Support Halifax Heritage Designation for The Jubilee House
The Issue
Registered Heritage Properties in Halifax are protected and preserved.
Over the last few years, we've been working to get a heritage designation for our home, known as The Jubilee House.
On November 14th at 1 pm we're finally getting our hearing at Halifax Council to get the historic designation for 6484 Jubilee Road (at Beech)
The Historic Designation will help us and future owners protect and preserve this historic home keeping it safe from unwise development, demolition, and drastic change.
As much as we all love our growing city, we believe there are some historic things worth holding on to as guides to remind us and future generations what is beautiful about Halifax.
It's a once-in-a-generation opportunity and we'd like to bring your support to the hearing with this online petition.
If you'd like to lend your support to The Jubilee House, sign, share, and we'll do the rest.
This is the Jubilee House.
It was built about 100 years ago by a well-known Halifax shipping family, the Mathers. The house builder was William Benjamin Sandford a much admired masonry contractor who lived just up on Walnut Street.
The Mathers’ ship’s carpenters added some unique features to this Tudor revival mansion including built in cabinetry that anticipated the Craftsman home style and astonishing round rooms upstairs and down. The millwork inside is maybe one of the best surviving examples of ship carpentry from Nova Scotia’s golden age of shipbuilding.
The home was eventually sold to the Keith’s a prominent Halifax family and for the second half to the 20th century belonged to Boufie Chisholm (nee Keith) who was a well known community activist and philanthropist. She used the house for many public events and in support charitable causes including the Children’s Help Line and the earliest Designer Showcases in Halifax in support of local trades. She transformed it into a house that has given back to the community in many ways.
The house was open so much that there are few in the city above a certain age who haven’t been in the house on one occasion or other or at least noted the goings and doings.
I first saw the Jubilee House on a drive through the city with my friends from Waverley in 1980. Though we saw many fabulous historic houses on that day The Jubilee House stuck with me for years. When I started to Dal the house was always a ground marker for where I was in that part of the city.
I always just wondered who lives there and what kind of life must they have.
I lived in the neighbourhood through the 80's and 90's, finally had a family and bought our first house on Allan St. with some money my grandmother had saved for a downpayment. $2000! More money than I had ever imagined.
I worked on the Allan st. house for 10 years and when I sold it I had enough for the downpayment on the house at the corner of Oxford and Jubilee. Only a block away from my dream house I joked.
The Oxford and Jubilee property was a mess. It took two years to get the thing restored to its original shape, but it had a great history as a billet house for pilots and nurses in the war and was a very satisfying project.
Through this time I noticed the Jubilee House was empty for a while, then for sale. It was crushing because I was in the middle of this project and didn't have the money to even think about it.
It was bought by a developer who immediately entered into a push and pull with the city about tearing it down and building six condos on the property.
I spoke to the city and wrote letters about the historic and neighbourhood defining value of the house. But it was too late. The developer smashed down the outbuildings and bulldozed around the property trying to get the zoning redone.
Eventually a couple years went by with the house empty and falling into disrepair... the edge of unfixable.
Then on a very cold new year's day in 2010 a real estate agent who I had lamented to about the property stopped in front of our house when I was packing up the kids for a trip to grandma's. She said the developer was stuck for cash and would likely take an offer.
I worked out what I thought I could get for the Oxford and Jubilee house, now finished, and did the math. If I was careful I could make it work. He valued the house at zero, he only cared about the land. To my the house was priceless. IT created an opportunity.
He did it ! In the winter of 2010 we moved from a very nice property to one that had no running water, electricity or proper plumbing. There was a giant hole in the roof, one corner of the house had collapsed a little, and the night before we closed the deal a heating pipe broke and flooded the main entryway destroying woodwork and floors.
But still I was happy!
It took about six months to get all the systems working and basic restoration done. Most of the work was about taking out bad renovations that had been done since the owner died. It had further been divided up into a kind of rooming house layout with walls even dividing bathrooms. We learned a lot about the house and the original owners in the process.
There are still major jobs to be done: the windows need restored, the gutter system which is copper and lead, and some of the plaster needs stabilized. But it's a surprisingly comfy, easy home to live in and all the rooms are working and serving a purpose. The basement has become a classic jam space and the attic a little apartment for the kids... maybe one day an office.
We’re lucky to have been gifted the original architect’s design book for the house. It’s a deeply detailed description of the original design and build. A fantastic restoration resource.
Recent big projects have been landscaping the back yard and a new vintage brick patterned driveway. We’ve restored the original copper drain pipes and just finished a complete paint job.
Today one of the upstairs rooms has been transformed into a bedroom for Dot with some unique features that Amanda will share. We’ve hosted a stream of Ukrainian refugees since the war started, helping them get settled in the heart of Halifax and we recently got a new immigrant border from Mauritius.
I love this place and I'm happy to be able to say I really do own my dream house. We’ll be sharing the experience of how we created home value by not renovating but by stripping away the renovations of others to find the home’s original spirit. It took 13 years of work so far, and more than a little bit of wrangling and risk, but now, when I walk down Jubilee I don't have to wonder who lives there and what they do. I have a long list of resto-repairs to get to!
