Lord Strathcona's 203-year-old stone house in Pictou is being demolished - Date unknown Monica Graham.

6 January 2013

Pictou Bids Farewell to Old House

Pictou Nova Scotia - Saturday's dusting of snow coated the debris from the demolition of a 203-year-old Pictou mansion, but it didn't make the loss of the landmark any easier to bear.
 
"We were all crying," said Paula Beer-Eligh, who helped collect some sandstone blocks from the building's walls to preserve at the McCulloch Heritage Centre, a local museum.
 
"It's just sad."
 
Local lore says the sandstone was imported from Scotland by Edward Mortimer, along with the stone masons and carpenters he hired to build Stone House, which cost £10,000 sterling to construct in 1810.
 
Mortimer had arrived from Banffshire, Scotland, in 1788, made a fortune in lumber and shipping, and won the town's first election in 1799.
 
Known as the King of Pictou and the Oatmeal Emperor from the East, Mortimer died in 1819, five years after the house was completed.
 
His wife, Sarah, continued to live at the house until 1835.
 
It changed hands a couple of times until it was purchased by Donald Smith, who was Lord Strathcona, the chief factor of the Hudson's Bay Co. and the man who, in 1885, hammered the Last Spike in Canada's first transcontinental railway system.
 
Smith named his new summer home Norway House, after a company outpost.
 
The point of land where it is located is still known as Norway Point or Mortimer's Point.
 
In 1918, the International Order of Odd Fellows bought and enlarged the building for use as an orphanage and nursing home, until moving into a new building in 1999.
 
A developer turned the house and its brick wings into an inn, which failed about four years ago.
 
The building, said for decades to be haunted, was abandoned. Over time, it suffered damage from vandals and weather.
 
"It was beyond repair, pretty hard to save," said New Glasgow businessman Wayne Harris, who took over ownership six months ago through a foreclosure sale. "It's a shame to see it go, but even if I kept the Stone House and restored it, still, what do you do with it?"
 
When the Odd Fellows sold the three-storey building, the marble fireplaces, archways, cornices, and other unusual features were intact.
 
By 2013, it wasn't worth the cost of removing the interior stone, and the building was too badly damaged to restore, Harris said.
 
He expects to develop housing on the four-hectare site, which overlooks Pictou Harbour.
 
"An old building like that, you'd think it would be a heritage place," said Marinus Verhagen.
 
A demolition expert, Verhagen is salvaging as many of the metre-long stone blocks as he can, as well as old-fashioned radiators and some other items. He expects to complete the job within a week.
 
Heritage designation is the responsibility of the property owner and was never sought for the Stone House, said Pictou Mayor Joe Hawes.
 
"I'm personally very disappointed to see it go, but the owner has the right to do it," he said.
 
"We've lost a landmark. But out of the rubble, maybe something great will be built."
 
Monica Graham.

Vancouver Island
British Columbia
Canada