| Details |
Former house, municipal chambers and offices, dating from the early 19th Century but incorporating an earlier house. It is a 2-storey and basement house, 5-window to the front, and single storey wing (now raised to 2-storey). It has a rusticated and key-blocked doorpiece, centre attic pediment with round-headed window, ball-topped area piers, concave front to Union Street with pediment and columned centre tripartites and double bow front and back. Inside, it boasts a fine entrance hall with reeded columns leading to a 2-storey galleried hall with apsidal ends. The ground floor interior work is of very high quality, marred only by the removal of the chimney pieces. The original mansion house was built circa 1768 by Robert Arbuthnot of Haddo-Rattray and then sold to James Arbuthnot of Dens, who was a prosperous merchant of Peterhead who was an extensive Whale, Salmon and Herring fishing proprietor. A house of the same frontage is shown in Ainslie's maps of circa 1800 and 1805 but without bows and of approximately half the depth. James’ son George extended the house to the rear circa 1805 and this is when a double-bowed façade was added facing the harbour. Further works took place in the 1830s, mainly internal alterations. The upper courses (indicating heightening) and some of the interior details suggest that the earlier house was incorporated in the new one. There was a large walled garden to the south of the house, with a well at the centre and a stair connecting to the harbour to the south. Number 60 Broad Street to the west has a one-bay link to this house (NK14NW0570). Photographic recording was carried out in 2024 as part of the Peterhead Cultural project.
|
Historic Environment Records (HER)