The Issue
Registered Heritage Properties in Halifax are protected and preserved.
Over the last few years, we've been working to get a heritage designation for our home, known as The Jubilee House.
On November 14th at 1 pm we're finally getting our hearing at Halifax Council to get the historic designation for 6484 Jubilee Road (at Beech)
The Historic Designation will help us and future owners protect and preserve this historic home keeping it safe from unwise development, demolition, and drastic change.
As much as we all love our growing city, we believe there are some historic things worth holding on to as guides to remind us and future generations what is beautiful about Halifax.
It's a once-in-a-generation opportunity and we'd like to bring your support to the hearing with this online petition.
If you'd like to lend your support to The Jubilee House, sign, share, and we'll do the rest.
This is the Jubilee House.
It was built about 100 years ago by a well-known Halifax shipping family, the Mathers. The house builder was William Benjamin Sandford a much admired masonry contractor who lived just up on Walnut Street.
The Mathers’ ship’s carpenters added some unique features to this Tudor revival mansion including built in cabinetry that anticipated the Craftsman home style and astonishing round rooms upstairs and down. The millwork inside is maybe one of the best surviving examples of ship carpentry from Nova Scotia’s golden age of shipbuilding.
The home was eventually sold to the Keith’s a prominent Halifax family and for the second half to the 20th century belonged to Boufie Chisholm (nee Keith) who was a well known community activist and philanthropist. She used the house for many public events and in support charitable causes including the Children’s Help Line and the earliest Designer Showcases in Halifax in support of local trades. She transformed it into a house that has given back to the community in many ways.
The house was open so much that there are few in the city above a certain age who haven’t been in the house on one occasion or other or at least noted the goings and doings.
I first saw the Jubilee House on a drive through the city with my friends from Waverley in 1980. Though we saw many fabulous historic houses on that day The Jubilee House stuck with me for years. When I started to Dal the house was always a ground marker for where I was in that part of the city.
I always just wondered who lives there and what kind of life must they have.
I lived in the neighbourhood through the 80's and 90's, finally had a family and bought our first house on Allan St. with some money my grandmother had saved for a downpayment. $2000! More money than I had ever imagined.
I worked on the Allan st. house for 10 years and when I sold it I had enough for the downpayment on the house at the corner of Oxford and Jubilee. Only a block away from my dream house I joked.
The Oxford and Jubilee property was a mess. It took two years to get the thing restored to its original shape, but it had a great history as a billet house for pilots and nurses in the war and was a very satisfying project.
Through this time I noticed the Jubilee House was empty for a while, then for sale. It was crushing because I was in the middle of this project and didn't have the money to even think about it.
It was bought by a developer who immediately entered into a push and pull with the city about tearing it down and building six condos on the property.
I spoke to the city and wrote letters about the historic and neighbourhood defining value of the house. But it was too late. The developer smashed down the outbuildings and bulldozed around the property trying to get the zoning redone.
Eventually a couple years went by with the house empty and falling into disrepair... the edge of unfixable.
Then on a very cold new year's day in 2010 a real estate agent who I had lamented to about the property stopped in front of our house when I was packing up the kids for a trip to grandma's. She said the developer was stuck for cash and would likely take an offer.
I worked out what I thought I could get for the Oxford and Jubilee house, now finished, and did the math. If I was careful I could make it work. He valued the house at zero, he only cared about the land. To my the house was priceless. IT created an opportunity.
He did it ! In the winter of 2010 we moved from a very nice property to one that had no running water, electricity or proper plumbing. There was a giant hole in the roof, one corner of the house had collapsed a little, and the night before we closed the deal a heating pipe broke and flooded the main entryway destroying woodwork and floors.
But still I was happy!
It took about six months to get all the systems working and basic restoration done. Most of the work was about taking out bad renovations that had been done since the owner died. It had further been divided up into a kind of rooming house layout with walls even dividing bathrooms. We learned a lot about the house and the original owners in the process.
There are still major jobs to be done: the windows need restored, the gutter system which is copper and lead, and some of the plaster needs stabilized. But it's a surprisingly comfy, easy home to live in and all the rooms are working and serving a purpose. The basement has become a classic jam space and the attic a little apartment for the kids... maybe one day an office.
We’re lucky to have been gifted the original architect’s design book for the house. It’s a deeply detailed description of the original design and build. A fantastic restoration resource.
Recent big projects have been landscaping the back yard and a new vintage brick patterned driveway. We’ve restored the original copper drain pipes and just finished a complete paint job.
Today one of the upstairs rooms has been transformed into a bedroom for Dot with some unique features that Amanda will share. We’ve hosted a stream of Ukrainian refugees since the war started, helping them get settled in the heart of Halifax and we recently got a new immigrant border from Mauritius.
I love this place and I'm happy to be able to say I really do own my dream house. We’ll be sharing the experience of how we created home value by not renovating but by stripping away the renovations of others to find the home’s original spirit. It took 13 years of work so far, and more than a little bit of wrangling and risk, but now, when I walk down Jubilee I don't have to wonder who lives there and what they do. I have a long list of resto-repairs to get to!
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Petition created on September 22, 2023