Henry House is a two-and-a-half-storey stone

house A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condi ...

located on Barrington Street in Halifax,

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

, Canada. The house is designated a National Historic Site, and is both a Provincially Registered Property and a Municipally Registered Property under the provincial Heritage Property Act.

History

The house was built in 1834 for John Metzler, a prosperous Halifax stonemason and landowner. It is primarily known for its association with

William Alexander Henry William Alexander Henry (December 30, 1816 – May 3, 1888) was a Canadians, Canadian lawyer, politician, and judge. He was one of the Father of Confederation#Fathers of Confederation, Fathers of Confederation and one of the first judges of ...

, a prominent native of Halifax who resided here with his family from 1854 to 1864. Henry was a

Father of Confederation The Fathers of Confederation are the 36 people who attended at least one of the Charlottetown Conference of 1864 (23 attendees), the Quebec Conference of 1864 (33 attendees), and the London Conference of 1866 (16 attendees), preceding Canadian ...

, a co-author of the

British North America Act The British North America Acts 1867–1975 are a series of Acts of Parliament that were at the core of the constitution of Canada. Most were enacted by the Parliament of the United Kingdom and some by the Parliament of Canada. In Canada, some ...

, a provincial

Attorney General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...

, a Member of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly, a

Mayor of Halifax This is a list of mayors of the Halifax Regional Municipality. Halifax's first Mayor, Walter Fitzgerald (politician), Walter Fitzgerald, was elected in 1996 after the municipality was created by amalgamation. The Mayor of the Halifax holds the h ...

and the first Nova Scotian to serve as a justice of the

Supreme Court of Canada The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC; french: Cour suprême du Canada, CSC) is the Supreme court, highest court in the Court system of Canada, judicial system of Canada. It comprises List of Justices of the Supreme Court of Canada, nine justices, wh ...

. The building served as a Sailors' Home in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, operated by the Navy League of Canada (Halifax Branch). In 1968, it was sold to Richard (Dick) Raymond and Jacques Ducau, who did extensive renovations and opened The Henry House(restaurant) and Little Stone Jug (downstairs tavern) in 1969. (The Stone Jug is slang for prison and was previously the namesake of a Halifax pub on Brunswick St. in the nineteenth century.)The Newgate Prison in

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

referred to the stone cellar under the guardroom as the Stone Jug
Newgate of Connecticut: Its Origin and Early History By Richard Harvey Phelps, p.70
/ref>) Since then the well-known restaurant has been in continuous operation, and it is still called The Henry House Restaurant & Pub. The Henry House was designated a National Historic Site in 1969.

Architecture

Henry House has a

gable roof A gable roof is a roof consisting of two sections whose upper horizontal edges meet to form its ridge. The most common roof shape in cold or temperate climates, it is constructed of rafters, roof trusses or purlins. The pitch of a gable roof ca ...

, and has

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

facades with ironstone on the gable ends. The architecture is generally representative of a typical style used in early 19th-century British North America for elite residences. In particular, it is an excellent example of the Halifax House style, a design brought to Nova Scotia by

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

masons and characterized by three

bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a narr ...

and a side hall plan. Mason's marks on the stone walls of Henry House: File:Henry House Stone Wall 1, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada - August 2019.jpg File:Henry House Stone Wall 2, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada - August 2019.jpg

References

{{Nova Scotia parks National Historic Sites in Nova Scotia Buildings and structures on the National Historic Sites of Canada register Buildings and structures in Halifax, Nova Scotia Houses completed in 1834 Houses in Nova Scotia

History

Architecture

See also

References