Place Description
90 Brighton Road is one of a pair of Arts and Crafts inspired homes on Brighton Road. Ivan Younghusband Reddin (1885-1950) chose cement to construct the two homes in 1915. Because most homes in Charlottetown were traditionally built with wood or brick, the homes are unique in the City. 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 90 Brighton Road lies in its unique, cement construction, its Arts and Crafts influenced architecture, and its role in supporting the Brighton Road streetscape.
The 22 May 1915 edition of the local newspaper, The Daily Examiner, announced that work on two of Ivan Y. Reddin's cement houses was well underway. A machine for making the concrete had been secured by Reddin and the work was being supervised by Mr. Charles Coles.
Unfortunately, Islanders were suspicious of the medium fearing that the cement houses would be damp and unhealthy. Perhaps that is why plans for six more homes were scrapped by Reddin. However, after several months of attempting to rent the homes, Reddin was finally rewarded with his first tenants. Eventually Reddin himself would go on to live in the home that he built at 90 Brighton Road.
Designed by John Marshall Hunter, the unique Arts and Crafts style of the house was illustrative of the picturesque aesthetic which emphasized living close to nature. An important feature of the home is the garden setting and landscaping which brings trees close to the building.
Together, the garden setting and canopy of trees, pitched roof, bay window, and bracketted hood sheltering the light above the entrance door, are qualities of a typical English Cottage. The grouped windows and the faux protruding rafters above the large central window are common in the Arts and Crafts style.
Combined with the slight irregularity of the roofline and the fenestration of the building, this unique home and the one adjacent to it creates quite an impression, as they are almost identical in style and face the street on a diagonal, while at the same turned slightly toward one another. They are very important to the streetscape and valued as unique and significant to the architecture of Charlottetown, as they are two of less than five cement homes built in Charlottetown around this time.
Sources: Heritage Office, City of Charlottetown Planning Department, PO Box 98, Charlottetown, PE C1A 7K2
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Special Characteristics
The heritage value of 90 Brighton Road is illustrated by the following Arts and Crafts character-defining elements:
- The irregular massing of the home
- The cement construction
- The style and asymmetrical placement of the windows, particularly the bow window, the large group of windows that span the first and second floor and the windows that border the roofline
- The style and placement of the doors particularly the hooded door of the facade with its bracketted hood
- The irregular roofline particularly the gable just off centre of the façade with its interesting simple roof brackets and the cut out design exposing beams of the south section of the roofline
- The geometric designs and the contrasting detailing of the exterior
- The style and placement of the tall chimney
Other character-defining elements include:
- The location of the house adjacent to a similar designed home at 94 Brighton Road
- The setting of the house on landscaped grounds with mature trees.
