over the years, (staying at Miss Caie's cottage at Cape Forchu) between her studies at a number of art schools and her various art-oriented jobs, including that as Director of Art at the University of New Brunswick for fourteen years. In 1961 Lucy and her close friend, Helen Weld, another artist, had a cottage built for them near Yarmouth and that year, Lucy received a special Canada Council award to help her pick up her work as a full time painter. With this she spent a winter working in Paris and two weeks at the Salzburg summer seminar with Oskar Koloschka, experiences which proved to be an important stimulation to her as a painter. By 1971 Lucy and Helen were living full time in their cottage at Pembroke Dyke, and their influence on the local arts community has been immeasurable. By the time of her death, aged nearly 89, in 1985, Lucy Jarvis had become a well and widely known artist. Her friend, Helen Weld, now 92, still lives in the Pembroke cottage.* Dr. Eleanore Bergmann-Porter, a native of West Germany, bought this property in 1961. She had received her medical degree in Munich Germany, later received the LRCP, LRCS and LRFPS in Scotland and met her husband "Lofty" Porter in London. After his retirement they decided to move to Canada and settled in Yarmouth. Dr. Porter was the first female doctor to practice at the Yarmouth Hospital, an honourary member of the Canadian College of Family Physicians, and in 1982 had the distinction of being the first woman to be conferred the rank of Senior Member in the Medical Society of Nova Scotia. *Helen Weld died on August 21, 1996.

SOURCES: Registry of Deeds / Probate ; Yarmouth Reminiscences, (J.M. Lawson), 1902; Yarmouth, Nova Scotia (G.S. Brown), 1888; Atlantic Hearth (Byers & McBurney), 1994, Assessment rolls, 1901, 1915; N.S. Directories, 1864, 1868, 1871, 1907