36 Drury Lane

36 Drury Lane, Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, B0S 1A0, Canada

Formally Recognized: 1990/09/19

Other Name(s)
36 Drury Lane
Lewis House

Links and Documents

• Annapolis Heritage Society website
• Historic Places website

Construction Date(s)
1884/01/01 to 1884/12/31

Listed on the Canadian Register: 2007/09/25

Statement of Significance

Description of Historic Place

36 Drury Lane consists of a is single detached one-and-one-half storey building with an ell on a residential lot. The house is located adjacent to the road on a residential street near buildings of similar age and architectural style. The house faces the municipal parking lot used by the Annapolis Royal Farmers' and Traders' Market. The property at 36 Drury Lane is a small grass covered lot which would be of interest for archaeological study. The municipal designation includes the building and surrounding property.

Heritage Value

Historic Value:

36 Drury Lane, Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, as recognized by its municipal heritage designation, is valued for its contribution to the architectural landscape of the town and its association with local historic personalities. The lot was originally part of the four-acre property purchased by the French government in 1704 from Capt. Claude-Sebastien Villieu for the use of the parish church. Following the British conquest of Nova Scotia, the former Villieu property was granted to the Anglican Church as glebe lands and was subsequently subdivided and leased. In 1868 the Anglican Church sold the area between Drury Lane and Church Street to the Windsor & Annapolis Railway and over the next few years divested itself of the remaining glebe lands in the Lower Town. In 1874 merchant George E. Corbitt purchased lots #5 and #6 from the Anglican Church. In 1884, Simon Bishop, the owner of the property at that time, sold lot #5 to yeoman James Carling, who built a house on the lot shortly afterwards. It remained in the Carling family until 1935 when James Lewis Jr., descendant of Black Loyalist Rose Fortune and operator of Lewis Transfer, the trucking business she started in the early nineteenth century, purchased it. In 1936 James Lewis bought the adjacent vacant Cummings lot to the north, formerly lot #4 of the glebe division, and joined this with his property. The property remained with the Lewis family for many years.

Architectural Value:

36 Drury Lane is an example of the Late-Victorian Plain style as represented in Annapolis Royal. Typically, this building does not have a great deal of exterior decoration. The exception, is the use of entablatures on top of each of the front windows. Appropriate to its style, the house has wooden clapboard siding and end boards. The wooden siding was covered with asphalt siding in the 1950s but this material has since been removed. The house maintains its original massing. This property is an excellent example of the style of dwellings utilized by working-class families in Annapolis Royal.

Source: Annapolis Royal Heritage Designation Files, Annapolis Heritage Society, 136 St George Street, Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia

Character-defining Elements

Character-Defining elements of 36 Drury Lane include:

- original size and massing;
- one-and-one-half storey;
- medium gable roof with no returns;
- second storey front windows surmounted by an entablature;
- one-storey closed front porch with a hipped roof;
- one-and-one-half storey ell with an additional one-storey enclosed porch;
- one-storey porch attached to ell;
- centrally located single brick chimney;
- wooden clapboard siding.

Recognition

Jurisdiction
Nova Scotia

Recognition Authority
Local Governments (NS)

Recognition Statute
Heritage Property Act

Recognition Type
Municipally Registered Property

Recognition Date
1990/09/19

Historical Information

Significant Date(s)
N/A

Theme - Category and Type
Building Social and Community Life
Religious Institutions
Peopling the Land
Settlement

Function - Category and Type

Historic
Residence
Single Dwelling

Architect / Designer
N/A

Builder
James Carling

Additional Information

Location of Supporting Documentation
Heritage Property Files, Annapolis Heritage Society, 136 St George Street, Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia

FED/PROV/TERR Identifier
02MNS0200