Maddox Media
61 King St., Port Hope, Ont.
Asking price: $2,999,000
Taxes: $11,561 (2023)
Land size: 184 by 226 feet (irregular)
Agent: Fionna Barrington, Chestnut Park Real Estate Ltd.
The backstory
In the 1850s, Port Hope, Ont., was undergoing a building boom on the shores of Lake Ontario.
Local magnate Robert Smith contributed to the expansion by developing a commercial block on Walton Street, which remains the historic town’s main thoroughfare today.
While building up his real estate holdings, Mr. Smith also established himself as a lumber dealer, according to Heritage Port Hope.
In 1858 he built a stately red-brick house for himself and his wife, Sara, on a hill overlooking the town and the Ganaraska River.
The Smith family sold 61 King St. to machinist John Helm in 1884. The young Mr. Helm was the son of a prominent Port Hope industrialist and the home remained in the family until 1968.
A new family took over for many decades until the property eventually fell into disrepair when the elderly owner could no longer look after it.
It had been sitting vacant for about 10 years in 2012 when a Toronto couple came across the rambling house with a Victorian-era coach house and a large plot of land.
Home of the Week, 61 King St., Port Hope, Ont.Maddox Media
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They decided to sell their house in a hip Queen Street West neighbourhood and make the move to Port Hope, where they could raise their young daughter with a more traditional small-town upbringing.
The couple was ready to tackle a renovation, but they grasped the true extent of the challenge only after they signed the deal: That’s when they learned the heritage conservation rules protected the interior as well as the exterior of the house.
The couple learned the house, built in the Regency Villa style, had been expanded in the late 1800s. The protected elements included the oak staircase, panelled doors and marble fireplace mantles, but the couple had free rein to remove mid-century modifications such as false ceilings, a kitchen and a pink bathroom.
They hired local artisans to repair the intricate plaster ceiling mouldings and medallions and sand the wide-plank pine floors.
A large principal room on the south side of the house was turned into a new kitchen and family room.
Outside, they spruced up the wraparound porch and brought the garden fountain back to working order.
The project won the 2013 Heritage Port Hope award in the residential category.
Around the same time, James Robinson and Donna Wilson were living in the Beaches in Toronto and contemplating a similar move to a smaller town with heritage architecture.
Many of the homes they looked at in Port Hope had a heritage designation, Ms. Wilson recalls.
To learn more about the stewardship of a century home, Mr. Robinson talked with an expert at Heritage Port Hope, who in turn recommended that he meet with the couple who had restored 61 King St.
Soon Mr. Robinson and Ms. Wilson were submitting an offer for a house a few doors down.
That deal did not come together but Mr. Robinson joked with his new friends at No. 61 that perhaps he should buy their house. To his surprise, he found them open to the idea of a sale.
After a quick negotiation between the two couples, Mr. Robinson and Ms. Wilson became the new owners.
“It was the easiest house we ever bought,” says Mr. Robinson.
The house today
Mr. Robinson and Ms. Wilson appreciated the character and silent surroundings of the house with five bedrooms, three bathrooms and a powder room.
While the renovation had been extensive, they knew they would carry on with the refurbishment.
Mr. Robinson had worked on old houses in the past and he decided to take on the task of fixing up the authentic period windows. The original storm windows – built to match the six-over-six double-hung sash windows – were still in the home, but in some cases, the pulleys, putty and glazing were worn or broken.
Mr. Robinson dismantled many of the storm windows and rebuilt them with new materials.
Where the antique glass was not broken, the waves and bubbles add texture.
“They’re absolutely beautiful,” he says, pointing out that the storm windows are very energy efficient.
Originally the cast iron hardware on the home’s windows and doors had a brass finish, but those details had been covered in many coats of paint over the years.
Mr. Robinson set out to refurbish the hinges, locks and other pieces by placing them in a Crock-Pot with some laundry detergent.
“You cook them for about eight hours,” says Mr. Robinson. “The paint is practically falling off.”
The process of taking down and putting back doors is made more difficult by the way screws and grooves have shifted and settled in the old house. But the clean appearance is worth the toil, he says.
“It’s a labour of love,” he says. “I can’t believe anybody ever painted them.”
The home’s residents have done a good job over the decades of preserving the elements they weren’t using, Ms. Wilson says.
The wooden shutters, for example, were numbered and stacked in the basement.
“This house, when it was built, was built by a wealthy man,” Ms. Wilson says. “Everybody took everything down knowing that somebody would probably put it back.”
On occasion, the couple needed to visit to a nearby warehouse full of building materials that had been salvaged from old homes in the surrounding Northumberland County.
They found an antique door, lock set and a brass doorbell to replace a back door in the house that was not of the period, for example.
Outside, Mr. Robinson tackled the overgrown shrubs which obscured the wraparound porch. Maple, birch and other mature trees surround the house.
Ms. Wilson put in some raised beds for growing tomatoes and added poppies and peonies to the perennial gardens.
The couple enjoys visits to the nearby beach on Lake Ontario and the charm of Port Hope’s historic centre.
“We can walk to dinner,” says Ms. Wilson. “There’s a huge social community here.”
The best feature
The coach house now serves as a workshop and showroom.Maddox Media
A staircase of metal and wood leads to the former hay loft.Maddox Media
The largest undertaking was the renovation of the property’s coach house, part of which had been used as a garden shed for many years.
The coach house now serves as a workshop and showroom for Ms. Wilson, who retired from her career in the banking industry and took up a new vocation creating handbags from imported leather.
A staircase of metal and wood leads to the former hay loft, where skylights in the vaulted ceiling bring light to the interior. The building has heating and air conditioning and a powder room.
Ms. Wilson points out that the coach house could easily be transformed into extra living space for the main house, or a guest cottage, among other uses.
Carolyn Ireland