The “Stayner” Stone House

Circa 1850’s

Vintage stone home from Tradition Design Inc.

A special, once-in-a-lifetime offering from Tradition Home Designs Inc.

A two-storey Stone Masterpiece!

If you’ve been hoping to find a classic Ontario stone farmhouse but have been unable to find one where you want it and in the condition you require then this may be the opportunity that has been meant for you. If you have found the property of your dreams and all that is missing is the house of your dreams then this offering may serve you well. Our craftsmen, with many decades of experience, will rebuild this beauty for you, taking the project to the stage you require. You are welcome to visit a comparable home we have recently built to determine our capability.

This elegant mid-nineteenth-century classic retains its elegant interior intact. It has been carefully taken down to preserve every element that went together to present a significant example of the period. It is now available for the discerning client that appreciates the form and the care that created it.

You may notice the classical Georgian entrance with the diamond pattern sidelights and transom. The French doors to the garden bring the exterior into large, bright rooms.

The home features a spectacular main staircase in its original finish as well as another back kitchen staircase with those charming winders that wound up to the maid’s quarters. Of course, we retrieved all of the handsome thick-paneled doors, period mantle pieces, and twenty-two-inch high baseboards. We left nothing behind. This is one of the most complete homes we have ever had in our inventory. We even took the heavy-timbered roof and the old fireplace and chimney bricks, not to mention the widest pine flooring we’ve ever seen.

Although the house was covered in clapboarding (too worn to reuse) the house offered another opportunity due to its massively heavy post and beam construction. Having built a few stone homes in our six decades in this business, I knew this to be a particular candidate to be converted to having a stone façade. It was the deep panels beyond the sidelights that gave the idea. Our master masons are ready to build with granite, limestone, or sandstone, your choice is our desire. In fact, replacing the clapboard façade with new clapboard is not out of the question either. A sincere case may be made to restore the home as it had been for many generations.

Our ideal plan is to offer a special kitchen wing of incredible virgin timber logs, one of our specialties over many years. We have saved the best of them for this project. Imagine hand-hewn logs, eighteen to twenty inches in height each for the unparalleled walls that offer superior insulation. Hand-hewn timbered ceilings and a ten-foot-wide fireplace with the original bake-oven are also featured. With very wide pine floors throughout, it’s all the country charm you’ll ever need.

All architectural planning and blueprints are included. We advise that your family participate in the design stage now in order to be ready for a 2024 Spring start.

THE HISTORY OF THIS HOUSE

A familiar landmark in the town of Stayner since the mid-1800’s it sat in the midst of an enormous lush green lawn on the southeast corner of Main and King streets. The white mansion, as it was known, was built back when Stayner was young and flourishing with the life and activity of people very much involved in establishing a new community, back even before Stayner itself was incorporated as a town.

A monument of the times, it was remembered by some of the old timers in the town that the house was built by a doctor, and what a fine doctor’s residence it would have been. It stood solid enough to endure over a century of Ontario weather with little deterioration. The house was built to last an eternity. It was framed like a barn with its huge square beams, some over thirty feet in length without splices—the kind of thing seldom seen, if ever, in today’s homes. The exterior sheeting was of immense widths- and in terrific shape, up to 20” each.

The house was one of the first buildings in Stayner to be wired for electricity. Mayme Bowman, a longtime resident since her birth in 1908 held fond memories of the old house, relating that it was once the Methodist Church Manse as the Methodist Church Minister James Coburn lived there. The four corners were called Coburn’s Corners for years after. Preacher Coburn wrote two books, I kept my powder dry’ and ‘Grace, Grit, and Gumption, both of which are in the Stayner Public Library.’ Grand parties were regularly held at the house with the whole house lit up, a highlight of the community. There were Garden parties, Strawberry Suppers, and Pot Luck dinners for the whole town.

In the 1900’s the house was owned by the Taylor family and was purchased from the Taylor estate in 1940 by Fred Maguire. Fred’s daughter Ruth would not trade her memories of the place for anything. “We had a lot of fun in that house. It wasn’t a house, it was a home.” Added to the back of the building were two wings, one an extension of the big house and the other, on the east side, an apartment totally separate from the rest of the house. Everyone in town probably lived in that apartment at one time or another.

After both parents had passed the house was purchased by Larry Dunn who then entered into a cooperative agreement with an associate of mine to take the house down in such a manner that it could be rebuilt and restored as an historical keepsake at some time in the future…that future being now