HILDRITH, Isaac (1741-1807) of Halifax, Nova Scotia was active there as surveyor, engineer and architect. His key work in Canada is the sophisticated Palladian design for Government House, Halifax (1800-1806) which served as the residence for Governor Wentworth. The plan and elevational treatment bear a remarkable resemblance to a “Design for A Villa” published by George Richardson, Architect of London, England in his book entitled “Original Designs for Country Seats or Villas, 1795, plates 52-55., and it is this scheme which may have been used by Hildrith for this Halifax landmark. Copies of these drawings by Richardson are now held in the Public Archives of Nova Scotia in Halifax, and may be used to compare with the Hildrith design of 1800.
Hildrith was born in Ellkerton-upon-Swale, Yorkshire, England in 1741 and he emigrated to the United States in 1770. He settled in Norfolk, Virginia before the American Revolution, and later worked as a surveyor and builder. In 1776 he returned to England, but again sailed to America, settling in Charleston, South Carolina in 1782. In July 1783 he moved to Nova Scotia where he worked as a master builder, designing and constructing his own buildings from his home-base in Shelburne. In 1800 or 1801 he obtained the important commission for Government House in Halifax, and moved there to take up residence. He remained there until December 1806, then returned to Shelburne. Hildrith died at Shelburne, N.S. on 16 September 1807 and was later buried in the Anglican Cemetery there (biography Dictionary of Canadian Biography, v, 1983, 423-24; biog. MacMillan Encyclopedia of Architects [New York], 1982, vol. 2, 386-87; biog. M. Rosinski, Architects of Nova Scotia: A Biographical Dictionary 1605-1950, 1994, 40-41).
SHELBURNE, N.S., Christ Church (Anglican), 1788 (Canadian Churchman [Toronto], 17 June 1926, 392, historical article on the church)
HALIFAX, N.S., Government House, Barrington Street, 1800-1805; still standing in 2022 (Halifax Herald, 21 June 1899, 11; Canadian Homes & Gardens [Toronto], iii, April 1926, 38-39, illus.; Heritage Trust of Nova Scotia, Founded Upon A Rock, 1967, 18, illus. & descrip.; Dr. C. Bruce Ferguson, “Isaac Hildrith: Architect of Government House”, in the Dalhousie Review [Halifax], Vol. 50, Winter 1970-71, 510-16; Nathalie Clerk, Palladian Style in Canadian Architecture, 1984, 89, illus.& descrip.; H. Kalman, History of Canadian Architecture, 1994, 133, illus. & descrip.). A series of scaled drawings for Government House appear in the folio by Arthur Wallace entitled Early Buildings of Nova Scotia, 1976, plate 35.