Piercey House is a wooden, two storey, biscuit box style house with a low hip roof. Constructed around 1917, it is located along Jersey Point Walking Trail in Milltown, NL. The designation is confined to the footprint of the building.
Formal Recognition Type
Municipal Heritage Building, Structure or Land
Heritage Value
Piercey House has been designated a municipal heritage site by the Town of Milltown-Head of Bay d’Espoir due to its aesthetic, historic and cultural value.
Piercey House has aesthetic value as a good example of a modest family dwelling from the early 20th century. Architecturally, it is a noteworthy example of the craftsmanship of outport vernacular builders, standing as a testament to the permanence of their construction techniques. While utilizing simple design elements which resulted in plain, neat facades, such homes are impressive because of their quiet, refined simplicity.
Piercey House has aesthetic value because of its environmental setting. The home was built by Martin Piercey on Jersey Point around 1917. In the 1920s, it was taken down in pieces and moved closer to the main settlement at Milltown. The house has since been moved back to Jersey Point. The property on which it sits is enclosed by a picket fence and features an outbuilding and kitchen garden. It is adjacent to the old Government Road that connected Milltown and Head Bay d’Espoir, which is part of the Jersey Point Walking Trail, and offers an unencumbered view of the waters of Bay d’Espoir.
Piercey House has historic value due to its age, as a reminder of a way of life and due to its association with a well-known community member. The Piercey House has historic value as the oldest known home in the community of Milltown, which was settled around the turn of the 20th century when a sawmill was constructed in the area. It also has historic value as a physical reminder of a way of life once common in small, isolated outports – that of taking in boarders. In the period during which the house was built the only connection to other communities was through a coastal boat service. Itinerant professionals would go from community to community on the coastal boat, staying – and sometimes practicing their trade – at boarding houses. Over the years the Piercey family took in optometrists, salesmen, hairdressers, bank personnel and sometimes members of the clergy. The kitchen was used as a waiting room and the living room served as an office.
The Piercey House has further historic value due to its association to Martin Piercey, who constructed the house for his family and was a well-known carpenter in the community, making furniture, doors, mouldings, dories and coffins.
Piercey House has cultural value as it is a physical reminder of a tradition that existed in many small communities in Newfoundland and Labrador, namely house moving. It was not uncommon for people to move their homes from one location to another, instead of building a new home. Sometimes houses were moved intact; sometimes they were moved in sections and reassembled, as the Piercey House was in the 1920s.
Source: Town of Milltown-Head Bay d’Espoir Regular Council Meeting Motion 2009-028 August 18, 2009.
Character Defining Elements
All those elements which represent the aesthetic, historic and cultural values of the building, including:
-low hip roof;
-number of storeys;
-narrow wooden clapboard;
-corner boards;
-window size, style, trim and placement;
-size, style, trim and placement of exterior doors;
-size, style and location of kitchen extension;
-dimension, location and orientation of building;
-unobstructed view of Bay d’Espoir, and;
-association with the Piercey family.
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