The Ross Property includes a two-and-a-half-storey saltbox house and outbuildings. It is located on Ross Lane, overlooking the harbour in Burin, NL. The designation includes the house and outbuildings.
Formal Recognition Type
Registered Heritage Structure
Heritage Value
The Ross Property was designated a Registered Heritage Structure by the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador in 2023 due to its aesthetic and historic value.
The Ross House is an excellent surviving example of the “third generation” saltbox style. Houses of this type resemble earlier saltboxes in form but are generally larger in both footprint and height. The Ross House stands a full two-and-a-half-storeys tall and has a symmetrical façade. While the house’s trim is mostly plain, it does have large raincaps over the 3/6 pane sash windows and the front entrance has a fancy eared trim and a double storm door. The house is complemented by a pair of outbuildings, one of which was George Ross’s store, dating from the 1890s. George Ross was among the early blacksmiths on the Burin peninsula. His forge stood on the now-reconstructed wharf over the harbour. The house and outbuildings are the last remaining structures from what was once a family-run enterprise.
The Ross Property has great aesthetic value due to its placement on the landscape. It sits on what was once known as Ross Point at the entrance to Marshall’s Dock off Little Burin Harbour. It is visible along Main Street after rounding Paul’s Hill until the intersection with Police Road. The property is set against a granite outcrop and looks out to the Turtle Islands. The house is surrounded by roses bushes and a small grove of damson plum trees, as well as an old lilac bush. The Ross Property has become an iconic symbol of the community. It is the subject of countless photographs, it is featured on calendars and other publications, and it has been painted by numerous artists from within the province and beyond.
The Ross Property has historic value due to its age and its association with the Ross family of blacksmiths. The house was built in the mid to late 1880s by William Foote, for his daughter Charlotte Foote Ross and her husband George Ross. George Ross and Charlotte Foote were married on January 20, 1882 at the Church of England in Burin. Circumstantial evidence suggests that the house was built in or around 1888, based on the dates of newspapers found on the walls. George Ross was born in Bridport, Dorset, England in 1860. His father died when he was eleven and George went to work for Thomas Merthyr Guest and his wife Lady Theodora Grosvenor Guest, youngest daughter of the 2nd Marquess Westminister. At the age of twenty George Ross immigrated to Newfoundland. He was identified as a “servant” on his immigration papers. With skills acquired working on the Guest estate he began his life on the Burin Peninsula as a blacksmith’s apprentice to Louis (Lewis) Butler in Butler’s Cove (now Creston). From the mid 1890s George Ross operated his own forge on the Ross Property. George Ross’s original store provided warehousing space for the adjacent forge. Like the forge itself, the store was built by George Ross from material salvaged from an old ship “The Hercules” that had run aground in Burin Harbour in March of 1893. Although newspaper accounts indicate that the vessel was destroyed by fire, there was salvageable material from which George Ross purchased the timbers for the construction of his forge and store.
George and Charlotte Ross raised eleven children in the Ross House. After the death of George Ross on March 1, 1919, Charlotte Ross remained in the house with her three unmarried daughters and two sons. George Ross’s estate was sworn at $1,145.00, a sizeable amount for that time and evidence of the prosperity of his forge. The 1921 census lists the inhabitants of the Ross House as Charlotte Ross, her unmarried children Ida, Victoria, Mary, and William, and her son Thomas Ross and his wife Gertrude (née Lillian Gertrude Hillier of Lamaline). George and Charlotte’s son Charles took over the forge and lived in a separate house on the property with his wife Agnes and son Hubert. As per the terms of George Ross’s will, the forge was co-owned by the three brothers but operated by Charles. According to the 1935 census George and Charlotte’s middle son, Thomas, resided in the Ross House with his wife Gertrude and their four children. Thomas Ross was identified as a clerk working for the fish merchant G. A. Bartlett, Ltd.
Following the death of Charlotte Ross at the age of 74 on August 26, 1936, Thomas and Gertrude Ross inherited the Ross House and raised their children George, Melvin, Winnifred, and Alberta there. Thomas Ross died on November 23, 1989 and Gertrude Ross remained in the house until her death in 1992. The Ross House was sold to Teena Brown in 1998 and her father Ben Brown undertook an extensive restoration of the house, bringing it to its original state in almost all respects. In April 2001, the house was purchased by Tom Gordon and Mary O’Keeffe and has since been used by them as a seasonal residence. They have undertaken several restoration projects, including rebuilding the wharf, stabilizing the old store, re-roofing the house with cedar shingles, stabilizing the foundation of the house, and re-cladding the house with wooden clapboard. In 2008 the wharf was reconstructed and a small store constructed by Melvin Ross was relocated to the position of George Ross’ original forge.
Source: Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador property file “Burin – Ross Property – FPT NL-5357”
Character Defining Elements
All original features of the house which relate to the age and style including:
-two-and-a-half-storey house;
-steeply pitched gable roof;
-chimney style and placement;
-symmetrical facade;
-narrow wooden clapboard and plain wooden trim;
-wooden corner boards;
-size, style, trim and placement of wooden windows;
-existing 3/6 wooden sash windows;
-various multi-paned fixed wooden windows;
-raincaps over windows;
-size, style, trim and placement of exterior wooden doors;
-main entrance with eared trim and double storm wooden plank door;
-dimension, location and orientation of building on the property and in relation to the water.
All original features of the outbuildings which relate to the age and style including:
-original form, scale and massing of outbuildings;
-original roof types;
-narrow clapboard;
-corner boards;
-window size, style, trim and placement;
-size, style, trim and placement of exterior doors;
-red ochre exterior colour;
-dimension, location and orientation of outbuildings.
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