Discover local history on the Rotary Holiday House Tour
- Chris Abbott
- Nov 20, 2024
- 3 min read
Chris Abbott
Editor
This year’s Rotary Club of Simcoe Holiday House Tour features six locations – old and new – in the Norfolk communities of Port Rowan, Long Point and South Walsingham.
On Saturday, Dec. 7 and Sunday, Dec. 8, the public is invited to visit a Georgian-style home built in the 1830s by prominent businessman John Henry Killmaster. It was purchased in the 1990s and lovingly restored.
“A husband and wife in Port Rowan brought this house back up to snuff, and their daughter lives in it,” said Hadley Jackson from the Rotary Club of Simcoe, who contrasted that tour house with a new architecturally designed white frame house in Long Point, designed by the same man, Paul Smith, owned by his son.
“So you have one of the oldest buildings around in the area and also one of the newest.”
Tickets for the 18th annual house tour are $25, available online at Eventbrite (SimcoeRotaryHolidayHouseTour2024), or in-person - cash only – in advance at Waterford Rexall Pharmacy, Port Rowan Pharmasave, Langton Pharmacy, Delhi Pharmasave and Roulston’s, Simcoe Roulston’s, Pharmasave, Dolmor Salon and King’s Flowers, and four Port Dover locations.
Houses are open to tour from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Jackson estimated about 850 people participated in the 2023 House Tour, going to Normandale and Port Ryerse, and he’d love to see this year’s fundraising tour reach at least 650-750 again.
“We’ve built this tour into a big thing,” said Jackson, noting the majority of participants come from Waterford, Simcoe and Port Dover, which have had homes featured in the past. “We’re starting our media promotions this week, and social media will help lead the charge.”
Bayview Garden (completed in 1996), The Boatwork (constructed in 1856), Cronk House (Victorian style), and Neal Memorial Church will also be opening their doors to tour participants.
“One of the houses in Port Rowan has been numerous things in its lifespan. I think it was a church, it was a town hall, and other things. Paul resurrected that building and lives in it with his wife Marlene. It sort of looks like a shop, from the front, but it has an interesting living area in the back.
“We started out the house tours doing decorated homes for Christmas, but the public seems to be much, much more interested in the historical homes. So in the last couple of years, it’s sort of morphed into finding local homes with a little history behind them.”
RUM RUNNING TALK
New this year is a lively talk on Rum Running on Lake Erie - ‘Blind Pigs and Midnight Herring’ - by local historian (and musician) Ian Bell, both Saturday and Sunday (Dec. 7-8) at 2:30 p.m. at Neal Memorial Church, 1024 Bay Street, Port Rowan. Rum Running tickets are $20, separate from the house tour tickets.
“The church is a lunch stop for people on the tour, for refreshments, and it’s restroom stop,” said Jackson. “At 2:30, Ian will do his presentation. A lot of people will likely tour the houses in the morning, then go to Ian’s presentation in the afternoon.”
Both are not-to-be-missed events.
“Blind Pigs were sort of speak-easies, and midnight herring is the rum that fishermen took across the lake during Prohibition (1920-1933),” said Jackson. “Ian’s full talk is quite humorous – it’s all about the people involved in the rum running during the Prohibition. It is an excellent talk.”
Jackson recalls the story about City of Dresden, a large wooden steamer that sank near the coast of Long Point, heading west on Lake Erie.
“The Canadians had loaded it up with cases and cases of booze, and it got involved in a storm. It was shipwrecked off Port Rowan. So, the good citizens of Port Rowan, I guess, helped to rescue the crew off the boat… but also they started ‘rescuing’ all the booze. There were cases floating around, bottles floating around. When they realized what was happening, someone went and cut the telegraph wires leading into Simcoe where the authorities were.”
For three days, alcohol was ‘harvested’ before authorities arrived.
“That’s just one of the stories,” said Jackson, recalling another story of Port Dover fishermen loading totes with about two-thirds alcohol during Prohibition, then going out to catch fish.
“When they took them to the fish plant in Erie, the totes looked like they were full of fish. That is part of history too – there’s a lot of real good stuff.”
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