Prescott House Museum is a historic house and gardens located in

Starr's Point, Nova Scotia Starrs Point is a community in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located in Kings County two miles (3 km) northeast of Port Williams. Starrs Point faces the Minas Basin to the east and separates the mouths of the Cornwallis River and t ...

which is part of the

Nova Scotia Museum Nova Scotia Museum (NSM) is the corporate name for the 28 museums across Nova Scotia, Canada, and is part of the province's tourism infrastructure. The organization manages more than 200 historic buildings, living history sites, vessels, and speci ...

. 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 Halifax is the capital and most populous municipality of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the most populous municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of 2024, it is estimated that the population of the H ...

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 An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

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 Nova Scotia is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, located on its east coast. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and Population of Canada by province and territory, most populous province in Atlan ...

in 1971. The house was designated a

National Historic Site of Canada National Historic Sites of Canada () are places that have been designated by the federal Minister of the Environment on the advice of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (HSMBC), as being of national historic significance. Parks C ...

in 1969. It is also a Provincially Registered Property under the province's Heritage Property Act.

Museum

The house is operated as part of the

system and explores Prescott's life,

Georgian architecture Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1714 and 1830. It is named after the first four Monarchy of the United Kingdom, British monarchs of the House of Han ...

, 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

External links

Prescott House Museum Website
{{Nova Scotia parks Museums in Kings County, Nova Scotia Historic house museums in Nova Scotia National Historic Sites in Nova Scotia Houses completed in 1816 Museums established in 1971 Georgian architecture in Canada Nova Scotia Museum Estate gardens in Canada 1971 establishments in Canada