Prescott House Museum
Established1971
Location1633 Starr's Point Road, Starr's Point, Nova Scotia Canada
TypeNational Historic Site of Canada
Websitehttp://museum.gov.ns.ca/prh/en/home
Official nameAcacia Grove / Prescott House National Historic Site of Canada
Designated1969
TypeProvincially Registered Property
Designated1983/08/04
Reference no.00PNS0015

Prescott House Museum is a historic house and gardens located in Starr's Point, Nova Scotia which is part of the Nova Scotia Museum. Built between 1812 and 1816 by Charles Ramage Prescott as the centrepiece of his country estate called Acacia Grove, it is one of the best preserved Georgian houses in Canada.

History

Prescott, a wealthy merchant from Halifax, Nova Scotia purchased the land in 1811 when he took early retirement from his shipping and trading career. He used Acacia Grove as a base for agricultural experiments, importing a wide variety of plants, especially apple varieties which he shared freely with area growers. When Prescott died in 1859, the house was purchased and maintained for several decades by the Kaye family. However later owners neglected the house and by the 1890s, it fell into ruin. In 1931 the property was purchased by Mary Allison Prescott, the great granddaughter of Charles Prescott. She restored the house and lived in it with her two sisters until 1970. They donated the house to the Province of Nova Scotia in 1971.

The house was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1969.[1] It is also a Provincially Registered Property under the province's Heritage Property Act.[2]

Museum

The house is operated as part of the Nova Scotia Museum system and explores Prescott's life, Georgian architecture, the apple industry and the lives of the Prescott sisters. Fully restored rooms depict both the Georgian period of Charles Prescott's time and the later era of the 1930s and 40s when it was restored by the Prescott sisters. Open from May to October, the museum offers guided tours of the period rooms and hosts a variety of regular events to interpret the house and its gardens for families and children.

References

  • Archibald, Stephen and Sheila Stevenson, Heritage Houses of Nova Scotia, Formac Publishing, Halifax (2004), p. 21
  • Pacey, Elizabeth and Alan Comiter, Landmarks: Historic Buildings of Nova Scotia, Nimbus Publishing Halifax (1994), p. 32-33

45°06′38″N 64°22′44″W / 45.11056°N 64.37889°W / 45.11056; -64.37889

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