Trip to the South Shore area...

I was down to the south shore area today for meetings.  Here's a few photos.

Above:  The former Hampton United Church located on the Trans-Canada Highway (Rte.1.) in Hampton, P.E.I.  The church has been renovated and painted - now used as a dental office.  Back in February 2011 CBC's Maritime Noon program had a phone-in show on the topic of what to do with our old, decommissioned churches?  The owner of this church, Dr. Peter Bevan-Baker, was one of the guests on answering questions, etc.  I took meticulous notes and someday hope to do a presentation on the topic along with information gathered from a symposium in Halifax I attended in April 2010.  The symposium was on "The Conservation of Religious Buildings and their Settings" - it was held at the Atlantic School of Theology and sponsored by the Heritage Trust of Nova Scotia.  It was a full day of speakers on a variety of topics - one things that was stressed was that poor restoration methods will eventually be the demise of any heritage building.  They held another symposium in April 2011 but we were unable to attend- check out their website:  http://www.htns.ca/

Above:  A little further up the road is the former Flood Homestead.  This is located in South Melville on the corner of the South Melville Road (Rte. 246) and the Sandy Point Road.  Back years ago this farm often appeared in Island tourism literature.  It's not far from Mac Dixon's Grist Mill (featured on June 8th in this blog).  Back in the early 1990's we visited here often as we made our way to Victoria-by-the-Sea.  The farm was sold out of the family about 15 years ago.

It was typical practice to build a new barn onto/over the old barns - my father did the same to his old barn.

Below:  Just across the road from the Floods on the South Melville Road is this old schoolhouse.  For many, many years it was abandoned and surely to fall in to the ground but in recent years someone has restored/renovated the school complete with the sign.  Excellent!!!

Below.  I went further on to see clients along the Desable Road (Rte.19) and spotted this house.  Hum, I would have done a few things different in renovating this house - ie. no house looks good with basement windows on the front; it has new vinyl siding and all the windows have been changed to casement - the casement windows here don't take away from the look as these are very wide for casements - often they're narrower.  It's an interesting style in that the front has two equal gables.  It's age? maybe 1870's.

The Desable-Argyle Shore area of the Island was settled by Scottish immigrants from the Isles in the 1820's.  I visited a client today about a new house to be built along Rte.19, the shore road.  Following we got talking about the area and I told him that my grandmother's family, the MacNevin's, were amoung the earlier settlers here and that in the 1880's my great-great-grandfather Neil "Tidy" MacNevin moved to the Brae (near O'Leary, PEI) with his family.  He said that his great-great-grandfather bought Neil's 33-acres over there, adjacent to his farm.  Wow!!!  I never knew where that farm was.  He said his family has been in the area since the 1820's and likely came over with the MacNevins - his family was from the Isle of Colonsay - mine were from the Isles of Mull and Coll. 

Above:  a few miles west up the road in Canoe Cove, where Rte. 19 turns to Rte.19A (Canoe Cove Road), is the Canoe Cove School, Est.1820.  I believe there's been a school here since 1820 but this school dates back to about 1850.  Below is a painting by Robert Harris, titled "School House at Canoe Cove".  Robert's sister married into the Stretch family and lived in the area.  The Painting cf. Historic Places website - for more information see http://www.historicplaces.ca/en/rep-reg/place-lieu.aspx?id=1773

Above:  On my way back to Hunter River, I photographed this barn on the Colville Road (Rte. 9)  As they'd say - nice old barn!

My brother collects and sells Architectural elements...

Here's a few things I photographed in my father's barn - my brother travels all over the Island and salvages these items from soon-to-be torn-down houses.  He stores them in the loft of Dad's old barn.

 Below:  A door from the Strathgartney Homestead in Strathgartney, PEI.

He has more than 250 old doors - every style and shape!

 Below:  An interior door from the Redmond-Matthews House, Main Street, Alberton.

 

Dunbar House, Montrose - 2nd update

I was uphome (Alma, PEI) this past weekend and saw the banister and two doors from the recently torn-down Dunbar House in Montrose, PEI.

Stewart Memorial Park, Cavendish

This is a replica of the North Rustico lighthouse in the public park between Shining Waters Fun Park and their parking lot.  I didn't do the drawings for this building.  Arnold Smith and I researched and designed the 6 display panels inside the lighthouse - they tell the history of the area and our Island.

 The lighthouse is about 1/3 scale of the original.

 Below:  Looking up into the lighthouse - there's just the main floor and no other floors.

 Below: I photographed the six panels to illustrate our work herein.



Speaking of Kate and William at Dalvay

The Royal couple were at Dalvay-by-the-Sea this afternoon for lots of festivities.  The magnificent hotel was built in 1894 by a rich oilman from Cincinnati, USA.  The house has been used as a Hotel in the 1930s.  The house was used in the movie Anne of Green Gables as the White Sands Hotel.  Check-out their website:  http://www.dalvaybythesea.com/.  Here are a few photos from today.

Below:  The rounded dining room is a spectacular place to view the splendor of the property.

The owner was telling us today that they have a guest staying there now who has been coming to their hotel every year since 1973.

Below:  Prince William is presented a bottle of champagne following his win of the friendly drag boat race between he and his wife Kate.

Below:  By the front door - the stone gives that old country feel.

Below:  Standing by the front door looking across the lawns to Dalvay Lake.



St. James United Church, West Covehead, PEI

I was out to Dalvay today to the reception for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (aka Prince William and Kate Middleton) - we parked in the parking lot of this historic church built in 1837 - there seems to be ALOT of churches built around the late 1830's.  Here's a few photos I took of the church.

Above: The church is getting some new paint as it will be receiving a Heritage Places Certificate of Registration in mid August.  The front/south wall of the church has vinyl siding, however, the rest still has it's face-nailed wood shingles.

 Below:  The original multi-paned windows are magnificent!   They just recieved a fresh coat of paint.

 Below:  Close-up of window sill.

 Below:  Note the face-nailed wood shingles - very old.  There are no corner boards on the house.  Interesting!  You don't often see this.

 Below:  The church was locked - so I put my camera lens flat against the window and took this photos - great to see the inside. Note the curved pews. 

 Below:  The large windows touch the eave brackets.

 Below:  The eave return is typical, however, without corner boards.

 Below:  A photo of the north east corner of the church.

 Below:  A photo taken of the north side of the church  - I was standing in the cemetery to take this photo.