MacDonald House
East Lake Ainslie, Inverness County, Nova Scotia
An Architectural Study
The early 1800's saw the beginnings of Scottish settlement in East Lake Ainslie and other areas of Cape Breton Island. One of these families was that of Alexander (Weaver) MacDonald who settled in East Lake Ainslie in 1823 (LAHS, MacDonald House). The men of this family most likely would have constructed a small log cabin to provide shelter for the first few years of their new lives. In the 1850's (actual date unknown) Charles MacDonald, son of Alexander, built a home for himself and his family on his father's property. The MacDonald's were the first merchants to set up a store in the area, and they also were the first Postmasters for Lake Ainslie. This house remains today and is now used as a museum depicting life at Lake Ainslie. Over the years the house has seen a few changes, and many different events. The house is wood-frame construction and has elements of Gothic Revival architecture.
Fig. 1 Front Façade
As a high school and university student I spent my summers working at the MacDonald House Museum as a tour guide. Later I became the Administrator for the museum. I spent a total of eight summers working for the Lake Ainslie Historical Society at MacDonald House. This experience gave me a vast amount of knowledge about the house and its former residents. Due to my experience as an employee at the museum, much of the information contained within this paper is drawn from tacit knowledge acquired over the course of the eight summers I worked there. Any information from outside sources is cited. In preparation for this architectural study I spent a day in the Registry of Deeds office in Port Hood looking at all the relevant deeds and grants. I was able to get the permission of the Lake Ainslie Historical Society to borrow many of the documents that were in storage in the house so that I would be able to consult them throughout the research process. In January, I spent two afternoons photographing and measuring the house with my father and gathering documents to take down from the museum for the remainder of the winter. In March I photographed the exteriors of two neighbouring houses with similarities in style and construction.
Like other settlers to Lake Ainslie in the early 1800's the MacDonald's would have had a tough first few years, clearing land, building a home, growing crops for the winter, and learning to deal with a harsh climate. Alexander MacDonald brought his wife Mary MacLean, and their family grew to include six girls and two boys. One son, Donald, married a daughter of the Hon. William McKeen of Mabou. It is believed that this connection may have played a part in Donald's younger brother Charles opening a store on the family land in Lake Ainslie in 1852 (MacLean, LAHS MacDonald House). The store was situated below the house and the foundation can still be seen through the grass and bushes.
Charles was apparently an enterprising man as he not only operated the first store in the area, but also housed the first post office in his dining room. Charles served the East Lake Ainslie area as Post Master from 1867 until his death in 1897 (LAHS, MacDonald House). Charles' wife Hannah took over the position until 1925 when her son Dan C. became Post Master. Dan C. and his wife Jessie were the last couple to raise a family in MacDonald House. They had four children, three girls and one boy, Charles Neil. Charles N. MacDonald built a home for himself and his wife Jessie (nee MacLean) on the shoreline of his father's property and raised one son Charles there. The three girls each married and lived away from Cape Breton, but they were each given a plot of land near the shoreline and built summer homes there.
The youngest Charles married Ann Campbell from the Whycocomagh area and had two children, Robert and Jessica. They purchased a mini-home and lived for a time on the family property just below the MacDonald house. Their mini-home is now owned and occupied by Terry MacDonald who is no relation to the original family.
The MacDonald property became one of the gathering places for East Lake residents as it was where they not only got their mail and supplies, but it was a place to 'get the news' from their friends and neighbours. Dan C. was quite adept at playing the fiddle, so quite often a party would break out in their home. People coming in for the mail were not treated as customers, but rather sat in the kitchen and were offered a cup of tea and perhaps a biscuit and made a visit out of it. One woman who grew up in the area remembers being sent for the mail by her father when she was just six or seven years old. He set her on their most trusted horse, and told the horse to go get the mail. The horse brought the girl safely up to the back door of MacDonald House where she hollered for Dan C. He brought her out the mail (she thinks it must have been a very important letter) and she then had to ask him to turn the horse around and tell it to go home. The date the store was closed is unknown, but the post office closed in 1956 when the Rural Route mail delivery system was put in place.
