Publishing Twice a Week

The Macdonald Notebook is your source for exclusive Business & Inside Politics publishing every Saturday and Sunday.

Latest Issue

Gerald Regan Family Lived In An Andrew Cobb-Designed Home, As Does Lawyer Ray Wagner & His Family

Nov 29, 2019 | Real Estate

By Andrew Macdonald

The now-departed Gerald Regan and his wife Carole have lived on posh Shore Drive, an exclusive Bedford residential enclave, since the early 1970s.

Back when he was Opposition leader, Regan and his spouse bought an Andrew Cobb-designed home with its own waterfront.

Among my second highest paid readership — millennials aged 25 to 35 — Cobb might not be a household name but many readers will be aware of architect Cobb and the significant works he designed around Atlantic Canada.

Gerald Regan and his wife Carol on the campaign trail in the 1970s.

Thanks to Halifax author Janet Kitz, the life and works of legendary architect Cobb were recorded in the book, Andrew Cobb: Architect and Artist, published five years ago by Nimbus. The Regan home is among those featured in the book.

Cobb lived from 1876 to 1943, and while many of his designs, homes and institutional buildings are approaching their centenary, they still grace streets in Halifax, Dartmouth and Bedford, as well as Corner Brook, Nfld.

Besides the Regans, another couple to a Cobb-designed home is personal injury and class action lawyer Ray Wagner, and his wife Anne, residing at 1770 Bloomingdale Terrace. Their house contains an ‘eyebrow window’ on the home’s roof line, a feature that Cobb made famous as part of his work.

The Wagners are the third family to live in the house, built in 1932 for J. Stanley Smith, a director with Rainnie & Co., according to Kitz’s research.

Anne Wagner tells The Macdonald Notebook the couple was drawn to the house, partially because it was designed by Cobb, who was born in New York of Nova Scotian parents, and who later moved as a child to Wolfville.

“We always loved Cobb houses. And we love the street,” says Wagner, noting they bought the home 22 years ago, and raised three children in it. Their youngest is now 25.

When it came time to expanding the side and back of the house, the Wagners paid attention to the original Cobb design, hiring architectural draftsman Nigel Collins to design the three story addition.

“He’s a very creative artist,” she added.

“The expansion was to the back of the house. We preserved the Andrew Cobb architecture. We’ve tried to maintain the original architecture of the house.

“We were very, very sensitive to maintain the integrity of the Cobb architecture.”

A contractor said he could save $5,000 without doing the three storey framing to the sight line of the house. “I remember saying, ‘we’re sticking to the plans’.”

The home is one of two houses on Bloomingdale Terrace designed by Cobb. The other is at 1759 Bloomingdale Terrace, owned by Necia Amys and Philip Amys.

The interior of the Wagner home, including bedrooms, a bathroom with a clawed tub, and staircase, are all original Cobb designs. Only the kitchen was modernized. The eyebrow window allowing light into the bathroom was unchanged.

“The home’s original woodwork has never been painted,” she says.

Anne Wagner, who has an MBA, teaches part time at the Ken Rowe School of Management at Dalhousie University, while husband Ray, now 63, practices with his firm, Wagner & Associates.

Fifty per cent of his practice is based on class action suits, such as recently representing residents of the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children regarding physical and sexual abuse. The provincial Liberal government settled the matter, and the law firm was paid in the $6 million range.

The other half of Ray’s practice deals with medical malpractice suits.

Return Home

Contact The Editor

Subscribe to The Macdonald Notebook