Hawthorne Cottage (Brigus)
Hawthorne Cottage (Brigus)![[Hawthorne Cottage: Image]](009.jpg)
Unquestionably the most important house in Brigus is Hawthorne, the home of Captain Robert A. Bartlett, famous for his work as Peary's navigator in the journeys to the North Pole. Bartlett came from a long line of Brigus sealing captains and was himself a noted sealer. He came to his Arctic work through a relative and accompanied Peary on the Polar treks including the one which saw the discovery of the North Pole. In addition he went with Peary on an unsuccessful expedition to the South Pole. Hawthorne contains, in the Arctic Room (the Drawing Room), numerous momentoes of Bob Bartlett's journeys of exploration and these are kept with the house as a Bartlett memorial The history of the house itself is as interesting as that of its most famous occupant. Originally constructed in Cochrandale, further inland, it was moved on rollers to its present site in the winter of 1834. While such house-movings are and were not unusual in Newfoundland, this one must have had something extra as it inspired a ballad, "Squire Leamon's House Warming". Originally called "Whitehorn Cottage" the house remained the property of the Leamon's until 1886 when Mary Leamon left it to her daughter, the mother of Bob Bartlett. It was the Bartlett's who changed the name to"Hawthorne".
Now somewhat invisible because of the trees which surround it, Hawthorne is a one-and-a-half storey house with an elaborately trellised porch on three sides. The upper storey i s lit by dormer windows and the whole house is set on a substantial rock foundation so that one ascends a fine set of steps with iron railings to the main door.