The house was built for George Stewart Campbell, a prominent Haligonian, philanthropist, chairman, then president of the Halifax Board of Trade, and Chairman of Point Pleasant Park. He was also Governor, and then Chairman, Dalhousie Board of Governors. 

 

Campbell led the drive to acquire the lands that became the Studley Campus. He hired renowned Toronto architect Frank Darling and local architect Andrew Cobb to design some of the first buildings on the new Studley campus. George was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1851, son of historian and journalist, Prof. Duncan Campbell, author of a History of Nova Scotia (1873). Educated in Glasgow, Scotland, the younger Campbell immigrated with his family to Nova Scotia in 1866, was brought up in Halifax.

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In 1887, he married Helen Kennedy, daughter of noted Scottish singer David Kennedy, in Edinburgh. Campbell entered the firm of F. D. Corbett & Co., steamship agents and commission merchants in a subordinate role. He later became a partner in the firm and, on retirement of Mr. Corbett, the firm became known as G.S. Campbell & Co, steamship agents, managers of the Halifax Tow Boat Company Ltd and the Halifax Salvage Association.

 

George Campbell died in 1927. The house remained in the family until death of Helen Kennedy Campbell in 1941. It was inherited by Margaret William (later Dawson). Leased to Navy League of Canada as Naval Officers Club in 1943. The following years of the war saw a total of 47,115 visits by naval officers and 29,704 meals were served. Margaret Dawson then converted it into 5 rental units after the war. The property was acquired by the Fram family in 1961 and was the home of John W. and Pearl E. Fram, and later Kenneth Wesley and Grace Audrey Fram until sold to a developer in 2016. The home's demise, unfortunately, came about in November 2016.

 

In 1902 well-known Toronto architects Edmund Burke and John Charles Bastone Horwood (Burke & Horwood) had prepared a number of proposals, including an all-brick scheme, but Campbell selected the three-storey frame design, finished in dark brown shingles. The colour was typical of Arts & Crafts homes, emphasizing natural earthy tones in a solid body stain.

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Architect Edmund Burke was one of Canada's pre-eminent architects. He was also one of the three founding members of the Royal Architecture Institute of Canada. J.C.B. Horwood was a Toronto architect born in Quidi Vidi, Newfoundland. He trained at architectural firms in Toronto and New York City. Horwood strongly associated himself with the Arts and Crafts movement in the late 1890s. He partnered with Edmund Burke in 1894. Horwood and his associates became known for the Chicago style steel-frame construction and fire-proof materials they adopted for large commercial buildings. Their projects included office buildings, retail stores, sanatoria and residences in Toronto's affluent Rosedale area.

 

The home, masonry and plaster work was done by contractor Edward Maxwell Jr., of Jubilee Road, who also worked on the Frederick W. Green Mansion across the street. “Mr George S. Campbell’s new wooden house" is mentioned in Building Operations In Halifax …, The Morning Chronicle, Halifax, January 1, 1904. p. 13-14. It was a thirteen room house with 2½ baths besides kitchen, storerooms, trunk room, larder and laundry.

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This house was an eclectic amalgam of American Shingle style and Arts and Crafts style, with some Queen Anne elements. It incorporated Arts and Crafts elements both inside and out: natural materials such as stone and wood, thick and squared porches, exposed beams in the living room, and brackets and timber detailing under exterior porches and gables, a single broad gable with elongated bays. The house also had multi-paned windows, one of which had vintage leaded Harlequin glass. There was a massive chimney with ornamental chimney pots on the roof, and Palladium window in the attic centred in the dominant side projecting gable, supported on multi-storied bays. Before its destruction, the home's brown-stained shingles had been hidden beneath a layer of siding, and the house, unfortunately, lost its original rustic flavour. The view of the outer harbour it once commanded is gone as is the picturesque garden setting and mature trees.