Over the last 183 years six generations of MacDonald's have called this property home. They became an integral part of life at East Lake Ainslie. Because of the importance of the house to the area, a group of residents came together in 1978 to form the Lake Ainslie Historical Society. Charles N and his wife Jessie donated the house, barn and a portion of land to the Lake Ainslie historical Society and the MacDonald House Museum opened in 1979. Over the last 27 years many young people in the area have worked at the museum during the summer months.
Much of the land in Lake Ainslie was granted in long narrow plots, each having access to the water. The land the settled by Alexander MacDonald and his family were granted to his son Charles in March of 1870. There were 218 acres included in the grant, bound by Allan MacLean on the south, and Colin MacPhail on the north (Grant books, Port Hood). The house is situated on a hilltop approximately 1000 feet from the shoreline giving a panoramic view of the lake and surrounding farms. There is a barn approximately 100 feet from the house. The original barn was burned in a fire in the late 1920's and was rebuilt in 1929 using many of the original timbers. The store operated by Charles MacDonald had been situated halfway between the house and the roadway that bisects the property.
The MacDonald house rests on a foundation of locally cut fieldstone with a 4-foot cellar under half of the house (LAHS, MacDonald House - Brief History). The fieldstones were originally laid in two rows, in an outer and inner layer formation. When the house was restored in the late 1970's the inner layer of fieldstones was removed and jack-posts were inserted to help support the house. There is a large square fieldstone formation approximately four x-four feet under the centre of the house that looks as though it may have been the base for a fireplace. There is no record of a fireplace having been inside the house however, and some of the members of the Lake Ainslie Historical Society feel that perhaps Charles intended to build a fireplace and then changed his mind in favour of stoves. As the house stands now, there is no visible evidence of a central fireplace.
The house is wood framed, and was constructed using mortise and tenon techniques. The exterior of the house is covered with wooden shingles that are painted white and all the trim is painted green. The windows would have originally been six-over-six but are now wooden framed with two panes of glass in the top and bottom sections. The front door is wooden with one pane of glass in the top, and the back door is made up of boards nailed together with a screen door inside. The house faces roughly west, looking over the lake, the highway and the place where the store was situated. There is a large peak on the second storey that is approximately one third the width of the house at its base. There is a window in the peak to provide light to the upper floor of the house. The peak is an element of architecture that seems to imply a Gothic Revival touch to the house. There is decorative trim in the upper portion of the peak (Figure 2)
Fig. 2 The Peak
The house measures 35 feet on the front façade and 34 feet 6 inches on the north side (see Figure 3 for measurements). The trim on the house is generally eight or ten inches wide, and accentuates the Gothic Revival feel of the house. There are returning eaves on the gable ends, except where the ell connects to the house. There is currently one chimney on the house, but in the past there would have been another one above the dining room.
Fig 3 Fig 4
The interior layout of MacDonald House consists of four rooms and a central hallway on the main floor with a large back porch, as well as four bedrooms and a large central hallway on the second floor (Figures 5 and 6).
Fig 5
Fig. 6 Second Floor
The parlour, in most homes, was a room where the most fancy furniture and artwork in the house were on display. The family only used the parlour on special occasions such as when the minister visited or when friends and relatives came home from away. The parlour in the MacDonald house faces west and north and is 13 x 13 feet. It has a window in each of the western and northern facing walls and one entrance onto the front hallway. Currently the beams supporting the second floor are exposed in the parlour ceiling. The beams are in good condition and they show marks where they were hand hewn. The floorboards in the parlour are not of any uniform size but are quite wide, some as wide as twelve inches. These are the same style of boards that are used in the ceiling. There is a very ornate carpet covering most of the floor in the parlour, a pump organ, and attractive furniture along with pictures of many pioneers from the area.
Fig. 7 The Parlour
There is a less formal sitting room across the hall from the parlour. This room is now used by the Lake Ainslie Historical Society to house many different displays of photographs, china and jewellery as well as sewing machines. While the family lived in the house, the room was used many times for parties and dances as well as for family use as a living room. The room is 13 x 12 ½ feet. The wall that is shared with the dining room has a round depression in it where a stovepipe once connected to the chimney. There are two windows, one facing west and one facing south. There are two entryways, one to the front hallway and one to the dining room.
