Contact Us | Search Site | Home
|
Contact Us | Search Site | Home |
|
Southcott Awards 2002 Nolasco Retreat, Brigus Brigus is a town which we think of as representative of Newfoundland but it is not typical of Newfoundland. With its stone-lined riverways, its carefully delineated properties, its timbered grounds and its old houses it has long been a resort of artists, a required visit for travellers. In the depth of the town, not far from Harbour Pond, Nolasco Retreat, Kathy Legrow's house, sits on North Street. With its square roof and three-bay facade, it is a characteristic Brigus house and was probably built for William Hunt, a tinsmith, in about 1876. This date is also suggested by the fact that the house has no fireplaces, only stove chimneys. Can we surmise that a tinsmith would have had a professional interest in dealing only with a "modern" stove as opposed to an old-fashioned fireplace? The back of the house was added at the beginning of the last, the twentieth century. Previous to Kathy Legrow's purchase, the house had been used as a residence and crafts shop by Mrs Phyllis Percy who, through it, fostered craft development in the area. When Kathy Legrow took it over in 1997, several changes had been made to the building although its basic form had been preserved. It had vinyl siding and contemporary windows and the interior had been chopped and changed by its round of owners. She calculated that it could, at one time, have had as many as eleven bedrooms. Apart from the necessary restoration of the facade - to the clapboard and replacement of all the windows (the work of Jim Youden) - she had to do major structural work. This was a product of the dampness of the site and had caused the failure of the floor. A drain was built about the foundation and a concrete pad laid as a subsurface for the first floor. Upstairs she opened out a number of the rooms to provide more space and, in doing so, discovered a number of extraordinarily wide boards, including one that measured two feet. In doing this project she was advised by the architect Philip Pratt and had the work undertaken by Gerry Spracklin. The interior design was done by Elizabeth Murphy and Kathy Legrow. |
History | Southcott | Advocacy Programs | Newman Vaults | Endangered Places Reports | The Trident | Membership | Donations | Contact Us | Search Site | Home Website Hosting By: ISP Atlantic Inc.
|
