5961 Highway 201: The Joseph Spurgeon Longley House

Architecture Style: Second Empire

Built: 1880

When Joseph S. Longley inherited “Hillside Farm” from his father, he was only 13, and his family helped him. “Family” was a different concept in Paradise then. Joseph’s family tree was typically complicated, its branches growing out and then in, over and over again. The Planter families who moved up from Belle Isle and Granville and settled in Paradise married one another’s children and were related to one another in many ways: by blood, by shared tasks, by a common story. It was thought to be a good thing to marry a second or even first cousin, and difficult to marry someone totally unrelated. It was also common for a first wife, or a first husband, to die young. So it was that Joseph’s father, Warren Benjamin Longley, married his first cousin, Minetta Morse, and when she died at 38, he married her brother’s widow, Sarah Elliott! Warren himself died at 53.  Sarah’s son by her first marriage, Samuel Edward Morse, managed the farm until he was 21 and left to study law. By then Joseph was 17, and he took his place with older men in the farm community south of the river. Those men were friends, neighbours, and family to Joseph.

Joseph decided to follow a dream of his father’s, and build a new house. The old one was thought to be “too old and too small.” This one would be grand: 38 feet wide, and 50 feet long, counting the ell. There would be a grand staircase, 14 rooms, 3 halls, and an attic. Even the cellar was large: a load of apples could be driven in and stored. The design of the house, Second Empire, was controversial. Some loved the Victorian exuberance of these designs, and their elegant, ornate exteriors. Others decried the loss of simple Georgian architecture. Today we value both as Nova Scotian heritage homes.

Joseph married twice, grieving when his beautiful wife, Ella Shaffner, died young of tuberculosis. “Deacon Joe” was a vigorous man, devout and stern; his second wife, Tryphena Kinley was the Baptist pastor’s daughter. She gave him 12 children, as Ella had given him 4, and a lifetime of support. The Longley children were extremely gifted in their fields – agriculture, the military, teaching, commerce, nursing, theology- with degrees from Acadia, Harvard and other institutions.

Ted Longley was the last of his family to live here. In 1996, François Turbide and Hélène Lavigne bought the home. They have honoured its heritage and given it new life.