Place Description
75 Hillsborough Street is a wood framed home built for John McMillan, a local engineer. The home was built in 1904 to a design created by prominent local architect, C.B. Chappell in the Colonial Revival style. The designation encompasses the building's exterior and parcel; it does not include the building's interior.
Why is this place important?
The heritage value of 75 Hillsborough Street lies in its association with engineer, John McMillan, its Colonial Revival influenced architectural style, and its importance to the Hillsborough Street streetscape.
John McMillan was the chief engineer of the Stanley, a steam ship that was used for the mail and passenger service between Prince Edward Island and the mainland in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. McMillan sold his home on Richmond Street and returned to his native Scotland with the intention of staying. He must have missed the Island though, as he soon returned and at the age of 73, had the lovely home at 75 Hillsborough Street constructed.
McMillan hired prominent local architect, Charles Benjamin Chappell to design the home and contractor Charles McGregor to build it. The 16 June 1904 edition of the local newspaper, the Daily Examiner noted that 75 Hillsborough Street was "designed to produce comfort as well as good looks". It contained four rooms on the first floor and four rooms on the second floor. A beautiful home, the exterior of the home contains Classical details such as a Palladian window, pilasters, a pediment and wide entablatures, which are characteristic of the Colonial Revival style.
Later occupants of the home, according to Prince Edward Island Telephone Directories, were G.H. Toombs and Alexander MacLeod. The 9 February 1939 edition of the local newspaper, the Guardian, contained a sale notice for the "apartment house" at 75 Hillsborough Street. The home, owned by the late Mrs. Louise Bonnell, was to be sold at auction with all of its contents.
A beautiful home built within a few years of the houses on either side of it; 75 Hillsborough Street plays a vital role in supporting the Hillsborough Street streetscape.
Sources: Heritage Office, City of Charlottetown Planning Department, PO Box 98, Charlottetown, PE C1A 7K2
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Special Characteristics
The following character-defining elements illustrate the Colonial Revival heritage value of 75 Hillsborough Street:
- The overall massing of the building with its two storeys
- The asymmetrical facade
- The placement and style of the windows including the grouped, bay and Palladian windows
- The placement and style of the doors
- The contrasting white trim throughout the exterior of the building, particularly the trim surrounding the windows and doors, the pilasters and corner boards, the entablatures and the trim highlighting the pediment and the gables
- The pitch of the gable roof with eave brackets and large eave returns
- The interesting, centrally placed gable with its projecting gothic arch sheltering a Palladian window
- The style and placement of the chimneys
- The large addition on to the back of the home
Other character-defining elements include:
- The location of the home on Hillsborough Street and its physical and visual relationship to the streetscape
