This large three-storey wood mansion in classical Georgian Revival style was constructed for Alfred Whitman. Alfred Whitman was born in Tupperville, Annapolis County in 1854, the son of Charles Bailey Whitman & Jane Tupper. He studied law at Dalhousie College and articled until 1882, under John S. D. Thompson, who became Prime Minister Sir John Thompson.
 

Whitman then struck out on his own as a barrister and solicitor, and was for a number of years active in the militia with the Princess Louise Fusiliers, and served in Northwest Rebellion in 1885. He retired in 1912 and served three terms as alderman in Halifax, 1907-08; 1910-11; and 1919-24. Whitman died in 1930. He is buried in Round Hill Cemetery, Annapolis County. Whitman never married. According to the 1911 census, Whitman lived in the ten bedroom mansion with a married couple, Catherine and Benjamin Purcell. She was a domestic housemaid and he a servant.
 

This was one of the seven homes designed by J. C. Dumaresq along Young Avenue. The construction of this home he designed in 1898, was closely followed by the John McInnis home across the street which he also designed. For this house, Dumaresq partnered with the Montreal firm of Taylor and Gordon. Andrew Thomas Taylor, of Edinburgh, Scotland, opened his own office in London, England, in 1879 and then took on a partner, George William Hamilton Gordon of Harrow, England in 1882. The firm became Taylor & Gordon. This allowed Taylor to travel to Canada in 1883 to open an office in Montreal, while Gordon took care of the British business in England.
 

It proved to be a lucrative move. Taylor's corporate work continued to flourish across Canada and included the building of branch banks for the Bank of Montreal and some rival banks. Taylor's Canadian relatives, Montreal's affluent Redpath family, brought him into contact with a small group of financiers and entrepreneurs. The Redpath family’s involvement with McGill College also helped Taylor to receive numerous commissions there. He also designed a number of the mansions lining Montreal's famous Square Mile. There is no evidence, however, that Gordon ever lived in Canada. From 1898 to 1902, Taylor also dedicated much of his time to designing country homes and apartment buildings. His designs were spacious and eclectic in style, borrowing from his English training with influences from trips to the United States.

The basement had hard and soft coal rooms, vegetable storage, bath, stove, laundry room and boiler. The ground floor consisted of library, drawing room, reception room, dining room, kitchen, pantry and vestibule and grand hall. The second floor consisted of six bedrooms, bath room, servants' hall and stairs. The attic floor had a lumber room (used as storage), billiard room, hall, as well as four bedrooms, hall and stairs for servants. The brick garage in the back was home for the chauffeur and motor cars.
 

The mansion used to have a large verandah running the full width of the front of the house and intricate railings beneath the third-storey windows - all of which were, unfortunately, removed possibly in the 1960s. The house is dressed up very nicely with bays, dormers, and extra gables. The house has a large fanlight window with a web mullion above the front door, and a smaller fanlight window with arched mullions above the second-floor verandah doorway. There are remnants of Queen Anne Revival that trail off, leading into the Georgian Revival style of the 20th century.
 

The house served as a home for veterans in the 1940s, an Austrian Consulate, and today is a private home with apartments. It still retains most of the original woodwork interior, stained glass windows, and double pocket doors.