This home was originally bought by William Barclay who had been General Manager of the Canadian Northern Quebec and Lake St. John Railways to be given as a wedding gift to his daughter Mary and her fiancé, lawyer Thomas W. Murphy. They were married in St. Paul Minnesota, but soon after the wedding returned to Halifax and their new home on Young Avenue.

 

Murphy also sat on the board of the Nova Scotia Trust Company and was director of both the Halifax Fire Insurance Company and the Atlantic Underwear Ltd. The Barclays continued to live in the house until the Royal Canadian Air Force expropriated it in 1943. After leaving the house, Mrs. Murphy, now a widow, moved into the house next door at 104 (now 816) Young Avenue where she continued to live until her death in 1948. The house was returned from temporary offices back into a residence in 1946. It was subsequently taken over by the Maritime Command Air Group.

 

The current home has the traditional, historic style in keeping with the “Maritime Vernacular Architecture” of the original structure designed in 1909 by a leading Nova Scotia architect of the period, Herbert Elliot Gates.

 

Gates was born in 1874 in Dartmouth and trained in the office of Edward Elliot, the architect of Halifax City Hall, and established his own practice in 1898 in Halifax. Gates also taught architecture at the Victoria School of Art and Design. Gates received many commissions, including the Nova Scotia Telephone Company, for buildings throughout the province, provincial hospitals, and the Department of Education. One of Gates’ most accomplished designs was the Nova Scotia Technical College, now the School of Architecture and Planning building at Dalhousie University. Gates died at his summer home in 1944 and was described in his obituary as one of the province's outstanding architects.

 

The modest building, craftsmanship, quality building materials, the distinctive gambrel roof with centre-cross gambrel dormer are uncommon in Maritime urban residences. The symmetrical façade is composed of a central entrance flanked by bay windows and the verandah with broad low-rise steps and decorative woodwork contribute to the Dutch Colonial Revival design.

The cellar consisted of a store room, laundry, vegetable room, boiler room, furnace coal room, kitchen coal room and servants' bathroom. The first floor had a large front verandah, vestibule, hall, closet, main stairs, living room,  den, dining room, china pantry, closets, kitchen, store room, rear servants' stairs, and back porch. The second floor consisted of owner's bedroom, dressing room, two other bedrooms, bathroom, servants' room, rear servants' stairs, hall, landing and main stairs

 

In 1998-99 the property was completely re-designed and re-constructed by the current owners using the services of Nova Scotia architect, Paul Skerry. Gone is the full width verandah and the middle peaked roof has been changed in appearance. The Commander's Residence is a Federal Heritage Building and one of Canada's Historic Places.