Fig. 8, Living Room
The dining room was used not only for the purpose of eating dinner, but also as the community's post office. One corner of the 13 x 9 foot room was set aside for the Post Master's desk. There is a window in the door between the dining room and the kitchen for the Post Master to use in the performance of his duties. According to some people who remember getting their mail at the Post Office, the window in the door was never used. The dining room has narrow hardwood flooring, as does the living room, kitchen and front hallway. The ceiling has open beams, exposing the wide floorboards of the second story. There is one window, facing south. The dining table is situated in the southeast corner. The wall that is shared with the living room has a built-in china cabinet with glass in the upper portion of the two doors. A chimney sits to the left of the cabinet.
Fig. 9 China Cabinet
Fig. 10 Post Office
The kitchen is quite large at nine x nineteen feet. It has one window facing north. The kitchen can be entered either from the back porch or the front hallway. There is a small closet under the stairs where canned goods might have been stored. The closet has shallow shelving along each side. In one corner of the kitchen is a cabinet that has a basin built in. The MacDonald family brought water in from a spring 200 feet away (the hand-pump visible in Figure 11 is a prop for the museum). This spring served the family well until November 1929 when an earthquake off the coast of Newfoundland caused the spring to close. Indoor plumbing was added at some point after this, but the exact year is unknown.
Fig. 11 Kitchen
The kitchen also has a freestanding hutch for storing and displaying dishes as well as a low cooking stove designed for burning wood. As in many kitchens in Cape Breton there is a low wooden bench for short rests or for extra seating when the neighbours are visiting. The window in the kitchen gives a clear view of the lake and farms to the north, and of anyone coming up the hill to get their mail. The chimney is made of bricks and measures 14 x 16 inches. The walls have painted wooden panelling on the bottom and are covered with wallpaper on the top half.
Fig. 12 Kitchen
The back porch is divided into two sections, one of which is now used as a weaving room. The weaving room measures eight by eight and a half feet with one window in the south wall. The window is flush with the back wall of the house. The wall dividing the back porch area into two separate sections may have been to provide a separate storage area for food.
Figure 13. Weaving Room
This portion of the house has seen significant changes over the years. A back ell was added to the house at some point after the house was built. The ell was used as living quarters for people working on the farm. A portion of the ell was removed (about 20 feet) and used as a carriage house (LAHS, MacDonald House). The fact that the windows in the weaving room and the back porch are flush with the back wall lends credence to this theory. The windows on the north side of the house are evenly spaced, except for the one in the porch. Figure 14 shows the placement of the window in the weaving room at the left on the first floor.
Fig. 14 Southern Exterior
The main part of the back porch has one window that is flush with the back wall of the house, and a back entrance that would have been the one most used by visitors. There is plenty of room for boots and outerwear to be stored, as well as plenty of room to hang wet and dirty work clothes. The porch measures eight ½ x nine ½ feet. There are railings nailed to the wall behind the door to not only provide access to a crawlspace above the porch, but also would have been used to hang work-clothes to dry. Figure 13 shows the exterior of the back porch and the proximity of the window to the back wall.
Fig. 15 South Eastern Exterior
The front porch of the house is small, with very little room for storing boots and coats. The porch is 5 feet 9 inches wide and three ½ feet deep. This may mean that family members and neighbours did not use the front entry as the main entrance. I think that the small porch may have been an addition to the house. The inner door shown in Figure 14 looks much too elaborate to have been designed as an inner door. The family may have added the outer porch to prevent drafts from entering the house as the front façade faces right into some of the prevailing winds in the area. The panes of glass surrounding the inner door are small, just 12 x 12 inches.
Fig. 16 Front Porch
The front hallway measures 13 feet 5 inches long by 6 ½ feet. The stairs are 3 feet 4 inches wide. The railing on the stairs has fairly large newel posts and very delicate posts on every second tread. The floorboards are narrow hardwood, the same as most other rooms on the first floor. The railing had been painted green at one point, but when the restoration was done in the late 1970's the paint was sanded off as best as possible. Some evidence of the green paint remains.
Fig. 17 Front Hallway and Stairs
The second floor of the MacDonald House is made up of a large central hallway with two bedrooms on either side. The Master Bedroom faces roughly southwest, with one window that faces roughly south. The room measures 11 ½ x 10 feet wide. The western wall is bisected by the roof line at 3.5 feet from the floor. The ceilings upstairs are six ½ feet high. The upstairs baseboards are much narrower then their counterparts in the first floor rooms. The floorboards on the second floor are hardwood of various widths ranging from 4 inches to 12 inches. They are not hand hewn, but likely came from a local sawmill.
