Point Pleasant Park Cottage, Halifax NS, Canada

For the past couple of years, the Sable Island Institute has been headquartered in a picturesque building with an intriguing history, the Gatekeeper’s Lodge at the entrance to Point Pleasant Park in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Built in 1896 as a dwelling for the park-keeper, it has a story-book appeal with its steep roof, stepped gables and finials. Despite its fanciful look, it is not the only building of this design; it was modelled after one specific gatehouse in England, known as Wycombe Lodge.
We’ll begin with the Gatekeeper’s Lodge (also known as the Keeper’s Lodge, the Superintendent’s Lodge and Point Pleasant Park Lodge). In 1866, the Crown signed a 99-year lease with the ‘Directors of a Park at Point Pleasant’ (later known as the Point Pleasant Park Commission) for the 75-hectare promontory at the southern tip of the peninsula of Halifax for the sum of one shilling a year. This lease was later extended to 999 years, and the park was officially opened in 1873. About twenty years later, the directors decided that the park-keeper (the superintendent of the park) needed a dwelling, and in 1896, the prolific Maritime architect, James Charles Dumaresq was selected to build it.