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 CNHS - Sinclair Inn - Annapolis Royal, NS Posted by:  T0SHEA
N 44° 44.672 W 065° 31.162
20T E 300554 N 4957659
Built of two separate early eighteenth century houses joined together, with a second storey later added, the Sinclair Inn operated for more than 150 years before closing in 1950. Today the building is home to the Sinclair Inn Museum.
Waymark Code: WMXKJG
Location: Nova Scotia, Canada
Date Posted: 01/24/2018
Views: 6
Due to both its age and its mix of materials, techniques and styles, the Sinclair Inn has been decreed both a National Historic Site and a Provincial Heritage Resource. By a scant two years, this appears to be the second oldest surviving Acadian structure in Canada. The oldest, the de Gannes-Cosby House, built in 1708, is also in Annapolis Royal.
In 1738 the first Canadian Masonic Lodge meeting was held in this building. Despite some evidence that a Masonic Lodge existed in Annapolis Royal in the years 1721-23, sometime in 1738, Major Erasmus James Philipps, with the assistance of William Shireff, established what was the first Freemason’s Lodge in Canada.
After the inn closed the building hosted a series of small businesses and fell into disrepair. In 1981 it was purchased by the Heritage Canada Foundation which stabilized and renovated the structure. In 1984 the Historic Restoration Society (now the Annapolis Heritage Society) took over ownership of the building, but it was not until about 2003 that the museum opened, with the aid of gifts and grants from several sources.
The CNHS plaque mounted to the side of the building reads as follows:
The Sinclair Inn is an important document in the history of building in Atlantic Canada. In the 1780s, tavern-keeper Frederick Sinclair created this inn by combining two existing structures. Both were frame, and the walls of one were filled with wattle and daub, an insulation used in Acadia and New England in the 17th and early-18th centuries. Sinclair attempted to give his inn certain Georgian features of symmetry and classical detail. Restored to its present state in 1982, the building stands as a rich composite of materials, techniques and styles spanning three centuries.
Below is the beginning of an article by the Annapolis Heritage Society outlining the methods and materials used in the construction of the two houses, the Soullard House and the Skene House, and styles and methods that followed which, combined, comprise the building we see today. Follow the link at the bottom to complete the story.
It must be noted that late 17th and early 18th century construction of houses in Annapolis Royal was of a rural style, as opposed to city homes in, say, New England. Such buildings would normally be one and a half stories, and would be modest both on the outside and the inside.
The rough to smooth progression of architectural refinements to the floors, walls, doors, and ceilings of houses can be seen throughout the Sinclair Inn. These changes are the customary progression for most buildings over the past 300 years, reflecting technological changes in styles and materials, as well as the personal preferences and economic prosperity of owners.
Foundations were usually of fieldstone, and of dry, or clay-mortared construction. In the case of the Soullard House, there was no foundation, and the sill plates were set up on the bare ground. The Skene House was moved and set on an existing foundation.
Large handhewn beams were shaped with a broadaxe, and set into the rock foundations. Wall frames of handhewn stud timbers were strengthened with diagonal timbers of a similar nature as the studs. Mortice and tenon joints and rough wooden pins were used to join the corners. These joints would be cut with augurs, chisel and mallet.
Rafters, plates (horizontal timbers at the top of the wall on which the rafters rested) and joists were handhewn, sometimes only minimally.
Once the studs were in place, underboarding, which only became common in the latter part of the 1600s, and which consisted of large sawn planks up to 21 inches in width, was applied to the exterior of the building. Clapboards, which were the typical final finish for the exterior wall, would then be applied to the underboarding. Handmade nails would be used to attach both the under boarding and the clapboards to the structure.
From the Annapolis Heritage Society
Sinclair Inn / Farmer's Hotel
DESCRIPTION OF HISTORIC PLACE
Sinclair Inn / Farmer's Hotel National Historic Site of Canada is a two-and-a-half storey wooden building in the commercial area of Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia. Its rectangular massing and symmetrically organized façade with central pediment and main entry evoke the classical vernacular style of many of its neighbours and belie its earlier origins. Once known as the Farmer's Hotel, this structure evolved with the amalgamation of at least two buildings, one dating from the Acadian era. Stabilized in the 1980s, the building is now operated as a museum. Official recognition refers to the building on its legal lot.
HERITAGE VALUE
Sinclair Inn / Farmer's Hotel was designated a national historic site of Canada in 1983 because:
-as an important document in the history of building in Atlantic Canada, the building stands as a rich composite of materials, techniques and styles spanning three centuries.
The heritage value of this site resides in its illustration of building techniques and materials dating from as early as the late 17th century through to the 19th century. A composite of more than one original building, the structure includes very early Acadian building techniques as well as those of the later, newer English vernacular. Operated as an inn for over 150 years, the business closed in 1950. The building retains much of its original material.
CHARACTER-DEFINING ELEMENTS
Key elements contributing to the heritage value of this site include:
- its location in the business core of Annapolis Royal;
- its rectangular, two-and-a-half-storey massing under a front-sloping gable roof;
- its symmetrically organized main façade with central pediment and entry;
- its clapboard cladding on the front and street elevations;
- its variety of construction and finishing techniques including wood frame, stone foundation, wattle-and-daub walls, plank ceilings, lath and plaster finishes, remnants of decorative interior painting, trim and wainscoting;
- evidence of the evolution of the interior layout over time.
From Historic Places Canada
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