A southern Ontario town was selected to be the site of a new plant that will build EV car batteries. Good for the environment right? Local farmers however felt that the land could have been used for agricultural purposes. The town purchased lots of land for between $65,000 to $150,000 per acre.

House #1

This house is known as the Van Patter Home, named for the family that lived in it for most of the 20th century. The house was built in 1872 by the Gilbert family. Brothers Mathew and William Gilbert hired a contractor named Auckland to build houses for each of them. The houses were to resemble their family’s estate back in Devonshire named “Rhude”. The house shown below is the one built for Mathew. The one built for William was named “Gilbert Hall”.

Upon Mathew’s death in 1907, the land was inherited by his daughter, Mary Elizabeth Ballah. A tenant farmer tended to the farm land. When Mary Elizabeth passed away in 1929, the Canada Trust Company granted both lots to John A. Van Patter.

The house was built with Roman arch windows and eave brackets. While the yard is quite overgrown, it looks like someone had been working on renovations quite recently. The rear of the house has modern day patio doors, freshly boarded windows and there’s working electricity.

Thank you to M. Foster for the information on these houses being vacant.

House #2

This house was also built by the Gibert family. It was constructed in 191 by Lewis Gilbert. This house is also being demolished.