Selden-Beazley House

I came across this plaque on one of my wanderings around Dartmouth and was immediately taken by the fact that it looked much older than any plaque I had ever seen. I took a picture so that I could do further research when I got home.

According to the Parks Canada website, the earliest plaque design, known as the Fosbery model, was first introduced in 1920. It was cast entirely in a bronze colour, and showcased decorative detailed borders in a vertical layout. In the early 1970s, a new model was introduced known as the Roselawn. The Seldon-Beazley plaque is probably one of the last to use the Fosbery model.

Below is the text from the plaque.

Built in 1845, the house was first owned (and probably occupied as a country cottage) by Sir Edward Kenny K.B. 2nd mayor of Halifax who was knighted when serving as Receiver General in the MacDonald government.

Steven and Maria Selden, prominent members of the Baptist Church bought the house in 1847. Stephen was principal of the Royal Acadian School in Halifax and later editor of the newspaper ‘The Christian Messenger’. In June 1870, Mrs Selden held a meeting here which established the first Woman’s Missionary Aid Society in all of Canada and enabled work in Burma by Miss Hannah Norris.

Martin Eager, a druggist, owned the house from 1892-6, then the Johnstone family lived here for two years until selling to William Beazley, an engineer in 1898.

The Beazley family, who owned the house until 1973, have been well known in Dartmouth throughout the mid-20th century in sports, business, and local politics. The Beazley sports field is named in memory of Maurice.

Harold Beazley sold the house to Pat Alasdair McKay in 1973.

The last image is one I refer to as the house-plate and it just has the name of the house on it. It also looks like it might have been the top of a garden fountain.

The text on the house-plate reads;

Heritage
of
Canada Nova Scotia Dartmouth
The Selden-Beasley
House
1845