Creating an Estate

	Creating an Estate
	Richard John Uniacke obtained his first property at Mount Uniacke, a grant of 1,000 acres, in 1786. The original grant, on the Windsor Road, included a farmhouse and frontage on what he called Lake Martha, but it did not include the site where the present house, barn, and other outbuildings would eventually be built. Within one year he acquired 2,700 more acres in four transactions. Ten years later, in 1796, he acquired another property of 500 acres, bringing his total holdings to 4,200 acres. In 1813 he acquired a 400-acre property in the Mount Uniacke area as well as several parcels of land totaling 2,540 acres bought from the estate of Charles Morris, who had been Surveyor General. One of the parcels was the site of the existing house. In 1815, Uniacke made the last land purchase for the estate, a 200-acre parcel of land. In 1819, however, Uniacke also received an additional 4,000 acre land grant, which brought his estate at Mount Uniacke to a consolidated holding totaling 11,340 acres. Richard John Uniacke's family was spending the summers at Mount Uniacke as early as the 1790s, probably staying in the farmhouse on the original land grant. Construction of the new house and out-buildings began in 1813, when he acquired the existing house site. The main construction seems to have been completed by 1816. Although he maintained his properties in Halifax, it appears that after 1815 Uniacke lived at the Mount in semi-retirement until his death in 1830. In addition to the main house, he built a large barn, a coach house, and various outbuildings suitable to a country seat.


	Most of the buildings were clustered around the door yard and the adjacent horse yard. A hothouse was built in the orchard, and the boathouse was at the end of an allee of trees which extended from the door yard to the lake. The portico on the main house overlooked the road from Halifax, Lake Martha, Norman Lake, the far fields, and in the foreground, the front garden that was surrounded by a semi-circular haha wall. Mount Uniacke was intended to be a working farm. Richard John Uniacke devoted himself to clearing and improving woodlands and wetands, experimenting with composting materials and methods, and growing a variety of agricultural and horticultural crops. He also kept horses, cattle, sheep, pigs, and poultry.


	The fields and pastures were set out to provide good views of the house from the Windsor Road, and to provide good views from the house and other important places in the landscape. Originally, the fields and pastures were probably fenced. As the land was improved, however, some quickset hedges were planted and the roads and open fields were often edged with dry-stone walls and lined with trees. Trees were also used to form gateways, and clumps of trees were planted in the fields in a picturesque manner. The brook was improved with stone walls and willow plantings. Stone walls in what is now woods are evidence that many of the 100 acres cleared by Mr. Uniacke have since grown over. The unsuitability of the land for farming meant that Mr. Uniacke's efforts to create a self-supporting estate were not successful.