SAMUEL GREENWOOD HOUSE

RHAD’s Headquarters, The Samuel Greenwood House, is listed as one of Canada’s Historic Places and is a registered heritage property. Built in 1797, it is the second oldest building in Dartmouth. The house had been falling into disrepair over the last several decades so RHAD was thrilled to take over the building and begin restoring it to its former beauty. Our long list of renovations included a new paint job, replacement of rotten wood cladding and windows, restoring the original flooring , re-instating the garden, and completely renovating the lower courtyard level into a secondary office space that we share with Upland Urban Planning + Design.

The builder, Samuel Greenwood, was born in Boston in 1741 into a family of mast makers and shipwrights, dating back at least three generations. He and his family arrived in Dartmouth in 1776. Greenwood would carry on the family business in Nova Scotia, working as a mast maker for the Royal British Navy. In 1783 King George III provided him with a land grant, a large wooded lot that is now Shubie Park, to supply timber to build masts for the Navy. It is likely that Greenwood used the timber from this land to build this house.

After Greenwood’s death in 1826, the house was left to two of his ship builder sons, and then on to several other prominent craftsmen of the time including the owners of the Stanyan Ropeworks company, the first director of the Shubenacadie Canal Company, and a carpenter. We are proud to carry on the lineage of craftspeople who have been part of the history of this house over the centuries.