477 St. George St., Annapolis Royal, N.S.
Asking Price: $495,000
Taxes: $1,663.20 (2026)
Lot Size: 1.47 acres
Agent: Alyn How, Re/Max Banner Real Estate
The backstory
On the way to becoming a National Historic Site of Canada in 2019, this three-bedroom clapboard house on the main street of Annapolis Royal was the much-loved home of the How family.
Jim and Pauline How bought the house in 1983, while Mr. How was employed with Parks Canada and two of the couple’s three children had already left home.
“He knew it was an early house, but he didn’t know it was the oldest wooden house in Canada,” Alyn How says of his late father.
More recently, local historians set out to determine the age of a few of the heritage buildings in the small Nova Scotia town.
A living area in the home with a fireplace.Brandon Dugas/ikkonX Media
In 2018, carbon isotope testing found that samples taken from the rugged main floor ceiling beams marked 477 St. George St., as the oldest documented wooden structure in Nova Scotia to date. The building is also prized as one of the earliest examples of the Acadian style of architecture anywhere.
The original portion of the house was built in 1708, when the area known as Acadia was a colony of France founded on the traditional territory of the Mi’kmaq.
The French nobleman and officer Louis de Gannes de Falaise commissioned the building with funds provided by King Louis XIV.
A Brockville home steeped in history
When the British captured the fort and settlement of Port-Royal in 1710, Major de Gannes de Falaise returned to France.
In 1727, the house became the residence of Alexander Cosby, the lieutenant-governor of the town the British renamed Annapolis Royal.
It has been in private hands since 1788.
The couple’s elder daughter, Sue Beattie, says her father was a history scholar who began collecting antiques when he was still in elementary school. During his career, he was a museum director, curator and interpretation officer in different parts of Nova Scotia.
“I often said to people he should have been born in the 1700s,” Ms. Beattie says.
A dining area.Brandon Dugas/ikkonX Media
The house today
As the Hows and their younger daughter, Amy, moved into the house, the interior looked like any other in the early 1980s, Ms. Beattie says.
“I don’t know how Dad knew that there was something special about this house.”
When Ms. How travelled to England for a family visit the following year, Mr. How took the opportunity to remove layers of plaster, drywall and tile to reveal the massive wooden floorboards and sturdy post-and-beam construction underneath.
Alyn How recalls helping his father begin the process of painstakingly peeling away materials. He estimates about seven layers had been added over the centuries.
“He needed an excuse because she never would have agreed to live in a construction zone,” Mr. How says of his late mother.
By the time the crew got down to the infill made of clay and straw with a technique called wattle-and-daub, local historical groups and an academic from Acadian University were dropping by.
One of the home's three bedrooms.Brandon Dugas/ikkonX Media
The original portion with a gambrel roof was built on a fieldstone foundation. Around 1870, an extension with three gabled dormers was added at the rear, and the building took on an L shape.
Today, the house has 1½ stories with three bedrooms and 1½ bathrooms.
A barn also stands on the grounds, which back onto the Annapolis Royal Historic Gardens and the tidal waterway.
The Hows spent many years restoring the original character of the house while making few concessions to modern life.
A failed ski-hill property transformed into an all-year family retreat
Mr. How became practiced in the skills of the 18th century, including weaving cane and rush into seats for antique chairs, hooking rugs and crafting textiles on an antique loom.
Ms. How sewed formal drapes for the dining room windows and baked confections in the one-time doctor’s office that today serves as a kitchen.
“I’m just so glad that nothing had been removed – just covered up,” Ms. Beattie says.
The current kitchen used to be a doctor's office.Brandon Dugas/ikkonX Media
The best feature
The heritage value of the de Gannes-Cosby House stems from the well-preserved elements, but also the home’s status as a rare surviving example of architecture from the time before the Acadians were expelled from the area.
“The house bears witness to both French and British rule and illustrates the type of house built and lived in by the colonial officer class in the early years,” the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada notes.
Mr. How, who is a real estate agent in Annapolis Royal, says setting an asking price was a challenge because there are few comparable properties.
He figures a buyer less concerned with history might want to modernize the interior, but the siblings are keen to preserve their father’s legacy.
“It’s too fragile a property – it needs that integrity to be significant,” Mr. How says. “I want to find somebody who will not gut it.”
He notes that the house is also important to the small town, which draws visitors from around the world.
“It’s our raison-d’etre down here. Without history, we wouldn’t exist.”