By Bruce Bowden
Ravenscourt is an interesting and large house with modest-sized rooms, original stencilled hall panelling, two rooms with decorative plaster ceilings, and a lovely wrap-around porch. It is situated on a truly beautiful property that is, unfortunately very near to the 401 highway.
A joint small group of six from ACO Port Hope, ACO Cobourg and Hamilton Township’s heritage committee was set up last spring. The group toured the site, and the owners also generously opened their house to them. The group then brought out the mayor of Port Hope and an executive member of HopeTowns Community Ventures to ascertain whether they might have some interest in the property but to no avail as Port Hope’s focus is to the west of town along the lake. A team of heritage architects from a leading Toronto firm was also brought to the estate as was the head of a landless museum but again there was no interest.
The owner is truly dedicated to the property’s preservation, but the restoration will be costly and attracting interest, either commercial or residential is not easily done. We are all still hoping, however, that someone will come along with an idea for adaptively re-using this unique property.