Moving Rose Cottage ahead by a century
How a historic Port Hope home slated for demolition was saved by a local contractor and moved to a new site and a new future
All eyes turned to Stephen Henderson during the emergency meeting called to figure out the fate of the historic little house in Port Hope.
“Everyone looked at me and then I immediately knew why they’d invited me,” Henderson said about the June, 2019 meeting. “I stammered, I was kind of surprised and I was scared. It felt like hours passed but it was likely 10 seconds.”
Henderson, 34, whose Henderson Construction offers restoration work as one of its services, thought he’d been invited as a consultant. Representatives from the town, Architectural Conservancy Ontario Port Hope (ACO), developer AON Inc. and its development manager, Mason Homes, were meeting to discuss possible alternatives for a 1900s cottage — Rose Cottage — slated for demolition.
Instead, Henderson found himself agreeing to purchase Rose Cottage for $1, with the understanding it had to be moved to make way for infrastructure to serve the latest phase of a new home development. The cottage, at the corner of Victoria and Strachan Streets, sat on property that had originally been part of two historic Port Hope estates owned by the Williams family: Penryn Homestead in 1829 and Penryn Park in 1857.
An American family, the Kings, bought the property in 1894, retained the buildings and, in 1900, developed the Penryn Park Golf Course that remains as one of the oldest golf courses in Ontario.
The Kings also brought 16-year-old Mary McBurney from Ireland, to assist with household and childcare duties. After she became an adult and married Allan Spencer Rose, they lived in the small, 1-3/4-storey cottage at the rear of the estate where they raised a family.
The cottage, with distinctive eyebrow windows on the upper floor, was designed by the Kings’ 18-yearold daughter, Winifred, in 1904. Mary Rose worked for the King-Schultz family (Winifred married a Schultz) for 48 years.
“The house is very narrow and not very tall and looks like a doll’s house,” says Bruce Bowden, chair of the local ACO. “Mary Rose had raised her family there and was famous for her chocolate chip cookies.
“The extended King family was very fond of her and her cottage was almost like a gatehouse when you entered the golf course. It had an overhang porch and the way the windows were placed, you could see right through the house,” Bowden said.
While three other buildings on the Penryn property had received heritage designation, Rose Cottage had not. In May, 2019, an ACO member walking by noticed the demolition permit on the cottage and alerted the mayor. The developer agreed to a brief delay before demolition, if the cottage could be moved.
At the June meeting, Henderson agreed to take on ownership — if he could find a place to temporarily store it until he could find a suitable lot. The town agreed to let him park it on King’s Field, an adjacent small park owned by the municipality.
Henderson was eventually able to purchase a severed lot on Pine Street from his friends Peter and Kathy McGuire, who owned Seymour Estate, another large Port Hope heritage property.
(One of the Seymour family’s sons had married one of the daughters of naval captain, magistrate and first mayor of Port Hope, J.T. Williams, who built the Penryn homestead.)
On December10, 2019, a bitterly cold day, Rose Cottage (also known as Rose’s Cottage) was relocated to its new home on Pine Street. It was a tedious 1.37-kilometre move that took 14 hours, cost $45,000 and required the efforts of town workers, police and hydro crews, and the lifting of power lines. ACO Port Hope contributed $15,000 to help with the cost of the move.
“My motive was to make it look like it was still a cottage,” Henderson said. “It was about 500 square feet on the main floor and about the same on the second floor.” Some of the interior had been gutted before he took ownership, but its bones were solid. The original windows and shutters were missing and he had to replace those.
“I added an addition that’s about twice the size of the original cottage, but it’s tucked into the trees — I didn’t want it to be visible above the original roofline.
“I’m very passionate about restoration and keeping heritage alive, but it also has to be practical,” Henderson added. Henderson was born and raised in Port Hope, and his love for old buildings was inspired by his parents. They were restaurateurs who, in 1985, bought an 1857 building that had previously housed a bank, doctor’s office and dairy, and transformed it into the Carlyle Inn.
They later bought a derelict house turned it into an upscale bed and breakfast.
“I grew up surrounded by renovations and restorations of older houses,” he said.
The Rose Cottage’s kitchen cabinetry was made in Henderson’s workshop, along with doors, windows and other millwork.
He used products developed by Rod Stewart of Historic Plaster Conservation Services to consolidate the original horsehair stucco siding that had cracked and chipped, with modern compounds to repair and conserve it.
Henderson plans to live there in the future with his own family, but currently is renting Rose Cottage to friend Mark Seaman, a partner in an environmental contracting company and who is working in Port Hope for two years, and his wife.
“Stephen has done a really nice job and everyone who has visited the house has been really impressed,” Seaman said. “It has a brand-new modern interior with a nice, big, open kitchen. In the back half of the house, some of the original wood siding has been exposed and the loft bedroom has the original flooring that Stephen left with the worn paint, defects and scratches.
“The tie-in to heritage is great and the house has wonderful functionality and layout. From the curb, it looks like a small cottage but it’s quite a big house. It’s a great place to be.”
Henderson figures the cottage he bought for $1 has cost him about $800,000, including the costs of purchasing a lot and reservicing the street as the town required, moving the cottage, restoring it and building the addition. “I’m quite happy with how it turned out. I don’t care about the monetary value. One thing that means a lot to me is how the community has reached out and thanked me for saving me. It’s very heartwarming.”
“It was a remarkable thing for a young man to do,” local ACO chair Bowden said.
He was recently named cowinner of the 2020 Architectural Conservancy Ontario NextGen Award for his actions to save Rose Cottage.