Drake House Registered Heritage Structure

The Drake House has been designated as a heritage building because of its historic and aesthetic values.

Drake House is historically significant because it is representative of Newfoundland outport resettlement. Drake House was built in the small fishing community of Haystack, located in a sheltered harbour on the northeast coast of Long Island, Placentia Bay, north of Harbour Buffett. Haystack, like other Long Island settlements, was dependent upon Harbour Buffett for supplies and the sale of their fish. The community was never very large and the population never exceeded 100. By 1961 two residents remained. The resettlement program implemented by the Newfoundland Government was put in place between 1954 and 1975 to try and centralize the population, and bring residents of small, isolated fishing communities to larger “growth centres”. When the larger community of Harbour Buffett agreed to resettle, it was only a matter of time before Haystack followed. The Drake House was floated to the nearby community of Arnold’s Cove in the 1970s to its present location, creating a visual reminder of the controversial and highly emotional resettlement program.

Aesthetically, this house is significant because it is a visual reminder of vernacular, outport architecture. Built using local, traditional materials, Drake House typifies the style of house built in the late nineteenth century in a small fishing village. Of particular note is the narrow wood clapboard, wide cornerboards and mouldings surrounding a traditional wood door and two over two wooden windows. The sparse detailing is a statement about the occupants, who were a fishing family. Yet efforts were made to make this house attractive and unique by way of vernacular classical elements such as mouldings on the trim and elaborate corner eave brackets.