Fig. 18 Master Bedroom
Bedrooms 2 and 3 on the eastern side of the house are much smaller than the Master Bedroom. Bedroom 2 measures 7 x 11 ½, and Bedroom 3 measures 7 x 12 ½ feet. Chimneys measuring two x one ½ feet come up through each of the small bedrooms. The chimneys would have provided some heat to the second floor; however, the chimney takes up quite a bit of room in these small spaces. Figure 19 shows the small bedroom on the north side of the house, Bedroom 3 on the floor plan.
Fig. 19 Bedroom 3
The Lake Ainslie Historical Society currently uses Bedroom 1 as a research room, and as storage room for many of the files and documents related to the history of Lake Ainslie. Bedroom one has a similar layout to the Master Bedroom. The room measures 12 ½ x 10 feet, one foot wider then the Master Bedroom. There is one window facing roughly north. The roof line bisects the outer wall at roughly three ½ feet.
Fig. 20 Bedroom 1
The hallway on the second floor measures 8 feet 10 inches x 18 ½ feet. The additional floor space provided by the dormer measures 4 feet 2 inches by 1 foot. The dormer is 5 feet 9 inches high to the point where it begins to angle off. It is 14 feet 9 inches from the floor to the top of the dormer. The stair railings are 2 feet high there is a 2-foot wide walkway between the stairs and the Master Bedroom. The steps are 10 inches high and 9 ½ inches deep.
Fig. 21 Upstairs, Dormer area
Fig. 22 Upstairs Hallway
Conclusions and Theories
This house provides many opportunities for students of vernacular architecture to stretch their investigative muscles. When I think of the odd formation of fieldstone assembled in a 4-foot square directly in the center of the cellar, I have to wonder why it is there. I would suggest that perhaps there was another house on the foundation prior the construction of the present house. Alexander MacDonald, pioneer, would no doubt have built a log cabin in his first year here. Then his son built the present house in the 1850's. What if Alexander had replaced his log home with a center chimney home? That could account for the large stone base in the center of the cellar. Pauline MacLean, Lake Ainslie Historical Society member and Collections Manager at the Nova Scotia Highland Village Museum, wonders if the house had been turned at some point in its existence. The kitchen in many homes was often situated so as to draw the most natural light, and this house is not set up that way now. Jim St. Clair, a local historian, wonders if the house had once been a center chimney house. Figure 23 is a sketch of the house showing roughly the location of the cellar and the stone formation.
Fig. 23 Cellar
When looking at the floor plan with the cellar included I began to wonder if the entire south and east ends of the house had been additions, but local oral tradition and documents on file with the Lake Ainslie Historical Society argue for the house being built as one with the exception of the back ell. However, the argument can be made that perhaps this is not the second house that was built, but the third. A centre chimney house on this foundation would have faced northeast, and is quite possible in my mind. Charles, the original builder of the current house died in 1897, so there is no one alive today who would have known him. This could account for the lack of oral history regarding dates of construction and changes to the house.
The MacDonald house has been a gathering place for generations of Lake Ainslie residents, either as a place for conducting business or for social reasons. In the time of Charles or his son Dan C the house was important to locals as a place to get the news, pick up the mail and perhaps unwind after a hard week in the fields. In more modern times the site hosted festivals, dances and parties as part of the Lake Ainslie Historical Societies mandate to promote and preserve a way of life.
Brann, Marie. "An Architectural Study of the Mac Donald House, Lake Ainslie" Beaton Institute. Reports. April 10, 1984
Lake Ainslie Historical Society. "MacDonald House". Promotional material. Date unknown.
Lake Ainslie Historical Society. "MacDonald House". Brief History. Date unknown
MacLean, Pauline. Lake Ainslie Historical Society, Treasurer. Personal Interview. March 30th, 2006.
Registry of Deeds, Port Hood. Deed books and Grant books. January 2006.
St.Clair, James. Consultant with Lake Ainslie Historical Society, local historian. Personal Interview. February 2006.
