Abbot House (Bonavista)
Abbot House (Bonavista)![[Abbot House: Image]](035.jpg)
The solitary example in this book of the earliest Newfoundland mode of construction is Heber John Abbot's house at Bayley's Cove, Bonavista. The house is a full-studded or tilt construction -- a mode in which logs are set vertically, side-by-side and fitted into a sill so that a solid wall of vertical logs is formed. Details on the genealogy of the house are uncertain but the house may have been built by James Way (1823-1903), a Bonavista fisherman. Way was given a grant of land near the house site in 1869 which may suggest a date for construction. On the other hand, it was not unusual for Newfoundlanders to build first and get a grant later. If this was the case it is possible that the house was built before 1869 and, on the basis of style, it is likely to have been built between 1840 and 1860. The use of agable-end chimney with a hip roofis unusual. The very pronounced drip mouldings above the windows are a feature of Bonavista vernacular houses.