Guest Lovitt House Bed & Breakfast


 

 

The house as it looked when it was built
around 1874.

Looking West down Main Street from the top of the Yarmouth Academy.  Late 1870's.

 

Original Owners

Original owner George Hutchinson Guest with his wife Mary Ellen and children  Florence, Alfred and Hugh.

Born on July 14, 1849 in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. George died in Yarmouth on January 18, 1923 at the age of 73. He was buried in Mountain Cemetery in Yarmouth. He was at one time a merchant, High Sheriff of Yarmouth, a bookkeeper and a shipowner.

On November 11, 1874, when George was 25, he married Mary Ellen (Nellie) Lovitt, daughter of Captain John Walker Lovitt & Anne Jenkins, in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. Mary Ellen died in Yarmouth on March 15, 1915. She was 65.

They had the following children:

  • Florence Lovitt (1876-1932

  • Alfred Rankin (1878-1932)

  • Mary Lovitt (1879-1945)

  • Hugh Burton - (1881-1914)

George Guest's father, Robert Guest, had been a merchant in St. John's, Newfoundland, but left there in 1827 to seek his fortune in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, where he soon became involved in the town's shipping industry.
 

George, born there in 1849, and educated at the Yarmouth Academy, was also involved in shipping, as a ship owner and in the marine insurance business. As well, he had good political connections, not only by marriage but through his mother's family, who had been in Yarmouth since the town's earliest days.

Guest's maternal great grandfather, Norman Utley, had represented Yarmouth in the Provincial Legislature from 1800 - 1806. When the position of High Sheriff became vacant in 1887, George Guest's family connections added weight to the influence already exerted by his brother-in-law, John Lovitt, next door".

(From "Atlantic Hearth", p.154)

 


Eric Spinney
 

Eric H. Spinney was property owner from 1927-1954.  Another prominent businessman, he was the head of E.K Spinney's hardware store in Yarmouth, and later a member of the NS Legislature.
 


The History of the Dr. Websters

Dr. John Alexander Webster & Family
(David Webster is boy on far left)

Dr. Isaac Webster was born in 1776 in Manfield, Conn., USA and came to Cornwallis, N.S. to practice medicine in 1791.
His son, Frederick Augustis, was born in Kentville in 1807. He attended Edinburgh University, graduated in 1832 and set up practice in Yarmouth in 1833. Frederick Webster being the second generation doctor.
There were six in total, the 5th generation being John Alexander Webster who was born in Yarmouth in 1914. He graduated DAL in 1938 and moved into this home in 1954, setting up his practice in the basement where it stayed until he retired in 1992.
His youngest son, David McGowen Webster was born in 1958, graduated from Dalhousie University  in 1990. He is still practicing in the basement today. There has been a Dr. Webster in the Town of Yarmouth for approximately 170 years.

 

Owners of Guest-Lovitt House

John W. Lovitt

March 4, 1861 - January 1, 1876

Merchant

George H. & Mary Ellen Guest

January 1, 1876 - January 18, 1923

High Sheriff

Alfred R. Guest

January 18, 1923 - December 8, 1924

Department Postmaster

Elizabeth Hazen

December 8, 1924 - January 15, 1925

A married woman

Andrew Kirk

January 15, 1925 - December 1, 1927

Carpenter

Eric H. Spinney

December 1, 1927 - June 1, 1954

Manager

J. Alexander Webster

June 1, 1954 - April 28, 1993

Physician

Andre Haines/Gregory Watters

April 1993 - October 1997

Artist & Musician

Craig & Susan Paisly

October 1997 - September 1999

CBC News

Twyla & Bruce Rogers

September 1999 - Present

Bed & Breakfast Operators

 

Guest Lovitt House • 12 Parade Street Yarmouth Nova Scotia B5A 3A4
902.742.0372 • 866.742.0372 •
[email protected]