| Feb 23, 2012


Photo: Seed swappers at MERA Sulyn Cedar, Lori Beckstead and Karen Rodgers

Doctor Peter Bell of the Sharbot Lake Family Health team has been interested in the way people lived in eastern Ontario ever since he opened his medical practice over 40 years ago.

During that time he has developed a large collection of antique items, including not just furniture but tools, stoves, and other implements as well. All in all it makes up enough antique objects to fill a house - but where to get a house?

About four years ago he found an answer to that question. On a property at the junction of Brooke Valley and Strong Roads, there was a log home that dates back to 1840. The owners of the property, Bob Argue and Cheryl Nash, were building a new home and they had no need for the old one, so they put out the word they were willing to sell the old McConnel homestead.

Peter Bell bought it and then the work started in earnest. Not only were the logs removed and marked, but many of the stones that made up the massive hearth in the home were pulled apart and marked as well.

David and Jeff Hamilton began working on the project, and it has taken four years to move the house and put it back together. A number of elements, such as windows and doors, had to be sourced, and the log walls and hearth reconstructed. Dry wall was used for interior walls in place of the lath and plaster that had been in the house.

The house is larger than many of the time, 1,000 square feet on the ground floor, with a high ceiling (10’) and a second story above. It made for quite a large home. It includes a main room, parlour, small bedroom and kitchen on the bottom floor and bedrooms above.

The fireplace, which is an old style cooking fireplace, is different from what is found in most log homes in the region, which were built a little later on and generally include more efficient heating sources like box stoves and cook stoves.

Most of the work on the main floor has now been completed and it has been fitted out with furnishings that have been found over many years from sources all around eastern Ontario. However, they all seem to fit into the available spaces in the home as if they have been there for 175 years.

This weekend, as part of the Frontenac Heritage Festival, the home will be open to the public between 10 and 3 on Saturday and Sunday. Pam Giroux, decked out in heritage dress, will act as hostess, aided by Tilda Bron, and Martina Field will drop by to entertain on the fiddle at times.

Weather permitting; a horse-drawn wagon will be available near the Trans Canada Trail at the top end of Fall River Road to bring people to the house in style. The wagon rides are scheduled for every half hour from 10 until 2:30.

 

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