Inventory Site Forms: Sample 1 – Tusket
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MICROFICHE REFERENCE NUMER: 45-07-00153 |
| STREET ADDRESS: Pr. Cd. 95-200117-000-000-000 CITY/TOWN/VILLAGE: Tusket MUNICIPALITY: Argyle COUNTY: Yarmouth  |
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PRESENT OWNER: Hatfield, Mildred A.
Note: See date of compilation at end of form
ADDRESS: Box 53 Tusket, Yarmouth Co., NS B0W 3M0
ORIGINAL OWNER: Price, Abigail
OCCUPATION: Housewife
BUILDER: Probably Joseph Price
ORIGINAL USE: Residential PRESENT USE: Residential
YEAR BUILT: circa 1790s
ARCHITECTURAL COMMENT:
This house is New England Colonial in style. It is a one and a half storey house of wood construction, and has a steeply pitched roof. The house has a symmetrical three bay facade with an off-centre doorway. The end walls originally had a symmetrical two bay facade of windows only. This house as well as the one other which survives in Tusket, from this era, has two smaller windows centered in the gable at the attic level, as opposed to the one central one usually found with this style. The ells which extend from each end of this house were built by the present owners in the 1930′s when this house was renovated. The entablature and other decorative features found around the doorway on the main part of the house were also added during these renovations. The present owner does have an excellent photograph of the house before this work was done.
HISTORICAL COMMENT:
The present owner had the year “1793″ placed on the chimney of this house when it was renovated in the 1930′s. I am less certain of the exact year, but it does seem that this house would have had to have been built in the 1790s. The first owner was one Abigail Price. She sold the land in two deeds to David VanNorden in 1816. In one deed she is referred to as “widow woman” and in the other as “black woman”. It seems likely that she was the wife of Joseph Price, an early grantee in the Tusket area. It also seems likely that they were associated with James Lent. Several black families who came to Tusket with him received original grants in Tusket Village next to his property. When the second or “confirmed” grant of Tusket Village was drawn up in 1802, Abigail Price is shown on this lot of land. James Bingay in his 1955 letter, found in the Yarmouth Museum, states that this was the second oldest house in Tusket Village, and the style of the house certainly is similar to other houses in the town of Yarmouth built in the 1790s. It is also very similar to the oldest house in Tusket, found in this inventory as the property of James & Jan Cullen. The subsequent poverty of most black families in Nova Scotia, makes the fact of this house having been originally a black home, initially surprising. But the first black settlers must surely have laboured under their masters or mentors, and certainly would have possessed the necessary skills. Along this stretch of road in Tusket several black people had their original grants, but moved to other parts of the County. Some of the black families of the Greenville community lived in the Tusket area in the 1790s. No blacks have lived in this village within the memory of the oldest residents. Yet this large, substantial home remains a lone relic of this early period of Tusket’s history, when the black citizens lived side by side with the white loyalist settlers they had come to Tusket with in the 1780s.
CONTEXTUAL COMMENT:
This is a handsome house, and the second oldest house in Tusket Village. Although the renovations to the house have changed it somewhat, its original simplicity and charm are still there. The renovation that was done here was not a “restoration” as such, but was tastefully and meticulously carried out. This house is an important heritage property within this community.
| OWNER | FROM: TO: | OCCUPATION | BOOK/PAGE |
| Hatfield, Mildred Lent | 12 May 1933 – present | Housewife | Bk.EE p.153 Bk.EH p.56 |
| Tuff, George P. | 20 April 1932 – 12 May 1933 | Master mariner | Bk.EF p.79 |
| Servant, Grace T. (wife of Alfred Servant) | 14 Feb. 1927 – 20 April 1932 | Housewife | Bk.ED p.556 |
| Servant, Alfred G. | 10 Dec. 1896 – 14 Feb. 1927 | Farmer | Bk.CC p.562 |
| Robbins, Margaret * (widow of Samuel Robbins) | 21 Feb. 1895 – 10 Dec. 1896 | Housewife | Not available |
| Robbins, Samuel * | from the death of Mary VanNorden – 21 Feb. 1895 | Farmer | Yarmouth County Probate Records Est. No. 5626 |
| VanNorden, Mary (widow of David VanNorden) | 3 June 1853 – until her death | Housewife | Probate Est. No. 5626 |
| VanNorden, David | 28 Oct. 1813 – 3 June 1853 | Farmer | Bk.M No.156 Bk.M No.31 |
| Price, Abigail | circa 1790s – 28 Oct. 1813 | Housewife | Confirmed land grant of 1802 ** |
* Note:
Date of death for Samuel Robbins taken from Tusket Cemetery records found at the Argyle Township Court House & Archives in Tusket, NS
** Note:
This house is shown on the confirmed grant of 1802. Abigail Price was probably the widow of one Joseph Price, although proof of this has not been found.
SOURCES: Yarmouth County Deeds; Yarmouth County Probate records; copy of 1802 grant of Tusket Village; 1862 plan of Tusket Village; A. F. Church map of 1870; James Bingay letter of 1955 at Yarmouth County Museum; Shelburne County Deeds; “History of Tusket” by Don Pothier (1974) Note: Above plans are found at the Argyle Township Court House & Archives in Tusket, NS
Compiled by: Peter Crowell
Date: 12 December 1985