Formal Recognition Type

Registered Heritage Structure

Heritage Value

The Holloway Property was designated a Registered Heritage Structure by the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador in 2024 due to its aesthetic and historic value.

The Holloway Property has aesthetic value as a good example of an early 20th-century house with Victorian Gothic elements and two contemporaneous outbuildings. The home has many features of the Victorian Gothic style, including a steeply pitched gable roof and a pair of two-and-a-half storey, three-sided bays with classical, pedimented roofs on a symmetrical front façade. A covered porch on the first storey spans the two bays. A large entablature style moulding on the front façade separates the first two storeys. The pedimented roofs on the bays feature intricate wooden clapboard and shingle decoration. The gable ends feature pronounced eave returns and the half-story gables are accentuated with paint matching the house’s elaborate trim work. The house is sited in a traditional setting, with outbuildings in close proximity. The outbuildings were designed for practical use, employing rough materials, simple design elements and utilitarian construction techniques.

The Holloway Property has historic value due to its age and as an example of a family home associated with the region’s traditional lumber industry. The house was most likely built in 1915 by Eli John Holloway (also known as John or Jack), before his marriage to Minnie Earl of St. John’s in 1916. Minnie died in childbirth ten months after their marriage, but their daughter survived. Eli John married Mabel Cuff of Bloomfield in 1919 and the couple would have six children together. John had a sawmill and lumber business at Parson’s Siding, along the Bonavista Line of the railroad. An advertisement in a 1929 issue of the Fishermen’s Advocate newspaper showed that John was selling rough and dressed lumber and wooden shingles from the Parson’s Siding site. The whole family would often spend the summer months at Parson’s Siding while John worked there. In 1940, John signed up for the Newfoundland Overseas Forestry Unit, serving five years overseas. Along with the sawmill operation, John was known as an exceptional carpenter who produced everything from trims, banisters, and pieces of furniture. The workshop where he made many of these items still stands on the property.  Eli John died in 1968. The Holloway Property had been home to the family for sixty years when, in 1975, Mabel sold the house and moved in with her daughter Keziah. Mabel died in 1985.

Source: Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador property file “Holloway Property – Lethbridge – FPT 386”

Character Defining Elements

All those elements pertaining to the house which represent its aesthetic value, including:
-number of storeys;
-steeply pitched gable roof;
-chimney style and placement;
-return on eaves;
-half-story gables are accentuated with paint matching elaborate trim work;
-narrow wooden clapboard;
-wooden corner boards;
-symmetrical façade:
-two-storey, three-sided bays;
-pedimented bay roofs;
-decorative clapboard and shingle pattern on pediments;
-entablature style moulding on the front façade separating the first two storeys;
-wooden window size, style, trim and placement;
-size, style, trim and placement of exterior wooden doors;
-elaborate, original, wooden trim work around windows and doors;
-covered porch on front façade;
-dimension, location and orientation of building.

Those pertaining to the outbuildings include:
-original form, scale and massing of outbuildings;
-original roof types;
-use of narrow wooden clapboard and wooden shingles;
-wooden corner boards;
-wooden window size, style, trim and placement;
-size, style, trim and placement of exterior wooden doors;
-traditional red ochre and/or yellow ochre exterior colour;
-dimension, location and orientation of outbuildings.

Community

Lethbridge

Municipality

Not specified (Newfoundland)

Civic Address

266 Bayside Drive

Construction (circa)

1915 - 1915

Builder

Eli John Holloway