Inverarden House

This post will be specifically about Inverarden House.

This is a wonderful old house, built in 1816. I remember being there only once as a child when they were having some kind of tag sale or charity yard sale there. It was so long ago that all I remember was the climb up the front steps.

As far as I can remember, it's been closed to the public, and I've wanted to go visit for years. I've even written to some of the people in charge, and only more recently there's been talk about continuing with restorations to the house.

This past Friday, I was dropped off after work near the house, so I decided to walk up to it and see it in person.

The history and information about the house can be found here:
http://www.pc.gc.ca/lhn-nhs/on/inverarden/natcul.aspx

Seeing the house up-close left me with mixed feelings. On one hand, the house appears to be in fairly good shape, but upon closer inspection, you can clearly see that it needs thousands of dollars in restoration. Everything from peeling paint, rotted wood trim, broken windows (I can only assume since some are boarded up), and brick work on the chimneys.

But I thought many of you might like to see it.

From the road:



Walking up to the house:







Wonderful porch details:



The back of the house:





Window details show that it originally had operable shutters:







Front entrance details:





Yes that's a bird's nest.





I managed to take a few shots from the front window, but the glass was very dirty, so these shots are blurry. But you can get an idea of the interior, since there aren't any photos of it elsewhere on the web (that I know of).



You can see original 6 panel doors, and some kind of odd electrical panel by the door (possibly also a bell/call system - it was too hard to see):



The corner blocks of the casings were a sort of pyramid shape, which you can kind of see here:



Picture rails:





The wonderful view from the front porch (St.-Lawrence River):