190 Main Street

STREET ADDRESS: 190 Main Street

CITY/TOWN/VILLAGE: Yarmouth

MUNICIPALITY: Yarmouth

COUNTY: Yarmouth

YEAR BUILT: circa 1870

ARCHITECTURAL COMMENT:

3 storey Second Empire style with a 2 storey, Mansard roofed, center back ell, a 1½ storey, gable roofed center addition on the ell, and a 1 storey, flat-roofed storefront addition on north side at front. Mansard roofs have gabled dormers and off-center chimneys; gabled roof on rear addition has return eaves. The 3 bay facade is asymmetrical with an off-center entrance in an enclosed entry porch which is flush with the front of the attached storefront addition. Windows have double hung sashes with 2/2 glazing; dormer windows are round-headed; first storey windows have moulded crowns; there is a 1 storey, 3 sided bay window on the south side. Wood construction, clapboard clad with base-, frieze- and corner-board trim.

Storefront addition has a central door with a narrow transom light above and large fixed sash windows at each side. Roof has a low parapet across front.

HISTORICAL COMMENT:

Built around 1870 for George Goudey Sanderson, an insurance broker at the time, who also acquired shares in a number of locally owned vessels over a period of years. He served for six years (1880-1886) as a Municipal Councillor, during two of which he was Warden, and after the incorporation of the Town of Yarmouth in 1890, he served four years (1890-1894) as a Town Councillor.

Several of the subsequent owners of the property were also prominent Yarmouth businessmen, including shipowners Andrew Lovitt and H. Bradford Cann, building contractor, William Haley, of Kinney, Haley & Co., and merchants Benni Garson and his son Louis Garson.

CONTEXTUAL COMMENT:

West side of Main Street; only building on block between Haskell and Pearl Streets. Store section at corner of Haskell St. was added c. 1915. A small balcony was removed from one of the second storey windows on south side at some time. Property well maintained and grounds attractively kept.

PRESENT OWNER: Paula & Trudy Garson

ADDRESS: 190 Main Street, Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, B5A 1C5

ORIGINAL OWNER: George Goudey Sanderson

OCCUPATION: Insurance Broker

BUILDER: Unknown

ORIGINAL USE: Single family dwelling

PRESENT USE: Single family dwelling

COMMENTS ON HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS:

When George Sanderson bought this land from Mercy Haskell in 1869, he mortgaged $800.00 of the $1000,00 buying price from her. The next owner, William Haley, assumed the mortgage, but when Mercy Haskell died in 1880 it had still not been paid, so became one of the assets of her estate, and was assigned for collection to Andrew Lovitt. There is no indication that the mortgage was ever released, but after Lovitt's death in 1883, the property was left to his daughter, Joanna Cann, who rented it to Rev. Henry Sterns for a number of years. He was an Episcopalian minister who had come to Yarmouth from Tusket in the late 1880's, and served the parish of Holy Trinity while he lived here. After Joanna Cann died in 1904, the property was sold to her son, H. Bradford Cann, and, again became part of an estate after his death in 1913. Bradford Cann's widow, Augusta, sold the property to Benni Garson in 1915, and it has remained in the same family since then.

SOURCES: Registry of Deeds/Probate Yarmouth Directories, 1890, 1895, 1949; Assessment Rolls, 1901, 1915; Sweeny Funeral Records; BK. 7, p. 135: BK. 17, p.70; Map of Yarmouth County, A. F. Church, c. 1870; B.E.V. maps of Yarmouth, 1878, 1889